FOOD WASTE IN THE UNITED STATES
72 BILLION POUNDS OF FOOD WASTE
is lost each year from all points of the production cycle before even making it into consumer homes.[1] Excluding waste at home, 52 billion pounds of food from manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants end up in landfills.[2] An additional 20 billion pounds of fruits and vegetables are discarded on farms or left in the fields and plowed under.[3]
40 PERCENT OF FOOD IN THE US GOES UNEATEN,
which, on average, is 400 pounds of food per person every year.[4] This includes wholesome and edible food that is thrown away. Many government-based and non-governmental organizations are focused on waste-reduction initiatives, because excess food ends up in landfills where it produces methane gas, and it also has an economic impact, because $218 billion worth of food is thrown away each year.[5]
21 PERCENT OF LANDFILL VOLUME IS FOOD WASTE
and 21 percent of fresh water is used to produce food that goes to waste.[6] This, coupled with the fact that one in eight people in the United States is food insecure, demonstrates the inefficiency and inequity of our food system.[7]
FOOD WASTE IN NEW YORK STATE
18 PERCENT OF ALL WASTE IS FOOD WASTE
In New York State, food makes up about 18 PERCENT OF ALL WASTE.[8] Each year, about 3.9 million tons of wasted food from New York ends up in landfills, where it slowly decays and is a major contributor to methane gas production.[9] At the same time, 12.8 percent of New Yorkers are food insecure.[10]
250,000 TONS OF WASTED FOOD
Supermarkets, restaurants, colleges, and hospitals are some of the largest food wasters, creating more than 250,000 tons of wasted food and food scraps each year, some of which is edible food that could be rescued instead of discarded.[11]
120,000 METRIC TONS OF CARBON DIOXIDE
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) estimates that if these food scraps were diverted from landfills, a reduction of more than 120,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents could be achieved each year, and food banks would see an increase of 20 percent in the amount of food available for those in need if just five percent of this material were donated or otherwise rescued.[12]
2 TONS OF FOOD WASTE GENERATED PER WEEK
Effective January 1, 2022, the Food Donation and Food Scrap Recycling Act creates a code for a food waste hierarchy, focusing on the major generators of food scraps (facilities such as restaurants, hotels, universities, grocery stores and event centers) that generate an annual average of two tons or more of wasted food scraps per week).[13] These food-waste generators will be required to donate excess edible food and recycle all remaining scraps as long as the facility is within 25 miles of an organic recycling facility. The top priority of the new law will be to reroute wasted food in order to feed people in need.[14]
FOOD WASTE IN NEW YORK CITY
68 PERCENT OF ALL FOOD DISCARDED WAS CONSIDERED STILL EDIBLE
In a first-of-its-kind report, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) assessed the amount of wasted food in three cities – Denver, Nashville, and New York City. The study tracked not only how much food was disposed of in the residential sector, but also what types of foods were discarded to the trash, down the drain, composted, or fed to pets. Findings showed that in all three cities, 68 percent of all food discarded was considered still edible.[15] In New York City specifically, 54 percent of food waste was generated in residential settings, 20 percent of this waste was generated by restaurants and caterers, and the remaining percentages were generated in all other settings including health care settings, colleges and universities, grocers and markets, event facilities and food manufacturers.[16]
8.4 POUNDS PER HOUSEHOLD PER WEEK
The average amount of food wasted by households was a corrected amount of 8.4 pounds per household per week (compared to an average of 8.7 pounds per household per week across all three cities).[17] The average amount of edible food wasted per household per week was measured to be 5.4 pounds, compared to 6.0 pounds per household per week across all three cities.[18]
2,000 CITY GOVERNMENT AND 4,000 PRIVATE TRUCKS
collect more than 14 million tons of waste and recyclables from homes, businesses, schools, streets, and construction sites in New York City.[19]
MORE THAN $1 BILLION PER YEAR SPENT
to manage all solid waste, including $300 million to export 3.3 million tons of City-collected waste.[20]
EFFORTS TO MINIMIZE FOOD SENT TO THE LANDFILL WITHIN NEW YORK CITY INCLUDE:
- City Harvest, founded as the world’s first food rescue organization. In 2018, the organization collected 55 million pounds of excess food from restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, manufacturers and farms and delivered it free of charge to 500 community food programs across New York City.
- GrowNYC, an organization that offers education, tools, and services to individuals, businesses, and organizations. Today 3 million New Yorkers per year participate in their programs, which include Greenmarkets, gardening programs and environmental education programs for youth.
- Green Bronx Machine, a kindergarten through twelfth grade educational program in the South Bronx built on the belief that wasting food is the most pressing food issue today. The organization created the National Health, Wellness, and Learning Center at Community School 55 in the South Bronx, which uses 90 percent less water than traditional farms with its indoor vertical farm.
- Harlem Grown, an organization that has transformed 10 vacant lots into urban farms and gardens. Each year, their agricultural sites divert more than 8,500 pounds of food scraps from landfill into their composting system.
- the Cornell Waste Management Institute, which focuses on research, outreach, training, and technical assistance regarding organic materials and composting.
- the Food Recovery Network, helping to divert more than two million pounds of wasted food from landfills to nonprofits. With more than 230 chapters in 44 states (including 20 colleges and universities across New York), it’s the largest student-led movement in the United States, addressing hunger through food scrap diversion.
- NY Common Pantry, offering a food pantry, a Hot Meals program, and a supplemental food program for seniors called Nourish.
- Rethink Food NYC, which takes excess food from grocery stores, restaurants and farmers’ markets and transforms it into meals offered at little or no cost to families across New York City.
- Hunger Action Network of New York State, which is a voice in food policy and focuses on advocacy, education and policy as its main priorities.
- BK ROT, a composting service that collects organic waste from businesses and organizations by bicycle. The organization processes between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds of organic waste per month.
[1] “Fighting Food Waste With Food Rescue.” Feeding America. https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/our-approach/reduce-food-waste. Accessed February 11, 2020.
[2] ibid.
[3] ibid.
[4] Gunders, Dana. “Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill.” 2017. Natural Resources Defense Council. https://www.nrdc.org/resources/wasted-how-america-losing-40-percent-its-food-farm-fork-landfill. Accessed February 11, 2020.
[5] “Selected New and Ongoing USDA Food Loss and Waste Reduction Activities.” United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/usda_commitments.html. Accessed February 11, 2020.
[6] “Fighting Food Waste With Food Rescue.” Feeding America. https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/our-approach/reduce-food-waste. Accessed February 11, 2020.
[7] “Six Takeaways from NYC Food Waste Fair.” 2019. Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center. https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org/six-takeaways-from-nyc-food-waste-fair/. Accessed February 10, 2020.
[8] Brown, Margaret. “How to Feed Hungry New Yorkers and Fight Climate Change.” 2017. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/margaret-brown/how-feed-hungry-new-yorkers. Accessed February 11, 2020.
[9] Minassian, Alex. “Working to Solve New York’s Food Waste Problem.” 2018. New York League of Conservation Voters. https://nylcv.org/news/working-solve-new-yorks-food-waste-problem/. Accessed February 10, 2020.
[10] “The Uneaten Big Apple: Hunger’s High Cost in NYC.” New York City Hunger Report, 2018, Hunger Free America. https://www.hungerfreeamerica.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/NYC%20and%20NYS%20Hunger%20Report%202018_0.pdf. Accessed February 11, 2020.
[11] “New York State Announces $4 Million in Grants to Expand Food Waste Recycling.” 2018. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/113919.html. Accessed February 11, 2020.
[12] ibid.
[13] “Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law.” New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/114499.html. Accessed February 10, 2020.
[14] ibid.
[15] Hoover, Darby. Estimating Quantities and Types of Food Waste at the City Level. 2017, https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/food-waste-city-level-report.pdf. Accessed February 10, 2020.
[16] ibid.
[17] ibid.
[18] ibid.
[19] Solid Waste, PlaNYC Report, https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/planyc2030/pdf/planyc_2011_solid_waste.pdf. Accessed February 27, 2020.
[20] ibid.
