Explore Your Food Waste
Food Waste. It is food that is grown and produced for human consumption, but never eaten. Food waste can happen anywhere along the supply chain, especially in our homes. In fact, 80 percent of food wasted, happens in homes.
What Leads to Food Waste?
- Lack of knowledge on how to repurpose ingredients
- Improper storage of food
- Unplanned food purchasing
- Buying in bulk
- Confusion on food date labels
- Limited access to municipal organics food waste recycling
- Barrier to composting at home
Benefits of Learning About Food Waste
- Save money: Families throw away approximately 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy. This translates to an estimated $1,350 to $2,275 wasted annually for a family of four. When you understand what food waste is, why it is occurring in your home, you can start taking steps to reduce food waste and save your family money.
- Conserve resources: 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten. Food however is not the only thing wasted. This also means that fertilizers, cropland, and water used to grow the food were wasted. When you are proactive in how you view and handle food, you are making sure that the food grown serves its purpose—to be eaten.
- Help the environment: Food is one of the worse things to be in a landfill. When it decomposes it releases methane gas, which is more potent than carbon dioxide. By reducing food waste, you reduce the amount of food going to landfills and reduce green house gas emissions being released into the atmosphere.
How Much Food Are You Wasting?
Knowledge is the first step in reducing food waste. The best way to know where you’re starting in your food waste journey is to see where you are. We want to feel impowered to take action to reduce food waste, not guilty. As you start out, know that you aren’t the only one who wastes food and the fact that you are taking initiative to make a difference in the fight against food waste, should be something to celebrate.
Explore the food waste in your home by doing a simple food waste audit. Check out the guide below from Urban Green Lab to do your own food waste audit and see how much food you are wasting in your home.