The United States throws away 40% of its food supply every year.
120 billion pounds. Worth an estimated $218 billion. Enough meals to feed every food-insecure American four times over.
Meanwhile, 35 million Americans — including 10 million children — don't have enough to eat.
Where does it go?
Food is the single largest material in American landfills — 24% of all municipal solid waste. More than plastic. More than paper. More than anything else. When that food decomposes underground without oxygen, it produces methane — a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
If global food waste were a country, it would be the world's 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind only China and the United States.
Where the waste happens:
- 43% from households — buying too much, cooking too much, letting things expire
- 40% from restaurants, grocery stores, and food service companies
- 16% from farms — crops left unharvested or rejected for cosmetic reasons
- 2% from manufacturers
The cosmetic rejection is absurd. A perfectly edible carrot that's slightly bent gets thrown away because it doesn't match the shape consumers expect. A tomato with a minor blemish. An apple that's the wrong shade of red. Grocers cull produce that tastes fine but doesn't look perfect.
The money is real. The average American family of four throws out roughly $1,500 in food per year (about R27,000). That's food that was grown, harvested, processed, transported, refrigerated, purchased — and then scraped into the bin.
The average American wastes 10 times more food than someone in Southeast Asia. And it's getting worse — food waste in America is up 50% from the 1970s.
In 2015, the USDA and EPA set a goal to cut food waste 50% by 2030. Progress has been slow. Vermont banned food scraps from landfills entirely. California requires a 75% reduction. But nationally, the needle has barely moved.
The maths is simple: America produces enough food to feed everyone in the country. It just throws almost half of it away first.