Finish has revealed the latest iteration in its mission to help Australians to #FinishWaterWaste. 
In a new partnership with OzHarvest, and in conjunction with Woolworths, Finish says it will support the rescue of 200,000kg of food waste (which equates to 69,000,000 litres of water).
Food production is the largest user of water in the Australian manufacturing sector, taking up 28% of the market. However, data shows that Australians are wasting 2.5 million tonnes of food, despite 70% of this being perfectly edible (Food Innovation Limited, ‘National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study: Can we halve Australia’s food waste by 2030’, 2021).
“This is concerning, but what Aussies are also failing to realise is that our water waste footprint may also increase with every item of food we throw away,” says Finish. “For example, throwing away one burger wastes the same amount of water as a 90-minute shower [Water Footprint Network resources].”
To help address this problem, for every pack of Finish sold at Woolworths between 1 June and 5 July 2022 (up to 200,000 packs), Finish says it will help OzHarvest save over 300 litres of water from going to waste, by rescuing 1kg of food from waste.
Raising awareness
OzHarvest founder and CEO Ronni Kahn AO says every time we waste food, we are also wasting precious water, so raising awareness about this issue is hugely important.
“We’re proud to be part of the #FinishWaterWaste campaign supported by Woolworths, to help our efforts in championing the value of food to make wasting it a thing of the past,” she says.
“OzHarvest is committed to the national target of halving food waste by 2030 by driving change at all levels of society, and this is a great initiative to help us get there.”
Continuing support
Reckitt Hygiene Head of Customer Sustainability and Purpose Activation Danielle Byrne says the team is immensely proud of the positive impact #FinishWaterWaste has had on the community to date.
“We have donated millions of litres of water when drought was upon our regional communities and delivered 100 water tanks to promote short term water security for farmers. But this is an ongoing issue; we all still need to play our part in being more water conscious,” she says.
“We hope that this new partnership with OzHarvest and supported by Woolworths builds on the positive water-saving habits promoted by #FinishWaterWaste and brings about further behaviour change for the long term.”
Since the start of the #FinishWaterWaste initiative in 2019, Finish says it has donated more than 14 million litres of water to drought-affected Australians. Now in 2022, it aims to raise awareness of ways in which Aussies can reduce water waste through awareness and education of the impact of food waste.
