Waste Not, Want Not: 20 Ways to Stop Food Waste
Updated: Mar 24
Did you know that in the US 30-40% of all the food produced never gets eaten? This results in more than 85% of greenhouse gas emissions from landfilled food waste. This includes the disposal itself but also activities before disposal, like production, transport, processing, and distribution.
Sadly, industrialized countries like the United States waste more food than developing nations. The average American generated about 219 pounds (99 kg) of food waste in 2010. But why does it matter? When you throw out edible food, you are not only wasting money, but you are also wasting land area and resources like water, pesticides, and fertilizers that were needed for production but also lots of gasoline as the food needs to be harvested and transported. Not only that, food waste produces methane gas when it decomposes, this has 80 times the warming power compared to carbon dioxide.
Luckily, reducing food waste is easy. In this article, we'll share some simple tips to help you prevent food waste at home and contribute to a more sustainable world.