Every year, each Australian throws away 145 kg of food. As a nation, that is over $5 billion worth of food items. For every 5 bags of groceries a person buys a week, 1 of those goes straight in the rubbish bin. That's almost 20% of the food Australians purchase. In Victoria and South Australia, 40% of what people throw out is food. In Sydney, the statistics are even more alarming - 50% of bin contents are food waste.

It is for this reason that Notebook: magazine has teamed up with Planet Ark founder, Jon Dee, to launch the Stop Food Waste! campaign in its September issue. The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness and serve up the practicalities of dealing with an issue that has global and personal, financial implications.

"Food waste in this country is an environmental and financial disaster," says Notebook: magazine Editor Caroline Roessler. "In an economic climate of rising fuel costs and interest rates, not to mention disastrous food shortages in the Third World and the enormous environmental implications, throwing away good food seems like utter madness."

Please check out the STOP FOOD WASTE website to learn more about this issue and post your ideas on how Australians can minimize the amount of food that is wasted.