Have your say on options to reduce emissions from organic waste

New Zealand has no national action plan to reduce food waste. Creating one could enable system change on food waste and support reduction of food waste emissions at source. A national action plan could provide direction and commitment throughout the country and reduce fragmentation across the food sector from a waste perspective. It could also support the Government’s broader waste and resource efficiency strategy¹⁸ by:

• driving prevention and so working at the top of the waste hierarchy
• minimising emissions at source
• providing more targeted guidance for food businesses. 

Switzerland, France, Australia, the United Kingdom and Türkiye all have national strategies and sector-specific action plans to reduce food waste. New Zealand could model a national action plan on these examples. 

^{18  Ministry for the Environment. 2025. The Government’s waste and resource efficiency strategy: Minimising waste and improving waste management (PDF 1.5MB). Wellington: Ministry for the Environment.}

Food waste is a complex issue with multiple causes. Establishing a working group with representatives from both government and industry could help to break down system barriers, leading to more direct collaboration in responding to the needs and challenges of food producers, processors, retailers and food rescue organisations.

A government–industry working group could also reduce duplication of efforts across the government, food and waste sectors. Currently, officials from multiple government agencies meet every two to three months to share updates on food-related workstreams. Establishing a forum that also includes industry and focuses specifically on food waste could build on this foundation, enabling more collaborative planning and more effective and strategic coordinated action across the food supply chain.

This option focuses on identifying barriers to reducing and rescuing food waste for different sectors, and then using this evidence to develop targeted sector - or region-specific guidance and practical case studies to support businesses to take action. Guidance could draw on existing research, tools and sector expertise, including:

• a Ministry for the Environment (Ministry) literature review of best-practice interventions to reduce business (and household) food waste¹⁹
• Kai Commitment’s guidance on best-practice business actions to reduce food waste²⁰
• the Retirement Villages Association and Otago University food waste reduction toolkit,²¹ which could be relevant for institutional settings
• the Restaurant Association’s Kai Keepers programme²² for hospitality businesses.

These resources could be complemented by additional tools or guides to help food producers and processors overcome specific barriers to reducing and diverting food waste in their sector. Within educational materials, celebrating good-practice case studies that showcase potential benefits could support businesses to take up such practices in a competitive business environment. 

^{19 Ministry for the Environment. 2022. Reducing household and business food waste: Literature review (PDF 1.8MB). Wellington: Ministry for the Environment.}

^{20 Kai Commitment. Best practice business actions. Retrieved 7 May 2026.}

^{21 Retirement Villages Association New Zealand, University of Otago, Food Waste Innovation. Food Waste Reduction Toolkit. Retrieved 7 May 2026.}

^{22 Kai Keepers. Capability statement (PDF 1.2MB). Retrieved 7 May 2026.}

Case study: Kai Commitment supporting large food producers to reduce waste

Kai Commitment, run by the New Zealand Food Waste Champions 12.3 Trust, is a voluntary agreement on food waste. The agreement supports large businesses to raise their awareness about food waste and measure their waste. It also encourages them to learn best practices to reduce food waste and emissions, and to connect with others across the food chain to tackle food waste. 

The Ministry for the Environment has funded Kai Commitment since its inception, to support this national effort to reduce food waste. 

Aggregated results from Kai Commitment’s 2025 annual food waste reporting show the amount of food waste that Kai Commitment signatories sent to landfill has fallen by 85 percent from the baseline year, with more food being redistributed or going to anaerobic digestion.²³ The results show that organisations are building food waste reduction into the way they work. More than half (57 percent) now track food waste using key performance indicators, and all include an overview of the organisation’s food waste reduction practices in their staff training. 

In April 2026, Kai Commitment published the results of its Business Food Waste Survey,²⁴ the first national survey to look at business perceptions and practices around food waste in New Zealand. The results show how 67 medium to large businesses, predominantly from primary industries, institutional food service and hospitality, and manufacturing and processing sectors, are working to reduce food waste. The following are among the key survey findings across the respondents.

• 56 percent of respondents have achieved cost savings from reducing food waste. 
• 38 percent reported decreased food waste in their business in the 12 months leading up to the survey.
• 77 percent collect data on the volume and weight of food waste they produce, and 61 percent collect data on end destinations they send food waste to. Those who track end destinations tend to send food waste to more than one place: 58 percent send food waste for animal feed, 48 percent donate it for human use, and 45 percent divert it to composting or anaerobic digestion. Among respondents, 32 percent still send at least some food waste to landfill, mainly due to mixed or contaminated waste and a lack of alternative ways of disposing of it. 
• 47 percent have food waste action plans and 45 percent have set reduction targets. However, 58 percent say they need to do more work to reduce food waste, and 60 percent say they are likely to invest in food waste reduction over the next two years.

Barriers to reducing food waste

• Key barriers to reducing food waste that respondents reported were operational challenges (48 percent), costs and/or resources (38 percent) and supply chain issues (31 percent). 
• Internal causes of food waste were quality safety standards (57 percent), human error (32 percent), and forecasting and inventory issues (32 percent). Key external causes were supply chain issues (57 percent) and customers and/or contracts (37 percent).

^{23 Kai Commitment. 2026. New data shows NZ food businesses cutting food waste costs and emissions. Media release, 10 February. Retrieved 27 May 2026.}

^{24 Kai Commitment. 2025. Research and Learning to Drive Understanding and Identify Future Opportunities (PDF 2.4MB). Prepared for Kai Commitment by PSL. Wellington: Kai Commitment.}

This option supports businesses by developing templates and practical guidance on how to complete food waste reduction and diversion plans, to help them voluntarily reduce and divert food waste. A plan would help a business decide where to divert different types of food waste to, establish internal procedures and review mechanisms, and set goals for reduction. 

This would build on Kai Commitment’s existing work in helping large food producers to prepare food waste minimisation plans, which could be adapted for small to medium-sized businesses. 

A national food waste reporting framework would provide visible data on food waste, incentivise food recovery, and make benchmarking and performance indicators possible, while ensuring the confidentiality of businesses who are reporting.

Kai Commitment has created a strong reporting framework, which has been tested over three years by its signatories – primarily large food producers, processors and retailers. The Ministry could make and provide an online reporting tool and user guide for small- to medium-sized businesses. To support standardisation for reporting and measurement, reporting would be aligned with:

• the Ministry’s 2025 baseline parameters²⁵
• standardised definitions of food loss and waste
• existing information requirements that apply to the waste sector. 

^{25 Skeaff S, Thorsen M, Skeaff M, Bremer P, Mirosa M. 2025. Aotearoa New Zealand Baseline Food Loss and Waste Project (PDF 1MB). Prepared for the Ministry for the Environment by the University of Otago and Food Waste Innovation. Wellington: Ministry for the Environment.}

Existing guidance for businesses on reducing food waste²⁶ could be expanded to outline the organic diversion or processing options that might suit particular businesses or food waste types. Updated guidance could help businesses better understand the range of options available and factors that may influence the suitability of each one (eg, volumes and specific types of waste, proximity to processing facilities, or cost considerations). 

Guidance could also involve encouraging partnerships. For example, several large businesses operating in the same area might achieve economies of scale by combining feedstocks with kerbside collections, to support a new biogas or composting plant.

This option aligns closely with the action to map local infrastructure gaps and opportunities for diverting organics (see option 3.1), helping businesses make informed decisions about diversion and recovery pathways.

^{26 Ministry for Primary Industries. Reducing food waste: tips for businesses. Retrieved 7 May 2026.}