Sustainability Matters: Food waste is bad for the environment, bad for your wallet

By Robin Boles
Posted 1/22/25

We have a problem. Every year, food waste hijacks approximately 40% of the U.S. food supply. According to the USDA, in 2023 that accounted for 133 billion pounds of wasted food, making up 24% of …

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Sustainability Matters: Food waste is bad for the environment, bad for your wallet

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We have a problem. Every year, food waste hijacks approximately 40% of the U.S. food supply. According to the USDA, in 2023 that accounted for 133 billion pounds of wasted food, making up 24% of solid municipal waste. 

Food that goes uneaten is both a direct and indirect waste of valuable resources; I consider it a four-fold loss. 

First, we squander the calories and nutrients that the food provides. Second, we waste all the resources that went into growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, and storing that food. Third, gone is the money we spent to purchase it and the money spent to grow, harvest, process, transport, and store it. And fourth, food waste unnecessarily accelerates carbonization and climate change by off-gassing more methane emissions than anything else in the landfill. 

If we’re talking about the cost in dollars, it amounts to over $473 billion annually. But, as noted above, this epidemic is not just about economics. Food waste also accounts for 25% of all our freshwater use and enough (wasted) energy to power the entire U.S. for over a week, according to EPA. Reducing food waste has a significant impact both on our wallets and our resilience. 

When a lack of resources affects our ability to respond to disaster, climate or otherwise, we have a resilience issue, and we must consider how our flagrant disregard for waste has become a problem. 

There are many reasons food becomes waste. It happens at every stop in the food system, including our own households. We have little control over the food waste generated before we purchase it, especially during the food manufacturing process (which is a different conversation), but there are ways we can reduce waste once food enters our home. 

Perhaps these actions won’t have the same impact on the planet as a large corporation achieving zero carbon emissions, but they will likely have an impact on your own finances. For example, according to USDA, the average American family of four disposes of about $1,500 worth of uneaten food per year. 

Let’s start with food dating because confusion around food safety and “Best by” and “Expiration” dates accounts for roughly 50% of food waste in the U.S. According to the USDA, “Except for infant formula, food date labels are not indicators of food safety and are not required by federal law. Manufacturers provide dating to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of peak quality.”  

And yet, somehow, we have been convinced that for our safety we should dispose of our food once that date has passed.

The USDA goes on to say that consumers should not rely on this date to determine if their food is safe to eat but to trust their senses. They state that food is safe to eat until spoilage is evident regardless of the date on the package. Smell it; does it smell bad? If so, toss it. Look at it; is there mold or other visual evidence of spoilage? If so, toss it. If not, it’s most likely still good to eat. 

We must stop throwing away safe and edible food. 

A good starting point for decreasing personal food waste is to reduce the amount of food you bring into your home in the first place. Employing a few simple strategies at the grocery store can help. First, to avoid impulse-buying, don’t go to the store hungry. Use a shopping list and stick to it to avoid purchasing more than you’ll need before it goes bad. If your list is menu-driven even better, but it’s not necessary. Also, shop more often, purchasing less food more frequently. Your fresh foods – produce, dairy, proteins – will be fresher and taste better, and you’ll toss less of them. 

Another strategy for reducing food waste is to reduce your portion sizes. You can always go back for seconds if you want more. But if you find you want less, it’s too late. Even those who eat leftovers typically don’t save uneaten food from their supper plate.

Speaking of leftovers, if you don’t eat them, you should; otherwise, you’re likely generating a lot of unnecessary food waste. Besides, many dishes improve with time, allowing flavors to blend and build, so leftovers often taste better after a day or two in the fridge than they do when you first make the dish. For best results, store leftovers in glass containers, so you can easily see their contents, and eat them before they go bad. 

Unfortunately, as hard as we try, some food just falls through the cracks: vegetable scraps, rotting produce, bread crusts your kid just won’t eat, to name a few. If you are able, consider composting these items instead of sending them to the landfill. If it can’t be eaten, putting your food waste to work in your yard or garden is a much better solution than the trash can. By composting our food waste, we change its environmental impact from unchecked methane emissions to a desirable medium for a healthy garden!

Finally, if you’re looking for some adventure in the kitchen, consider putting your food scraps to use instead of composting or trashing them. There are lots of ways to incorporate food scraps into your cooking from adding vegetable scraps to soup stocks to zesting citrus peels for seasoning. The only limits are your scraps and creativity.

We all eat, and, regardless of the reason, too many of us have become far too comfortable with scraping our uneaten food into the trash can. The U.S. government considers it such an issue that the USDA, FDA, and EPA have joined together in a multi-pronged effort to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. I encourage you to try out some or all of these ideas to reduce the food waste in your home. These simple changes will help the planet – and your budget!



Call out box:

Sustainability Speaker Series: Ashley Shelby, novelis, short story writer and former environmental journalist, Thursday, Jan. 30, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m., River Falls Public Library in person or virtual. Find more info at riverfallspubliclibrary/library-events.

Learn new skills for sustainability: Register now for the Green Skills Sampler, Saturday, Feb.1, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Lunch included. Child care available. For more information and to register visit https://bit.ly/4im6Lsm.

Shape our future: “What is a Climate Action Plan: Why is it important and what does it include?” A conversation with members of UWRF Sustainability Department. Thursday, Feb. 6, 6:30 -7:30 p.m., River Falls Public Library. 

Sustainability Matters, Robin Boles, food waste, sustainability, Wisconsin