When the average person contemplates the issues surrounding landfills, it is doubtful they give much consideration to the tons of food that fill them. Food biodegrades so where is the problem? The problem, environmentalists say is just that. When food rots, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says is 20 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide (CO2). The developed world chucks out a lot of food. Such is the volume of food that gets thrown away that according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), if just 5 percent of Americans' food scraps were recovered it would represent one day's worth of food for 4 million people.The U.N. World Food Programme offers another way of looking at it: It says the total surplus of the U.S. alone could satisfy "every empty stomach" in Africa (France's leftovers could feed the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Italy's could feed Ethiopia's undernourished).
Proportionately, the UK and Japan have traditionally been amongst the worst offenders worldwide in recent years when it comes to food waste, discarding between 30 and 40 percent of their food produce annually. The figures for how much the U.S throws out, however, vary quite considerably depending on whom you ask. According to the USDA, just over a quarter of the country's food -- that's around 25.9 million tons -- gets thrown in the garbage can every year.
But, according to a study conducted by the University of Arizona, that figure could be as high as 50 percent, as the University claims that the country's supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores alone throw out 27 million tons between them every year (representing $30 billion of wasted food).
Read More
