What does food waste have to do with climate change?

Why is it such a problem that food and food scraps end up in landfills?

Food takes up more space in U.S. landfills than anything else. In the U.S., we discard about 80 billion pounds of food waste per year. That equates to about 220 pounds of food waste per person. The amount of food we waste equates to about 30-40% of the entire food supply!

80% of Americans throw away perfectly good food because they are confused about expiration labels.

Food scraps add to the growing waste generated in landfills. This is a problem because food and food waste that ends up in landfills contributes to climate change. Not only is wasted food a waste of the water and energy it took to produce that food, but food that sits in a landfill releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is more efficient and trapping heat than carbon dioxide. This is because in landfills, there’s no air and no natural way for the food to decompose. Wasting food contributes to 11% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Where does our food waste come from?

• 2% comes from food manufacturers.

• 16% comes from farms.

• 40% comes from restaurants and grocery stores.

• 43% comes from homes.

(source: https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/)

This demonstrates that individuals have a large part to play in addressing the food waste problem.

There are some solutions such as thinking creatively about how we can repurpose our food scraps or even eating things that we wouldn’t think we could eat (like kiwi peels, making tea out of avocado pits).

Another large solution is composting.

Some people compost in their backyards if they have space to do so; some people have worm bins set up inside their homes; some people take their compost to farmers markets or other community gardens that accept their compost; and some people participate in city composting services.

Are any of these ideas accessible to you?

At Camp Eco.Logic, we will spend time discussing the problems with our current food system and thinking of solutions of how we can build a more resilient and equitable food system. Learn more here.