Food waste takes a major toll on the environment

Did you know that the amount of food the United States wastes could feed more than 100 million people every day for a year? After learning this and many other surprising facts, I wanted to do something about it. Food waste in America is a big problem. Households and individuals are responsible for 51 percent of all food waste alone. What takes a lot of time and resources to make, only takes a few seconds to throw away.

Food waste causes 28 percent of greenhouse gasses. In the U.S., the production of wasted food creates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars worth of greenhouse gasses. Methane, a greenhouse gas made by rotting food and waste, is 21 times more powerful at trapping heat than CO2.

This is a problem because when the food arrives at the dump, it gets buried by more trash. Because the buried food doesn’t get any oxygen, it rots. As it rots, it produces methane. When the heat from the sun enters the atmosphere, the methane traps a lot of it, making our climate warmer. This contributes to fires, floods, droughts, and other natural disasters.

Not only does food waste itself have a big impact on the environment, there are a lot of resources that are wasted when you throw away food you could have eaten. First off, when the food is grown, a lot of time, money, water, and hard work goes into growing it. In addition, the food is transported to where you are, using lots of fossil fuels. Not only do fossil fuels pollute the environment, they also contribute to climate change.

There are a lot of ways that edible food can get wasted. If you put leftovers in the back of your fridge, you are likely to forget about them. The food then rots, forcing you to throw it away. When people have some food past the expiration date, often it is thrown away even when it still tastes good. Slightly bruised fruits and vegetables are less likely to get bought, causing stores to throw them out.

But even with all this, you can still help. Eating leftovers, buying slightly bruised fruits and vegetables, composting, and not throwing away good food are just some things you can do to reduce food waste and help our planet. Food waste is a big problem, but it’s a problem we can fix.

Thank you for your time.