Blue Mountains News

Participating businesses are being supported to cut their operational costs by preventing unnecessary food waste. This includes access to a range of free resources to promote and support their waste reduction journey.

Blue Mountains Deputy Mayor Chris Van der Kley, who attended the event on behalf of Council, said: “The partnership between the business community, Council, State Government and the University sector is the type of innovative initiative that is needed to successfully overcome the issue of food waste. It will see Leura becoming a leader in the area of business food waste.”

Blue Mountains City Council Chief Executive Officer Dr Rosemary Dillon said: “This is a fantastic sustainability initiative that aligns with Council’s community-endorsed vision for the City.”

The Zero Waste Leura Project is a partnership between Leura Garage, Leura Village Association, Blue Mountains City Council, the Institute for Sustainable Futures and the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Love Food Hate Waste program. It is funded by the NSW waste levy.

The event was also attended by the business community, Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman, EPA Organics Manager Amanda Kane, the President of Leura Village Association James McHarg, the project lead from the Institute of Sustainable Futures Assoc Professor Dena Fam and business owner James Howarth of Leura Garage.

Ms Kane said the initiative was a great example of how collaboration will be the key to deliver on global, national and statewide goals to halve food waste by 2030.

“This is such an exciting project, bringing together business, researchers, local government and the community to tackle food waste. It is pioneering and will pave the way for communities all over NSW as we work towards the long term goal of halving Australia’s food waste by 2030.”

The launch was the first in a series of promotions associated with the zero waste project and will be followed by case studies of local businesses reducing food waste, including a documentary that will set the blueprint for other villages to follow.