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U.S. Food Waste Facts
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In the year 2000, each person in the United States threw away approximately 4.5 pounds of waste each day, totaling 231.9 million tons of municipal solid waste1.
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Food scraps accounted for 11.2% of that landfill weight, amounting to 25.9 million tons of food waste produced in the U.S. in 20001.
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In the year 2000, every person generated 1.3 pounds of food waste each day1.
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Only 2.6% or 676,000 pounds of food waste was recovered for composting in 20001.
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Over the course of one year, the average U.S. citizen will generate 474 pounds of food waste2.
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Researches at the University of Arizona estimate that U.S. household disposal of food waste has tripled over the last two decades3.
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For comparison, the IslandWood beam in the welcome center weighs almost 4.5 tons.
Implications of Food Waste
Local
- depletion of natural resources
- disposal costs
- more landfill space needed
- increased food costs for consumers
Global
- increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
- depletion of natural resources
- hunger
1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Municipal Solid Waste in the United
States: 2000 Facts and Figures." June 2002. http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/pubs/report-00.pdf
2 Jackson, Danielle. "Americans Increased Food Waste in 2001." Waste Age 8 Jul., 2002.
http://wasteage.com/ar/waste_americans_increase_food/index.htm
3 Wolopin, Bill. "Waist Stream." Waste Age 1 Sept., 2002.
http://wasteage.com/ar/waste_waist_stream/index.htm.
