Household Food Waste: The Sleeping Giant

If you’re looking to reduce your personal climate footprint while also learning more about residential/household food waste, let this post serve as your first step!

For starters - did you know that household food waste represents the largest share of all wasted food in the United States? 

Organic waste (especially food) continues to be a major environmental issue, especially as it relates to climate change and methane emissions. As more organic waste ends up in landfills, the warming of the planet is accelerated - increasing the frequency of natural disasters like droughts, fires, and hurricanes.

While waste from large corporations and inefficient food production practices definitely play a role, households across the U.S. wasted close to 43 million tons of food in 2023.

In California specifically, households lose nearly $2,000 to food waste each year; According to ReFED, California households also produced more than 4 million tons of food waste in 2023.

Despite the recent implementation of food recovery/organic waste measures, like SB 1383, landfills in California continue to fill up with organic waste (though food waste levels specifically have slightly declined).

Produce and dairy overwhelmingly represent the majority of wasted food not just in California, but in the entire country. When these types of items are wasted, the level of waste is often magnified due to the sheer number of resources and/or labor hours put into their production.

For example: if a household wastes a bag of oranges, the gallons of water and hours of manual labor that went into producing or procuring those crops are also wasted. Additionally, produce and dairy tend to give off more pollutants when compared to other types of food waste - creating a dangerous situation where the most common types of food waste are also the most harmful to the environment.

Research by MITRE/Gallup and the National Resources Defense Council on the topic of household food waste showed that two of the most common reasons for excess food waste are related to the use of leftovers and confusion over the printed dates on food labels. The study found that concerns over not wanting to consume bad or expired food were also some of the main motivations for throwing food out.

Overpurchasing is also a major factor, as the study noted that households with higher incomes (regardless of education) tend to waste more food.

Since food recovery is mostly targeted towards commercial businesses, residential organic waste more often than not ends up in a landfill.

Luckily, there are plenty of actionable steps that can be taken to minimize household waste. 

Becoming familiar with ReFED’s ‘Food Waste Five’ is a great start:

Plan ahead - plan your grocery trips and meals to minimize unnecessary purchases.

Store Your Food Properly - proper storage ensures maximum shelf life. Milk, for example, should not be stored in the doors of a refrigerator - as the warmer temperatures can cause it to spoil faster.

Use your freezer - many items can often be frozen before they expire - extending their shelf life by a significant amount.

Learn the Labels - learning the differences between printed date labels can help avoid food being discarded while it’s still good for consumption. “Use by” typically indicates whether or not an item may be safe for consumption, while “Best by” labels only refer to quality.

Eat Down - dedicate time each week to only eating leftovers or items already in your kitchen.

In general, being more intentional about your household’s food purchases and paying close attention to exactly how much you are buying, preparing, and storing can help to mitigate any potential food waste. Given that household/residential food waste represents the largest portion of food waste across the country, having more people adopt even just a few of the ‘Food Waste Five’ goes a long way. 

Even though government initiatives like SB 1383 can make a difference in the amount of food waste overall, laws like these are not typically aimed at consumers. As a result, reducing or mitigating household food waste is heavily dependent on the personal decisions made by individuals or families. 

Encouraging more sustainable purchasing/eating habits both for yourself and those around you is one of the best ways to begin tackling this issue! By preventing as much personal food waste as we can, we directly avoid piling more organic waste into landfills - which means less pollutants are put into the atmosphere.

To learn more about food waste, click here!

Did you know that Californians spend more on groceries than any other state?