[somber music playing]
[Zac] You're dreaming.
[piano playing]
[Zac] Now imagine
this was your house.
Every morning, you wake up and tend to your crops.
There are over 250 different species of plants,
fungi, fish, insects, and other creatures
all living in a perfectly symbiotic relationship
to create everything needed for a completely self-contained biosphere
for you and your housemates.
Oh…
And imagine you have a chicken. Why not? It's a dream, isn't it?
Does your house have solar panels?
That's a given. Of course it does.
But in this home, nothing goes to waste.
Because even your waste is converted into energy.
It's an unbroken cycle.
And those roommates you have,
they're a few of the best chefs in the country,
spending their days preparing gourmet meals
out of the fresh ingredients cultivated only within the confines
of your home and your rooftop garden.
In fact, in this dream,
there's so much food, you run a small-scale restaurant in your home.
Just a few seats, and nothing ever goes to waste.
Can you imagine a world with no waste?
All right, dream's over. Wake up.
[seagulls cooing]
[Zac] Waste. It comes in almost unlimited forms
and we create more and more of it every day.
We can waste everything from money to time.
But in this case, we're studying the waste of natural resources,
and the waste we leave behind in the form of municipal solid waste,
or its common term, garbage.
The trash we create has to go somewhere.
As landfills reach capacity, the average American continues
to create about five pounds of trash each day.
Why? What can we do to change that?
We know the basics, the three Rs.
Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
But are we doing that? What can we be doing better?
Our continued talk with noted author, historian, and farmer Bruce Pascoe
naturally turned to the discussion of waste as he talked about his experience
working with the younger generation of agriculture students
at his farm here in Australia.
It's funny on the farm,
because I see myself as a conservationist, you know.
They're all younger than me.
They're so savage on the plastics and the recycling.
And I thought I was good,
but I get pulled up every day, you know.
-[laughing] -"What's that?" Um…
[all laugh]
[Bruce] And I kinda love it.
A real indication of my generation and their generation.
-Their generation's gonna be better. -That's fascinating.
We're gonna have a better world if we allow these kids to have their way.
Knowing that creates hope.
Like, massive hope. And we need to change this.
That's… That's, um, a business opportunity to change things.
Because in Melbourne about 20 years ago, we had the best water in the world.
But we then started drinking water out of a plastic bottle.
So now you go to a meeting, and there's slabs and slabs and slabs
of plastic wrapped in plastic holding water
which we used to get out of a tap.
[Zac] Profit doesn't always go hand in hand with good environmental practices.
But many companies are finding success in switching from their old ways
to more sustainable methods.
We as a crew have also tried to reduce our footprint this season,
decreasing our single-use plastic and other waste as much as possible.
On a typical summer day,
a crew like ours can go through 50 to 70 bottles of water a day,
and if those are single-use plastic bottles, forget it.
AB marker.
[Zac] We found a way to eliminate that waste:
reusable water bottles with built-in filters.
Everyone from the crew gets one,
so now there's no more need for single-use plastic.
[cheering, laughing]
Let's do this!
[vibrant music playing]
[Zac] If change begins at home,
here's an incredible example of that philosophy.
Builder and artist Joost Bakker
has designed a completely self-sustaining, zero-waste home
as a living art installation on display right here in Melbourne.
-[Joost] G'day. Yo, Zac. -[Zac] Hey, man. How's it going?
-Nice to meet you. -Good to meet you.
-[Darin] What's up, brother? -How are you, mate?
[Darin] How are you? Can't wait to see it.
[Zac] I'm gonna warn you right now,
walking into this place is just sensory overload,
in a very good way.
The first thing you see when you step inside is the mush room,
a little closet designed to grow a huge variety of edible fungi.
-Mushroom action. -No way!
[Joost] This is insane, how quickly these grow. So that will be that in two days.
-[Zac] Really? -[Darin] Two days?
[Joost] Yeah.
-This setup's unbelievable. -A friend of mine found this bushwalking.
It's an Australian native mushroom. It's Lion's Mane, which is famous.
[Darin] Neurological.
[Zac] Beautiful.
[Joost] We use that a lot here as food. These'll do really well on coffee grounds.
We pump steam from the shower. When you shower, we collect it,
but we also collect the condensate from the hot water unit.
So you're making a microclimate that's advantageous for the--
Well, I'm obsessed, as you know. I'm obsessed with air.
I wanna create an indoor air environment that's like walking through a forest.
So we've got, like, 250 different species of plants.
We've got an interior that could be certified organic in this building.
There's no glue. There's no toxins. Everything's natural.
Wow!
And when I say zero waste, I mean Joost thought of everything.
You can see… Actually, that at the back is really cool.
That's a biodigester, that big black stomach.
-[Darin] Oh, nice. -[Zac] A biodigester.
[Joost] Every one of us produces a kilo of organic waste a day,
and a kilo equates to an hour of methane.
We're currently wasting between seven and eight billion hours
of potential energy every single day.
But you're also not filling that organic waste into your rubbish bin.
Right.
So I thought, "I'll recreate that," and that creates more biology,
and it goes on the plants.
[Zac] Just so we're clear, that giant bag collects waste from people
and the garbage disposal,
and produces natural gas that can burn for almost four hours a day
for cooking and heating water. How's that for zero waste?
[Darin] Hey. Fish.
[Zac] And here's a big fish tank.
-[Joost] These are golden barramundi. -[Zac] Beautiful.
Wow.
-[Darin] Beautiful fish. -[Zac] Amazing.
This company is obsessed with supplying the world's microsystems.
So rather than having massive fish farms,
we're better off having a million small farms.
Because the nutrients that these fish provide give us nutrients for our plants.
That's a closed-loop.
[Zac] The fish and plants are part of a basic aquaponics setup.
Waste from the fish is pumped to feed the plants
through a constant flow of water. This isn't just a house.
Aside from basic shelter, the structure is designed to grow food
and be a completely sustainable,
zero-carbon, zero-waste, livable work of art.
Oh, and, of course, the house runs on solar.
This is made from the world's biggest waste product, which is straw. Compressed.
No glue. Absolutely no chemicals.
-No synthetic materials. -[Zac] This is all straw?
[Darin] Heat and pressure.
[Joost] Yep. 60 ton of pressure at 60 degrees.
It causes the embedded moisture to steam up, and it locks the panel together.
-And you cannot burn it. It does not burn. -[Zac] Wow!
And everything is sealed with natural lime.
[Zac] Construction and demolition debris can make up as much as 30%
of our landfill waste,
but Joost uses construction materials that are either recyclable or compostable.
You see this behind the copper there? That's magnesium board, which Romans used.
-Composed of magnesium oxide. -[Joost] Yeah.
So I love this stuff. Fireproof too, yeah?
Completely naturally fire-resistant, naturally mold-resistant.
At the end of the building's life, crush it and turn it into the same thing.
It's the ultimate-closed loop. I treat this like an organic restaurant.
So if a material doesn't comply with wooden-made organic certification,
I don't use it.
And it's beautiful timber.
[Zac] I just love everything about this. We're only in the garage.
As Joost said, he treats this place like an organic restaurant,
and on the rooftop sits a completely organic farm.
[Joost] If we can transform our homes and our living environment to be productive,
we can take the pressure off farmers, and farmers can then start re-wilding
and replanting and… We don't need more land.
We just need to be smarter about what we use, you know.
I feel like we've spent four or five million years immersed in our food system.
We've spent the last hundred removing ourselves from it.
And we're all craving to be back in it.
[Zac] All the food grown here is brought to the kitchen to be prepared
by Joost's partners and award-winning chefs, Jo and Matt.
And their kitchen staff of one, Lou.
Chefs Jo and Matt live in the house, cooking and preserving fresh
and healthy dinners to a small number of customers each night
in an intimate home restaurant setting.
Best of all, this whole thing is a nonprofit
created to showcase how delicious zero-waste methods can taste.
What we're trying to do here is get people excited about urban food.
Like, how much food can you grow where you live?
That's what this project is.
-Is this rainwater? -[chef] Yeah, filtered rainwater.
[chuckles]
Ah.
[chef] Here we are. So we have our cricket bowls.
Essentially a falafel, but with chickpeas we grow on the roof.
Herbs and veggies from the garden, a few spices. It's about 10% cricket.
So it's full of protein.
A little fermented chili and koji hot sauce on the side.
[Darin] Mine don't have cricket?
-[chef] No. -Cool.
[vibrant music playing]
Oh.
-[Darin] Tastes like cricket? -Tastes like chicke--
-[Darin] Hi, Maggie. -Sorry. This doesn't taste like you.
-[Darin] Hi, Maggie. -[Zac] It tastes much better.
[clucking]
[Darin] Yeah.
-That's really nice. -It's all right? Awesome.
And crickets contain all the amino acids as well.
And they're kind of living off all the stuff that we can't use.
So if the zucchini's too far gone or growing really fast--
He almost [bleeps] the veggies.
-[crew laughs] -Oh.
Maggie.
[clucking]
[Zac] Those are really good.
I know somebody tried to make a cricket protein powder.
-That's delicious. -[Darin] There's cricket bars and stuff.
So this one here is our sprouted green risotto.
So whenever Matt and I go and stay at Joost's house,
he always makes us risotto. We use cashew, spinach, and leek purée,
and there's heaps of sprouted grains and a little bit of pumpkin seed oil.
[Zac] Wow, that's beautiful.
Wow!
-This is unreal. -[chef] Thank you.
[Zac] I'm stoked. I didn't know we got to eat.
[crew laughs]
This is beautiful.
[Darin] I mean, just every bite, it's just life.
It's simple. We're not doing anything new. This stuff has been done for centuries.
We're just applying it into a modern space.
If we can inspire people to take away one or two elements
of these things and apply it to their own life, that's a win.
And once they start doing it, it becomes really, you know, the next thing.
Someone might start composting and look at the waste they bring in their house.
Before you know it, you're living a sustainable life.
When you live a sustainable life, it's more delicious, which is the key.
[Zac] What Joost has done is incredible, and it's a great example of reducing waste
and recycling and reusing everything.
While that may not be a way of living for everyone,
it's possible to pick and choose even a few elements
to create a more sustainable life in any home.
I'm blown away, guys. This is so fun and so exciting to be here.
Thank you for the beautiful food. Thanks for bringing us into your home
and sharing all these magical, simple, beautiful ways that you're living.
-It's really incredible. Beautifully done. -[chef] Thanks for coming.
[clapping]
[Darin cheers]
[Zac] A small kiosk dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers
caught our crew's attention because of this simple sign.
-Rolling. -Ten o'clock.
[man] Yeah.
[Zac] As luck would have it, right in the middle of Melbourne's Fed Square,
we stumbled upon Australia's first carbon-neutral carryout food stand
as the crew was looking for lunch.
And Darin was eager to make a new friend.
Yeah, like, we were shooting down there,
and a bunch of our crew just happened to walk by.
-It smells amazing. I'm getting this waft. -[man] Beautiful Lebanese street food.
Yeah. Why did you design it this way?
I had a passion for the environment, sustainability.
So it runs on solar battery.
We've got a generator, but the generator runs on what they call B100,
which is biodiesel. So it's carbon-neutral.
Behind here, we do have a advanced double-filter rainwater system
that filters the water before we use it.
And I just noticed you have this CO2 offset.
-Instead of, like, calories, you like-- -Yeah, so this is new as well.
So we went one step further,
and we wanted to communicate to the customer that by eating here,
that's the carbon emissions that you're saving on each item.
[Zac] This is all very nice, but Darin's only two concerns now are,
"Do you have vegan choices?" and, "What do they taste like?"
We're gonna cook you a za'atar vegan cheese and vegetable.
-Here we go. There it is. -Oh, hey. Boom! [laughs]
-It's not normally that fast. -Wow! That's so fast.
[Zac] Mediterranean food offers some really flavorful
and satisfying vegan choices, and this is no exception.
All that, and he's doing it without adding carbon into the air.
It's encouraging to see businesses like this one succeed
by innovating delicious ways to reduce waste.
Whoa.
-[laughing] -That's friggin' good.
Dude.
Stoked.
-[vendor] Glad you like it. -Way to go. Awesome. Way to go.
Australia itself represents so many different aspects,
and there's so much here that can represent
so many different things in the world from, you know,
the environmental challenges,
from the Indigenous challenges to, you know, all these kinds of things, so…
-Yeah. -What is that thing?
It's probably the lane…
-[Darin] Oh, right. -…indicator.
-That's, uh… automatic [bleeps]. -Yeah.
When it doesn't like what we're saying, it just naturally--
In real-time bleep.
[Zac] Sure.
-[bleeps] -What the [bleeps]?
[laughing]
[Zac] About 1.3 billion tons of edible food is wasted globally each year.
That's enough to feed three billion people.
Local non-profit Ozharvest is doing something about that,
one bruised apple at a time.
Hey, how are you?
-Lovely to meet you. I'm Ronni. -You too.
[Darin] Hi, Ronni.
[Zac] You've heard of no-kill animal rescues.
Ozharvest is like a no-kill food rescue.
So just to give you an example of what we do,
this is produce that's just been collected.
[Zac] They operate in cities all over Australia,
but we're here in Sydney to meet the founder and see how it all works.
And this will go out to feed hungry people either later tonight or tomorrow.
[Zac] All of the fruit we're looking at started out fresh and perfect,
but as customers at grocery stores picked through it,
all looking for their chosen piece, what's left has become so bruised
and unsellable to the public, the retailer has no choice but to throw it all away.
So what is this? Like, a blemished pepper?
-[Ronni] There might be a little freckle. -[Zac] And that's all it takes.
-[Ronni] That's all it takes. -This is all wonderful food.
[Ronni] We are so fussy.
If we were willing to buy that, this would not go to waste.
[Zac] And that's when Ronni and Ozharvest swoop in
to rescue this perfectly edible and delicious food,
saving this precious commodity,
and making sure it gets into the mouths that need it most.
I think you guys should go out on a van because then you'd understand
and see the volume of what there is to collect.
And then our job is to deliver that out so that it doesn't go to waste.
[Zac] This is one of 65 refrigerated vans used to pick up food from retailers.
And Ozharvest food rescue driver Jack
has been nice enough to take us on a ride-along for a typical day's haul.
Going to our… one of our sort of national supermarkets,
Woolworth's. Wooly's for short.
What we do as drivers is we go in, and we basically make an assessment of,
like, "Is this good enough for someone to eat?"
So much food doesn't make it off the farm because oranges won't be the right shape.
And every day we would rescue, say, like, an average of
fifty kilograms of fruit and vegetables from each store.
-It's common sense. -[Jack] Totally.
Why wouldn't you give food
that someone discarded and give it to people that wanted it?
-Yeah. Yeah. -And needed it.
[Zac] We've arrived at a nearby grocery chain that donates their dead food walking
before it's too late.
Manager Simon represents just one of thousands of food retailers
that participate in this program.
How's the donation looking?
[Simon] Got some good stuff. I'll go grab it.
-[Darin] Let's go. -Let's see.
-Wow. -[Zac] All right.
-Plus I've got a bit more in the fridge. -Awesome.
[Zac] All of this is his donation for the day,
which is now gonna be Darin's exercise/powerlifting for the day.
-So this is just mine. -Yeah. This is just yours.
Yeah, so that's it. Usually there are quite a bit more fruit and veg,
a bit more perishable.
[Zac] So this is just a blemish on the apple.
Yeah, or, like, some, like, spotty bananas.
-This kind of stuff. -Spotty? This is when it's good!
-How do we load it out? -Well, the door open.
-You got labor, Zac. -Yeah.
-Should I go to the back? -Yeah. Chuck it in.
There you go. I'll slide it to you.
Little teamwork makes the dream work.
-[Jack] Bit of Tetris. -[Darin] Look at that. That's incredible.
Wow, look at all the greens, all the kale.
Oh man.
-Good job, Tetris master. -[Jack] You're gonna steal my job.
-Easiest game of Tetris I've ever played. -You proved yourself.
-That was really fun. Cool. -Attaboy.
-All right. -Thank you for that. Cheers, mate.
I am so stoked, man. It was so good. Great work.
[Simon] Tremendous.
-See you later. -Yep. Let's do it.
[upbeat music playing]
[Zac] All of the food winds up here in this kitchen,
where it is quickly prepared into meals.
[Ronni] This is Trav.
[Zac] A full-time executive chef and his team
are dedicated to producing the best quality meals from the food they rescue.
The system they have going on at Ozharvest is working so well, it begs the question…
How come it hasn't worked in the States, do you think?
There are some beautiful programs in the States,
like Bon Jovi's got a beautiful program.
So if you know him, that's cool. Connect us.
-[Darin] Bon Jovi… -No, I can reach out.
Hey, Google. Can you call Jon Bon Jovi?
[google] Sorry. I'm not finding a match in your contacts.
[Zac] He's probably unlisted.
There's also a special program to teach teens and young adults life skills
like cooking and food conservation. The cooked meals are then distributed.
So far, Ozharvest has delivered almost 29 and a half million meals to the needy.
But this nonprofit couldn't do it without the generous donations
of food, money, and time from the public.
[Darin] That looks extraordinary, Chef.
[Zac] It's hard to believe all this food was destined to be in a dumpster.
And it proves once again that our planet doesn't have a food-shortage problem.
It has a food-distribution problem.
You are incredible. Thank you. This has been enlightening.
I mean, for me. It's really cool.
Enlightening, fun, and tasty.
Well done, Ozharvest.
Waste affects the land, the air, and the water.
It's estimated that about 14 and a half tons of plastic
end up in the oceans all over the world each year.
Garbage and other toxic substances in the ocean
decrease the oxygen levels and destroy habitats.
And the overall effects can be deadly to all of the inhabitants.
[Darin] We're going out here a little bit. There's a big spool.
-Gonna take it up the coast again. -Yeah.
[Zac] We're in a charter boat off the coast for a sightseeing trip
to allow us an up close and personal look
at the beauty in the ocean that we need to preserve.
[laughing]
[upbeat music playing]
[captain] All right. We're coming into our little dolphins' relaxation area now,
so let's get sorted and get into it.
[Zac] I need to point out we're in a jet propulsion boat.
There's no chance for propellers of any kind to injure the sea life around us.
-Check that out, Zac. -Wow!
Oh man.
These guys are wild dolphins that have never been fed,
never ever likely to be fed. So it's good. We like to keep them as wild as we can.
[Darin] Yeah. That's very good.
So how do you get 'em to not bite you? What's the trick there?
-Gotta be really cool in the water. -Just be chill?
-Yeah. Just chill. -All right. Cool.
-'Cause they're ferocious, right? -[Darin] Look at 'em.
[Zac] Wow, man.
[Darin] All right. Let's do this.
Are there any sharks around here?
[captain] Uh…
-Don't bring it up. -Sometimes.
Yeah, we got a good test, actually. Where's our ladle? Shark test.
This is the most proven method.
You get a ladle. Take some water.
-You swirl it around with your finger. -Yep.
Typically, you use your pinky. Taste it.
If it tastes salty…
There's gonna be sharks.
Oh, I get it.
[laughing]
Well, I hope there are no sharks around today.
Please. Please.
[captain] Quick and quiet. Try not to make too much splash when you go in.
Once you're in, be as much like a dolphin as you can.
-Slide in? -[captain] Yep.
[splashes]
["Time to Go" playing]
♪ Drag myself from this sweet fable ♪
♪ Feel like I could spend Some time alone ♪
♪ Spend some time alone ♪
[Zac] There's something so primal about connecting with the ocean.
I feel it on the beach when I'm surfing,
and especially today, swimming with these beautiful creatures
and understanding that this is their home too.
Whoa! They're right there! [laughing]
They get so close!
♪ We’ll be all right ♪
♪ All right ♪
♪ We’ll be all right ♪
[Zac] Thanks for the swim. I'll try my best to keep it clean, guys.
Just outside Sydney is a retail outlet
and mail-order warehouse called Flora & Fauna.
Their platform is simple, a business that uses its power to do good.
We're here to meet the founder
and learn exactly how her company turns doing good into good business.
Oh, but first Darin and I will use the Force to open this door.
There you go. Good pull. -[Zac] Oh God, I hope she didn't see that.
-[Darin] Hey, how are you? -Hey. Lovely to meet you.
-Hey. Darin. -I'm Julie.
-Hi, Julie. I'm Zac. -Nice to meet you. I'm Julie.
-[Zac] How's it goin'? -Welcome. Good. Really good.
We've heard some good things about what you're doing here, sustainably.
Thank you. Yeah, we try and make the world a better place in our little way.
So I view what we do as we're a platform for purpose.
That's how I kinda look at it.
And we sell really good products. Everything's vegan and cruelty-free.
-Vegan and cruelty-free. -Yeah, so no animal testing.
Plus also no animal ingredients.
So, yeah. So that's just, like, out the gates.
And just that alone
that requires a lot of work.
-A lot of research. Lot of investigation. -Yeah, it is.
So I'm a big believer you can absolutely be a profitable business
and a purpose-driven business.
And the two are not distinct,
but they absolutely are… can be and should be together.
Yeah, I'd love to see what you're doing, how you're doing it,
and what are some of your favorite products?
-[Julie] Could be here a while. -[all laugh]
How you ever used a shampoo bar?
Yes.
So this is a really great brand. It's a Kiwi brand from New Zealand,
and they make everything as bars, and they come in compostable packaging.
If you buy shampoo and conditioner, most of it is water anyway.
-We're just transporting water around. -Smell this.
And they're really good. This is a kitchen spray in a concentrate.
So you get that like that, you break that up, you put it into a bowl,
put some boiling water on, and it's like magic.
-Oh, I've seen these before. Condoms. -Hey.
-Recognize this box.
-Johnny's. -[laughs] Yeah.
Johnny condoms, so they're vegan. You wouldn't think--
I didn't even know that was criteria for… Never mind.
-I don't know. I'm digging a hole here. -[Julie] Yeah, you are digging a hole.
[Zac] Anyway, moving on. Every product they offer helps reduce waste in some way,
is a better choice for the environment to some degree,
and is sourced to ensure fair wages and working conditions.
[Julie] So here is our recycling.
We said to all of our customers,
send us your old bottles back, and we'll get them recycled.
And we incentivize them for doing so.
So we'll give them ten bucks to spend in our store for every box they send back.
-Oh, right on. -That's so cool.
We need to do this, and then we need to improve, in general, product packaging,
and do refills.
Should be doing way more around refills and things like that. And just, like,
the human race is smart. We can innovate our way out of this.
[Zac] Everybody understands recycling.
We toss a recyclable item in the proper bin, and there it is.
We've done our part, and that item will now be chewed up
in some giant machine and turned into a brand-new product.
Yay! Recycling!
Oh, honey.
That's a sweet little story you've told, but I'm afraid it's just not that simple.
Huh? Uh-oh. What do you mean?
Well, for glass, aluminum, paper, and cardboard,
most of that stuff is pretty straightforward.
But when it comes to plastic, it's a bit more complicated.
Most cities are only capable of recycling the plastics with the number one or two.
All the others, three through seven,
you need to take those to special facilities to be recycled.
Because if you throw those in your recycle bin at home,
they'll just get incinerated or wind up in the landfill.
And plastic film, flexible packaging, dry cleaning bags,
all that thin stuff like me,
we usually get tossed aside, because we tend to jam up the machinery.
So what can we do?
Here's a big step in the right direction and one little step for your part.
Many retailers have in-store drop-off bins made especially for wrap plastic,
and Nature Valley has invented the first bar wrapper
for store drop-off recycling. The bins are taken to special facilities
that are equipped to recycle thin plastics, like bags, Bubble Wrap,
and cute little Nature Valley granola bar wrappers like me.
And that way, we can be recycled
and turned into all sorts of new items for people to use.
-That's great. -It sure is.
-Hey, where'd she go? -[wrapper] Don't worry. I'll be back!
[Julie] We have our fabulous team here packing some orders.
And our packaging is always plastic-free.
-Right on. -Yeah.
We've calculated we've saved about 30 tons of packaging.
[Zac] Thirty tons. Thirty tons.
That's about five full-grown elephants.
That's an average-sized fire truck.
It's around 8,600 chickens.
That's almost 600,000 hamsters.
You get the idea. They're saving a lot of waste here.
…like glass or whatever else. Just wrap that.
-[Zac] Yeah, I've seen that before. -[Julie] Yeah.
[Zac] And each package comes with a handwritten note of inspiration.
[Julie] We've written over a half million now.
-[Zac] Amazing. -[Julie] Like, heaps.
We launched an initiative to help other retailers
and other businesses use better packaging.
So we've listed all of our supplies on our website and just said,
"Go and use these."
-Cool. People starting to trickle over? -[Julie] Yeah.
Well, we also said to all of our brands, "Hey, this is what we want you to do."
"So don't… Stop sending us plastic."
What we're doing now is we're being really selective.
So when we go and source products,
we go, "How were they packaged when you deliver them to us?"
[Zac] Ah, cool.
[Julie] With everything we do, it's "Can we do it better in some way?"
Would you like to pack some parcels and write some notes?
-Sure. Yeah. -Absolutely.
Let's do it. So what we will do is we'll get you a couple of boxes.
All right. Zac's already on it. There we go.
What do you do with the squares… Fold them in.
[Julie] Tuck in. Tuck those in.
-[Darin] You can do it. -Yeah. Brilliant.
You can do it.
-I've got it, guys. -[laughing]
[Zac] That's right. I can't fold a box.
-I'm hopeless. -That's it. You got it.
Okay, got it. So you do have to work… Shut up, Darin. Just shut…
[Julie laughs]
[Darin] He's there. He's almost there.
-Is that it? -Nope.
Is it really not? Oh, this one has to go in.
Cracked. He's cracked the code.
[laughing]
I feel so much pressure. [laughs]
I know what my note's gonna be. "Sorry, your box is bent five different ways."
-Hey! -[Zac] Hey!
Thank you. Three hours later.
[all laugh]
So if you press that foot pedal… Whoo!
-Yep. There it is. -Then we'll put some of these in here.
That's perfect. Great.
And then you can write a note of your choice.
[chuckles]
-[Darin] Can't read it. -[Zac] Sweet.
[Julie] Brilliant. That's it. Then close them up.
-[Darin] Close 'em up. -Then we ship 'em off.
[vibrant music playing]
[rattling]
[Julie] This is our store.
-Oh, you got everything in here. -Yeah.
We've got about a thousand products in here,
but of course, we can get everything from the back.
[Zac] Wow, I want everything in here.
[Julie] The categories we have,
beauty and health, but we've just launched pet.
'Cause, like, dogs can have plant-based treat.
[Darin] Yeah. I wanna, like, load up.
-[Julie] You wanna… Okay. -[Zac] Yeah, I'd love to.
[Darin] Look at that. Raspberry, chocolate, dark.
[Julie] They're made by a guy called Brian who's an 80-year-old potter,
who lives in Queensland. And he makes these pottery cups.
That's your shampoo bar. Yes. That's a good one too.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You did good.
[chuckling]
[Julie] Got your things?
Thanks for having us and showing us around. This is just fascinating.
-Pleasure. -[Zac] People are gonna be blown away.
[Julie] Welcome anytime. Particularly box packing.
-Yeah, definitely. -She's being way too kind.
What was your favorite part of the Flora & Fauna?
I just can't wait to see that completely blow up. It makes so much sense.
Well, it's the way things should be, and the fact that it's novel…
It's not a common business structure. It should be.
You realize the choices that can be different…
-[Zac] Yeah. -…in your life.
That sounds healthy, clean, and comfortable.
Any time, all the time.
[laughing]
[guitar playing]
[Zac] In a small intercity area of Sydney sits a narrow storefront
with a colorful sign that needs no words.
Cool sign.
-[Darin] I think this is the butcher shop. -Must be it.
[Zac] This is Fish Butchery, and what you see on the sign is what you get.
-Chef! Hey, how's it going? -Hey, how are you?
[Zac] Because Chef Josh Niland's goal
is to take the often tossed aside parts of the fish
and instead utilize them in some of the most creative
and certainly waste-reducing ways imaginable.
[chef] This is a bit of how we display the fish, which is indicative of
a new style of fish shop.
So we lay everything out so that the customer comes in,
and it's not that stacked-up fish.
We're showing people that "here's the best of the best."
When you come in and get some fish,
we can get the whole product out of the cool room,
cut it for you exactly the way that you want it.
-[Zac] Look at all this. -[Josh] Brilliant.
[Zac] An up-close look at fish butchering
goes against everything Darin stands for as a vegan.
However, he's agreed to try and endure the discomfort
in an effort to understand what it is they do here,
and how it contributes to reducing waste.
This is not your main kitchen.
The chef's award-winning seafood restaurant, Saint Peter,
is just a few doors down.
We got to a point where everybody was like, "I really wanna eat an eyeball."
And "I really wanna eat liver." And "I wanna eat your dry, aged fish."
And the secondaries of the fish
became more prominently kind of desired than the fillet.
My wife Julie and I, we decided to open this business here.
Literally, cultures all around the world, Middle East, all through Asia,
that require the use of a whole fish or a whole animal
based only on necessity that they have to consume the whole animal.
How much of the fish typically gets wasted on--
[Josh] Fifty-five percent, roughly.
-Really? -[Josh] On a round fish.
That's a startling statistic, what you just said.
If nearly 50% of the fish that we're overfishing is being discarded…
Yeah.
…and not even utilizing this, that's a horrible system.
Hence why Julie and I designed the butchery to be the way this is,
which is walk in the door, here's a fish, head on.
It's fresh. It just got caught.
Mongering is to deal and trade in a commodity.
Butchery is to bring value and then sell its meat.
So that's what we're doing. Hence the title Fish Butchery.
-Shall I get my fish out? -Yeah. I'd love to see it.
Unbelievable.
So this is blue-eye trevalla.
Um…
-Wow, look at that thing. -Caught in Sydney yesterday afternoon.
I need to maximize the full extent of what this is.
So when I gut a fish, we use just the very top tip
because if you do it the end and then just straight up, that's really fast,
but you're gonna destroy everything that was potentially possible to use.
So that's the bass grouper heart.
[Zac] Wow, look at that.
[Josh] And so, super tiny.
All right. This one here is the gills.
And so, by taking it out in one piece, what that gives us now is the ability
to actually sort it so that we can use it to its full potential.
I've been cooking now since I was 15.
And it was for working in enough fish restaurants,
observing how much fish was going in the bin, that made me then question,
well, that has a dollar value.
Every single thing that comes off a fish,
not only is it disrespectful and neglectful to be
just removing it from your mind and it going into the bin,
but all of it comes at a cost to the business.
So that's the liver.
Wow.
Extraordinary to just panfry and put it on toast with some parsley leaves.
And it's like heaven.
It surpasses foie gras, duck liver.
Like, it's amazing.
This one is the stomach of the fish. We clean it out really thoroughly,
and we brine it overnight, and then we steam it.
We cut these into rings. We crumb them, and we deep-fry them.
So this is a yellowfin tuna eye.
We take the eye out of the tuna, and then we blend the eyes.
So that's probably the equivalent of about four to five eyes.
And we blend it in a blender, and then we mix tapioca starch into it,
like a prawn cracker.
-This going in the restaurant? Can I try? -[Josh] You eat it, man.
Fish eyes.
Mm.
-Wow. -[chuckles]
-Oh my gosh. -It's a eyeball cracker.
That's beautiful.
[Josh] That was where it started, like, in terms of…
-Man. It's, like, refreshing. -…kinda out there.
[Zac] With this whole fish,
what percent would you say went… was wasted or thrown away?
Yeah. So for this particular fish right now, I would say 12%.
[Zac] Meaning an almost 80% reduction in waste.
Even Darin has to appreciate that.
Amazing. Amazing from that perspective.
[Zac] It should be noted that the fishing industry as it stands today
is absolutely unsustainable and is damaging the planet.
While utilizing more of the fish is a good thing overall,
the fact is we're still overfishing the oceans.
This here is yellowfin tuna.
So we have the ability of selling off these by the chop, so…
We've got a piece that we can cut off. We use the bones for sauce,
and we cut traditional tuna steaks that everybody understands.
And, again, this one here being from the tail, it's full of sinew.
We take that, we take all the sinewy bits, and we mince it up,
and this is our cheeseburger.
-And that's for you. -Really?
So that's a double yellowfin tuna cheeseburger
with swordfish bacon…
-[Zac] It smells unreal. -[Josh] …pickles, and mustard.
[chuckles]
[sniffs] Oh my gosh.
[chuckles]
Top three burgers I've ever had in my entire life.
That's crazy that something so delicious
was made from something normally thrown away.
-I can't believe this is fish. -There's the ad commercial we need.
-[Darin] Yeah. -[all laugh]
-It's so fatty and delicious. -[Josh] Yeah.
And that's all utilizing fish that would've ended up in the bin.
[Zac] While all parts of a fish are obviously biodegradable,
if everyone moved to using as much of the catch as possible,
it would help reduce overfishing.
You guys have to try this. Cut this up and try this.
Yeah, chop it up.
Seriously, I think that's the best burger I've ever had. It's better than meat.
And by maximizing the use of the fish, they maximize their profits,
once again proving ecologically moral can be profitable.
Obviously, I haven't had a big impact on you guys from the plant-based world.
These guys are freakin' consuming like they've never eaten before over here.
-Never seen a happier crew. -What the--
[Zac] Sorry, Darin. No converters just yet.
-[Darin] Well, obviously-- -Mike hasn't even… Can't look up.
[laughing]
He's doing the one-note. He's like… "Mm-hmm."
Yeah. Yep.
If you've ever wondered what an executive producer does,
that's it right there.
-The pickle is great too. -The pickle is very good. Well done.
[all clapping]
[Zac] We can all make different choices, whether it's reducing our plastic use,
starting a compost bin,
or switching to a hybrid or an electric car.
Any little change can make a difference.
The crew is our family.
If the crew is seeing it…
Feeling it.
…and feeling it and wanting to change,
like, that's… that's everything.
[Zac] That's the thing about changes like these. They start out so small.
They take effort.
But then they catch on.
And they build.
Then suddenly the old ways seem so outdated.
You almost forget how it used to be.
Because the new ways become such an improvement.
Are we capable of making changes for a better future?
Or will we continue to treat the planet
like an endless supply of natural resources
and a bottomless pit for our garbage?
If we do, well, that would be a real waste.
[soft music playing]