After plastic bags, what’s next? Government tackles ‘circular economy’

New research by the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (FFW CRC) shows beef, bread, cheese, and salad are the most thrown out foods in Australian kitchens. The study is the largest investigation ever undertaken in Australia, using data from multiple sources to determine the how, why and where of food waste in Australian homes. FFW CRC chief executive officer, Dr Steven Lapidge, said the researchers used on-line surveys, electronic kitchen diaries, audits of kerb side bins and focus groups to understand what is really happening. The study shows that while most of us think we don’t waste food, we do, and we waste a lot. The average household throws away 219 kg of food a year. That adds up to an average of $965 per person per year – enough for a holiday.

Production as a Service (PaaS) provides an opportunity for companies to innovate production without large amounts of capital, allowing the company’s capital to instead be directed where the ROI has the most dramatic impact. In the cannabis industry, that can include an array of investments from product development, additional licenses, and store fronts.  Production as a Service (or PaaS) business structures have been growing in popularity over the past decade and were accelerated even further by the COVID-19 pandemic. PaaS strategies provide businesses, especially those in cannabis manufacturing who need pre-roll manufacturing and pre-roll filling, to have access to industry 4.0 automation and data exchange technologies that revolutionize productivity without major investment.