The amount of food wasted by households each year was estimated at 570 million tonnes in 2019. This is food that has been produced, packaged and taken to shops and homes, only to end up in the bin. Not only is the food wasted, but the greenhouse gases emitted during the entire process – from raising livestock, making packaging, transporting fruit and vegetables in refrigerated vehicles – are a pointless ecological burden.
Once in landfills, the food rots and releases gases that are highly toxic for the environment, such as methane. Studies have shown that food waste accounts for between 6-8% of all the greenhouse gas emissions fuelling climate change. Food waste not only squanders natural resources, money and effort, it degrades the environment. It’s also ethically wrong to waste so much food while so many people are hungry.
