The problem with food waste

• 80 million acres of US farmland is used to produce food that is wasted

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• Food waste in the US could feed the world’s hungry 2 times

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• Food waste that ends up in landfills and breaks down releases methane gas, a greenhouse gas

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• 25% of the freshwater is used for food that is wasted

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• Food waste in the US would produce enough energy to power the country for more than a week

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Who is the US EPA?

• US EPA stands for United States Environmental Protection Agency

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• Executive agency of the United States created in 1970 that deals with matters that concern environmental protection

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• Conducts assessments, research and education relating to the environment and is also in charge of enforcing national environmental standards

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• The EPA created the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy in order to promote decreasing food waste by 50% by 2023, which is a domestic goal that was set by the EPA and USDA in 2015

What you believe is most preferred options and least preferred options for reducing food waste?

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Take the next 5 minutes to sort these from what you believe is most preferred option (1) to least preferred option (6)

Feed Hungry People

Landfill/Incineration

Industrial Uses

Feed Animals

Composting

Source Reduction

What do you think each step means?

Take 3-5 minutes to come up with your own definition for each step with your group and also examples if you can think of any

Source Reduction

• Making a list of things you need when you go grocery shopping and sticking to it

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• Only cook or make what you are going to eat

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Feed Hungry People

• Donate food to food pantries or food banks

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• Donate food to your share table in the cafeteria that you aren’t going to eat

Feed Animals

• You can feed animals such as pigs your food scraps

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• Make sure you check to see if the animal you are feeding can eat what you want to give them

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• For example, dogs should have grapes or chocolate!

Industrial Uses

• Anaerobic digestion is one of the most common industrial uses for recovering energy from food waste ( via biogas)
• Anaerobic digestion is when without oxygen present, microorganisms break down organic materials

Composting

• Composting allows for hummus to be created (an important component of soil)
• Composting is when organic material is decomposed in the presence of oxygen

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Landfill/Incineration

• This is the least preferred option because food waste in landfills and/or incinerators do not allow for anything to recover properly from the food waste

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The problems with landfilling and incineration

• When food waste is disposed of in landfills, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas, which contributes to climate change
• Incineration can cause air pollution ( hazardous gases and particles) which is not good for the environment or for human health
• Food waste takes a long time to break down in landfills

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Examples!

What happens to the energy?

• Which action makes the most out of the foods’ energy?
• Which action(s) reclaims the foods’ energy?
• Which action(s) recycle the foods’ energy?
• Which action(s) result in a loss of energy or produce “bad” energy?

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