U.S. Food Waste Facts

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • In the year 2000, every person generated 1.3 pounds of food waste each day1.
  • Only 2.6% or 676,000 pounds of food waste was recovered for composting in 20001.
  • Over the course of one year, the average U.S. citizen will generate 474 pounds of food waste2.
  • Researches at the University of Arizona estimate that U.S. household disposal of food waste has tripled over the last two decades3.
  • 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.