Changes in our language away from words such as waste, rubbish and garbage – all words that have negative connotations to positive words like resources, recovery, recycled and up-cycled are a strong indication of that evolution.

The sheer ingenuity of people, who can see beyond what many of us just assume is a waste product, to develop new businesses is another indication of what is happening.

Toast Ale, is a UK enterprise developed by anti-food waste warrior, Tristram Stuart that turns waste bread products from bakeries and other retailers into beer.

Essentially they give new life to bread that is unsold by toasting it and combining it with malted barley, hops, yeast and water. 

The toast adds caramel notes that balance the bitter hops, giving a malty taste similar to amber ales and wheat beers.

Profits from the enterprise go back into fighting food waste.

Coffee is another item that is now garnering attention for a variety of purposes.

These include using coffee grounds from cafes to be mixed with other materials and used as road substrate to growing mushrooms and in worm farms.

Engineering students in Melbourne collected grounds from local cafes which were then dried in a 120-degree oven and mixed with slag, another waste product from steel manufacturing. 

The mixture was compressed into cylindrical blocks and deemed to be strong enough to be used as road substrate (futher testing needed).

Collecting coffee ground waste from coffee shops was the starting point for an urban mushroom farm project in Fremantle.

The mushrooms will then be sold to local restaurants, food outlets and at the Fremantle markets.