Tons of food thrown away as millions go hungry
JUST how much food do residents living in Joburg and Ekurhuleni toss into the bin each year? A staggering 12kg and 8kg respectively.
This is the finding of a new study, the first of its kind undertaken in South Africa, which measured the actual amount of food waste thrown into municipal bins by households in the two municipalities.
Still, say the authors, South Africans waste less food than their counterparts in Europe and North America every year – they discard 95kg and 115kg – but throw away the most food on the African continent.
The authors, Suzan Oelofse, Aubrey Muswema and Fhumulani Ramukhwatho from the natural resources and environment unit at the CSIR, discovered that an average of 0.48kg and 0.69kg of waste food is thrown into municipal bins per household per week. This translates to between 25 198 tons and 51 461 tons per household per year sent to already crammed landfills. Gauteng contributes about 45% of the total municipal waste generated in South Africa.
Their paper, Household food waste disposal in SA: A case study of Joburg and Ekurhuleni, published in the SA Journal of Science this week, finds that in sub-saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, around 6kg to 11kg of food per year is wasted. Households, irrespective of income level, contribute to food waste.
They cite research in the UK that found that the main reasons for food being thrown away were that “it either wasn’t used in time” or “too much was cooked, prepared and served”. Similar reasons have been reported in South Africa.
“It’s evident from the study that initiatives focusing on urban households’ food waste reduction and diversion from landfill have the potential to divert significant amounts of food waste from landfill,” the authors say.
In South Africa, 12 million people go to bed hungry each day. “Global estimates suggest the world population will climb to 9.6 billion by 2050. “At current lifestyle patterns, it’s estimated we’ll need the equivalent of nearly three planets to sustain this,” they say.