ON December 26, Australia’s fridges will be bursting with leftovers. That’s why it’s National Leftovers Day!

Now in its sixth year, the day encourages Australians to use up all their Christmas leftovers.

Two out of 10 items we purchase will be thrown out – that’s one whole bag of groceries for every five we buy.

Food makes up 40 per cent of the average household rubbish bin and that’s $2000 in value thrown out each year.

An estimated 33 per cent is fresh food gone bad, and 27 per cent of the food we waste every year is leftovers. Those little bowls of cling wrapped treasures we pop virtuously in the fridge need an early intervention.

So why, oh why does this happen?

Experts say that it is a combination of awfulness – we cook too much food, food can be mistakenly thrown out, we buy too much because we forget to take a shopping list, or we don’t know how to use the leftovers.

And don’t think it is only families who discard their bits and pieces. If you earn over $130,000 a year, or are aged between 18 and 24, you qualify as the biggest wasters too.

But we can do something about it.

“Throwing out food over Christmas wastes hundreds of millions of dollars and impacts the environment. But we don’t have to be a scrooge to save food and money. With a little forward planning we can still have a generous feast without the waste,” said Jon Dee, the Managing Director of DoSomething and the founder of Leftovers Day.

So hold the cling wrap and re-evaluate your turkey, ham, chicken and vegetable leftovers. They can be used in sandwiches, quiches, soups and other meals.

Statutory authority Sustainability Victoria conducted a food waste avoidance study in 2010 which surveyed more than 1200 households across the state. The study found households in Victoria estimate they spend more than $2000 a year on food that is wasted - almost double the NSW figure of $1036.

Factcheck says based on the available research, the claim that Australians throw out $8 billion worth of edible food every year stacks up. But this figure only relates to household food waste. The total value of food waste in Australia, including commercial waste from restaurants and supermarkets, would far exceed this figure.

For more delicious leftover food recipes try FoodWise.com.au.