Open Sauce launches free community waste audit tool

Welcome, food system innovators! As part of our Open Sauce project, we have developed a free resource to help you measure and reduce waste. Whether it’s for your businesses or home, by taking this simple step you’re joining a community working together to create a fair, regenerative and connected food system for Victoria.

A snapshot of the waste audit process – download the PDF above to read our step-by-step guide to help you on your zero-waste journey.

Once you’ve done your waste audit, help us to continue to develop resources for the Open Sauce community, by giving us your feedback on how your first waste audit went, and what you learned by filling in this form. You can also contact us with any questions or suggestions by emailing Laura Main, Open Sauce Project Co-ordinator.

Why start with a waste audit?

A waste audit can reveal a lot about how your business is operating today. It can provide insights and inspiration on how you might reduce waste and increase the circularity (reuse) of items in your waste stream.

The first audit will provide a baseline of how much waste you have, what’s in your waste stream, and how it’s currently being sorted. You can then use this information to systematically plan how items in your waste stream might be diverted (e.g. food scraps to compost), re-used, eliminated, or be sorted correctly.

You can repeat waste audits seasonally or annually to see how you’re tracking and continue making adjustments to your waste plan. This could save you money in the long run and will go a long way towards helping us collectively contribute to a healthy planet.

This waste audit guide was developed and created by MAKE Studios and STREAT. The Open Sauce project is supported by the Victorian Government’s Recycling Victoria Innovation Fund as part of the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre (CEBIC).