Food Waste Flashcards
What is food waste?
Food for human consumption that is discarded due to oversupply and/or consumer habits
Statistics on food waste
- an estimated 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption is lost or
wasted world wide per year - If food waste was represented as its own country, it would be the third largest green
house gas emitter - In the United States, about 133 billion tons (worth over $161 billion) of edible food
goes to waste each year
Negative Impacts | Water Usage
● 70% of all freshwater is used for
agriculture.
● ¼ of all freshwater is used to produce food that is eventually
wasted
Negative Impacts | Land Usage
● About half of the Earth’s
habitable land is used for
agricultural purposes
● Produced but uneaten food
occupies almost 1.4 billion
hectares of land; representing nearly 30 percent of the world’s agricultural land area
Negative Impacts | Greenhouse Emissions in Landfills
● Food waste makes up about ¼of our landfills, generates methane and carbon dioxide gases as it
decomposes
● 20% of all methane emissions in the United States
Mitigation Strategies | Personal Waste
● Consciousness of food purchased
● Storage
○ Refrigeration
○ Separate apples, avocados from fruit
○ Dry, cool
● Donation
- Compost
What are the benefits and uses of composting?
● Reduces methane released in landfills due to
anaerobic decomposition
● Reduces need for chemical fertilizer
● Creates nutrient-rich soil
Mitigation Strategies | Corporation
- Reduce amount of food waste generated
- Increase donation of nutritious food to those who need it
- Recycle unavoidable food waste
Mitigation Strategies | Policies
- Pay as you throw program
Examples of food waste reduction programs
- Food banks
- Urban farms that give away their excess foods
- Food waste recovery from restaurants, businesses, etc.
