What We Waste

Have you ever heaped your plate at a buffet, only to realize your eyes were bigger than your stomach? Or uncovered a container of unrecognizable leftovers? Maybe there was a tempting sale on the jumbo-sized bag of clementines, which you can’t possibly finish before they shrivel on the counter. 

As much as we’d like to deny it, each of us has let food go to waste. 

In fact, one-third of all food in America is wasted, with nearly half of that waste occurring within the home.  

When food goes uneaten, valuable nutrients are wasted alongside all of the resources which went into the growth, preparation, transportation, and sale of that food—not to mention the money you spent to buy it: a mind boggling $1,500 per year for the average household. 

Across the United States, producing food that is ultimately wasted consumes enough water to fill 9 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, produces greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to driving one million loaded semi-trucks across the United States, and uses an area of agricultural land equal to California and New York combined.

If the impact of food waste comes as a surprise to you, you’re in good company! Our survey revealed many Americans are unaware of the scale and consequences of our nation’s patterns of food waste, and are generally more concerned about aspects of food such as it’s price and healthiness.

The carrots you toss into the bin might seem inconsequential, but when you consider the bits of waste generated nearly every day by most households, it quickly adds up. In America alone, food waste could fill over 1 million dump trucks every year!

We all have the opportunity to be part of the solution.

By reducing food waste, we can reduce the need for land and resources used to produce food as well as the greenhouse gases released in the process.