In this week’s “Issues of the Environment,” WEMU’s David Fair talks to Noelle Bowman, Solid Waste Program Specialist for Washtenaw County, about the magnitude of food waste, especially during the holidays.听 She addresses some of the causes and offers tips for prevention and local resources for wasting less.
Magnitude of the Food Waste Problem
- The amount of food wasted in the United States is staggering, 400lbs per person is thrown away annually. That鈥檚 40% of all food!
- 1 in 7 Americans is considered food insecure, with 15% of those in Washtenaw County falling under this label.
- 85% of that 鈥渨aste鈥� is happening at the back end of the chain, meaning at homes (43%) and consumer-facing business (40%) such as restaurants, grocery stores and institutions with food service.
- Governor Snyder聽has voiced support for increasing the recycling rate to 30%, and for that to happen food waste (composting) would need to play a greater role.
- Noelle Bowman,听Solid Waste Program Specialist for Washtenaw County, is highly involved with the county鈥檚 鈥渮ero waste鈥� programs and strategic plan for reducing the county鈥檚 burden on landfills.听 She also participates with Ann Arbor’s food waste collection program.
Mountains of Food
Noelle says that first and foremost the scale of the food waste problem must be addressed.听 She provided the bulk of data from the ReFED study, which is the most recent and comprehensive study on food waste in the US ever conducted.
The study reveals, for example, that about 40% of ALL food is wasted in the US, which amounts to about 63 million tons (126 billion pounds) per year.听 Per person, that鈥檚 about 400 lbs for each person per year.听 The sheer magnitude of this problem can be difficult for most to comprehend. For those for whom 鈥渄ollars鈥� make more sense, an economic equivalent to this level of waste is over $210 billion dollars annually, which is about 1.3% of the US GDP.
Hungry and Wasteful
Meanwhile, 1 in 7 Americans are 鈥渇ood insecure.鈥� 聽In Washtenaw County, that鈥檚 also true with around 15% of Washtenaw County residents that suffer from food insecurity.听 Clearly, something is not right here.
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