How food waste contributes to climate change

When asked to think about the causes of climate change, it’s natural to visualize gigantic industrial chimneys billowing out clouds of smoke, or a traffic jam with idle cars backed up as far as the eye can see.

A less obvious image to come to mind when thinking about the causes of climate change is food waste. But it should.

When food gets thrown into the garbage bin, it ends up in a landfill where it’s left to decompose. During the process of decomposition, food waste gives off a highly potent greenhouse gas called Methane that has 28-35 times more warming strength than the carbon dioxide molecules coming out of your car’s tailpipe.

Food waste alone accounts for about 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions each year. That’s crazy high. To try and put that figure into perspective, if food waste were a country, it would have the 3rd highest carbon footprint behind the U.S & China.

If food waste were a country, it would have the 3rd highest carbon footprint behind the U.S & China.

What’s most painful is that 43% of all food wasted happens at home. Totally avoidable, small scale food waste. In the US, up to 40% of all food goes uneaten each year. This is a particularly disheartening figure paired with the fact that 35 million Americans are currently experiencing food insecurity.

Food waste happens across several stages of the food supply chain, each with unique influences causing them.

Where is excessive food waste happening?

Our global food system is a deeply complex web of manufacturers, distributors, retailers and consumers whose behaviours cannot all be looked at through the same lens.

To simplify, there are really just two distinct stages within our food supply chain where waste happens:

• Before the point of sale (farming, manufacturing, distribution & retail), or
• After the point of sale (restaurants, food service & household).

So within these two buckets, what issues cause food to be wasted at such a huge scale?

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Before the point of sale - perfection

Retailers expect highly consistent food products from farmers.

Even when the product is 100% safe, edible and nutritious, it could be turned away if it has any kind of aesthetically displeasing natural bruising or insect bites. If retailers refuse to purchase a harvest due to “aesthetic challenges”, that food will most likely end up in a landfill.

Unfortunately, this scenario happens more often than we’d like. Close to one third of all produce harvested never makes its way to distribution because it contains some level of imperfection.

Before the point of sale - abundance

Human beings are visual creatures. Grocery stores have come to realize that we spend more when stores appear abundant.

Ever notice how the apples are always stacked so high, with such shine and perfection? Or how that same mountain of apples is always a mountain and never just a few remaining apples?

That’s by design. It’s called overstocking, and it plays into a natural human instinct to consume more when we perceive abundance. To create this perceived abundance, grocery stores will actually order more supply than they require to meet demand.

Many grocery chains will make an effort to sell or donate aged produce before it goes bad, but at the end of the day about 13% of all food waste is derived from grocery stores & distribution processes.

After the point of sale - over shopping/cooking

That grocery store abundance we just talked about causes a very predictable and interconnected second problem: overcooking at home.

Consumers are tricked into overshopping in the grocery store which means we have a tendency to overcook. Food goes uneaten and then is doomed to be thrown away.

The average American wastes 3.5 pounds of food per week. That might not seem like a huge number in isolation of a single person, but keep in mind that this at home food waste contributes 43% of all food waste.

What can I do to reduce food waste at home?

To avoid the worst outcomes of climate change, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals say that we must cut food waste in half by 2030. Much of that reduction opportunity can be achieved in the home.

Here are some simple ways you can meaningfully improve your food habits at home in the name of reducing waste:

1. Source Reduction: A.K.A. only cook what you will eat. Avoid the over-shopping trap set by perceived abundance in grocery stores. Plan meals and consider the impact of over-purchasing.

2. Get a compost bin: Never put food waste in your garbage! Your garbage bin will get taken to a landfill where it will be left to rot. This is a worst-case scenario for food waste (as we learned above), as that rotting will cause significant methane emissions. A compost bin is an easy and convenient way to dispose of food safely. You can even reuse compost productively as a fertilizer.

3. Donate Food: When you see a food waste scenario playing out at home, be proactive and find a home for it. Billions of people globally suffer from hunger and food insecurity. Find someone who needs that meal through local food banks or organizations.