I never really gave much thoughts to the unsold fruits and veggies at the market each time I visit one. The back of my mind generally assumes most of them (at least 70%) gets sold. Not until I read an news article by Lucy Cormack, "Waste to energy plant gives unsold fruit and vegetable a second life". The article highlights that 2.5million tonnes of produce gets delivered to Flemington markets each year and 25,000 will never make it to the table. Considering how much energy and resources that goes into growing the food - from growing them from a seed, to input labour, to transporting it to the supermarket, it's sad that it just ends up in the waste bucket.
In order to address this waste issue, recycling operation is in place to divert as many resources out of the waste stream and recycle them as soon as possible. One of significant ways to recycle these unsold vegetables, fruits and flowers is by sending waste to Veolia Earthpower facility, where it is used to generate power to be put back into the grid. Essentially the process involves:
Raw energy of food> Biogas> microbes eats> goes to the wire>generates & creates electricity.
Not only organic produce gets recycled, but also card boards and polystyrene. There is a designated area for on site waste management and resource recovery for these items.
It is good to see that the on site waste management for Flemington Market is considerate for waste.
Reference
http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/waste-to-energy-plant-gives-unsold-fruit-and-vegetables-a-second-life-20160505-gonmdt.html
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