Food waste

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The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United Kingdom and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Packaged food aisles of supermarket in Portland, Oregon

Food waste is waste composed of raw or cooked food materials. It includes both food materials discarded during before or during food preparation, such as vegetable peelings, meat trimmings, and spoiled or excess ingredients, and those discarded after food preparation, including excess or spoiled food.^[1][2]

[edit] Sources

The largest producers of food waste are domestic and commercial kitchens.

Food waste comprises a sizeable portion of domestic waste:

^[3]

[edit] Impact

Food waste can have a dramatically varied impact, depending on the amount produced and how it is dealt with; in some countries the amount of food waste is negligible and has little impact. In countries such as the US and the UK however, the social, economic and environmental impact of food wastage is enormous.

In the UK, 6.7 million tonnes per year of wasted food (purchased and edible food which is discarded) amounts to a cost of £10.2 billion each year. This translates a cost of £250 to £400 a year for every British household.^[4]

The per capita annual food waste output in North America in 1918 was estimated as 100-200 pounds,^[5] with the largest source from domestic properties, although that may have little relevence today.

A study by the University of Arizona in 2004, indicated that 14-15 per cent of US edible food is untouched or unopened, amounting to $43 billion worth of discarded, but edible, food.^[6]

[edit] Response

Response to the problem of food waste at all social levels has varied hugely.

[edit] Prevention

One way of dealing with food waste is to reduce its creation. This attitude has been promoted by campaigns from advisory and environmental groups,^[7] and by concentrated media attention on the subject.^[4][8]

Consumers can reduce their food waste output at point-of-purchase and in their home by adopting some simple measures; planning when shopping for food is important, spontaneous purchases are shown as often the most wasteful; proper knowledge of food storage reduces foods becoming inedible and thrown away.^[7]

Limiting food wastage has seen the adoption of former WWI and II slogans by anti-waste groups such as Wrap^[4]

[edit] Collection

In areas where waste collection is a public function, food waste is usually managed by the same governmental organization as other waste collection. Most food waste is combined with general waste at the source. Separate collections have the advantage that food wastes can be disposed of in ways not applicable to other wastes.

From the end of the 19th century through the middle of the twentieth century, many municipalities collected food waste (called "garbage" as opposed to "trash") separately. This was typically disinfected by steaming and fed to pigs, either on private farms or in municipal piggeries.^[9]

Separate kerbside collection of food waste is now being revived in some areas. To keep collection costs down and raise the rate of food waste segregation, some local authorities, especially in Europe, have introduced "alternate weekly collections" of biodegradable waste (including e.g. garden waste), which enable a wider range of recyclable materials to be collected at reasonable cost, and improve their collection rates. However, they result in a two week wait before the waste will be collected. So there is criticism that, particularly during hot weather, food waste rots and stinks, and attracts vermin.

Much kitchen waste also leaves the home through garbage disposal units.

[edit] Disposal

Like other waste, food waste can be dumped, but food waste can also be fed to animals (typically swine), or it can be biodegraded by composting or anaerobic digestion, and reused to enrich soil. Skip Shapiro Enterprises LLC processes beverage and nonmeat food waste at more than forty locations in North America.

Dumping food waste in a landfill causes environmental damage. By volume, it is the largest contributor to methane gas production.^[10] It causes odour as it decomposes, attracts flies and vermin, and has the potential to add biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) to the leachate. The EU Landfill Directive and Waste Regulations, like regulations in other countries, enjoin diverting organic wastes away from landfill disposal for these reasons.

Food waste can be composted at home, avoiding central collection entirely, and many local authorities have schemes to provide subsidised composting bin systems. However, the proportion of the population willing to dispose of their food waste in that way may be limited.

Anaerobic digestion produces both useful gaseous products and a solid fibrous "compostable" material. Anaerobic digestion plants can provide energy from waste by burning the methane created from food and other organic wastes to generate electricity, defraying the plant's costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Food waste coming through the sanitary sewers from garbage disposal units is treated along with other sewage and contributes to sludge.

[edit] See also

• Food waste in the United Kingdom
• List of waste types

[edit] Notes