The United States has a festering food waste problem going largely unnoticed. In 2021, according to the nonprofit ReFED, 91 million tons of food – half still edible – were thrown away. Only 2% was donated while food insecurity runs rampant in poor communities across the nation.
The food waste problem is so severe that in 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared its strategy to cut food waste and loss in half by 2030. Yet, per capita food waste continues to increase.
Signaling recognition of the problem, in June 2024, the Biden Administration launched the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics. “Each year, too much food produced in the United States ends up in landfills instead of on dining room tables. This hurts our economy by raising the cost of food and contributing to climate pollution,” says EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan.
One of the proposed strategies in the National Strategy is composting to combat food waste.
Environmental Impacts of Food Waste
In the US, food waste is the single largest component of landfilled materials, amounting to 30-40% of all food and almost a quarter of all trash. The US is the world leader in food waste and loss, with one-fifth lost while still on the farm.
Embedded in food waste is the enormous quantity of freshwater used to produce and transport it from farm to table. Approximately 21-33% of blue (irrigated) water used on US farms is wasted in this way every year, equalling 5.9 trillion gallons.
America’s food waste and loss generates approximately 170 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions annually from the burning of fossil fuels used to grow, harvest, process, and transport it. Globally, roughly 8% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food loss and waste.
Additionally, when landfilled, rotting food generates huge quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas worse than carbon dioxide in driving the climate crisis. In fact, the EPA calculated that for every 1,000 tons of landfilled food waste, approximately 34 tons of methane emissions are produced. That amounts to 58% of all methane emanating from landfills.
Food Insecurity and Food Waste
The sheer scale of food waste in the US exists in a nation where a significant percentage of citizens endure chronic food insecurity, defined as lack of access to an affordable, nutritious diet. The EPA estimates that this uneaten food contains enough calories to feed 150 million people annually.
According to the Food Research & Action Center, one in eight households (12.8 percent), comprising roughly 44.2 million Americans, are food insecure. Over one in six households with children (17.3 percent) experience food insecurity, marking a 40% increase compared to 2021. Disproportionately impacted by food insecurity are Black (22.4%) and Latinx (20.8%) households, more than double the rate of white non-Latinx households (9.3%) that are food insecure.
The nonprofit Feeding America provides an interactive map of food insecurity. The Group’s interactive dashboard explores the connection between racism and food insecurity.
Food Waste Laws in the United States
So far, there’s only a patchwork of food waste and loss laws in a handful of states and municipalities. California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island have laws that limit the quantity of food waste sent to landfills.
In 2012, Vermont passed a Universal Recycling Law that bans food waste entirely in landfills starting in 2019. Because of this legislative action, the Vermont Foodbank reports that food donations have nearly tripled across the state.
States considering programs to fund private-sector composting and organic collection programs to divert food waste from landfills include California, Colorado and Massachusetts.
Complementing the national plan to address food waste and loss mentioned above are two EPA programs with Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding: the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Program and Recycling Education and Outreach grants. These programs advance the President’s Justice40 Initiative intended to benefit disadvantaged communities. Over $83 million of this funding supports 72 projects that include organics recycling and composting, needed to mitigate climate crisis effects.
Composting to Combat Food Waste
If your state or municipality offers residential food scrap haulers or drop-off locations that can transform food waste into energy or rich soil, there are several compost storage devices available for your kitchen counter or freezer.
If you have the space and the motivation, you can compost your own food scraps in a compost tumbler on your patio or in a backyard pile (enclosed or not).
What Is Composting?
Composting is the decomposition of organic materials such as grass clippings, leaves and food scraps by microbes in the presence of oxygen (aerobic). This process recycles food waste into a rich soil amendment to add to a garden, even ones in containers or on windowsills.
Vermicomposting (with worms) is another type of composting you can do at home in a multi-trayed box available at gardening stores. It is an enclosed, sanitary process that produces worm castings which make great soil amendments. All composting avoids methane production.
Based on personal gardening experience, I’ve found the best compost is formed when organic materials are:
- In a ratio of 2:1—twice as many brown materials (dry leaves, wood chips, etc.) to green materials (food waste, grass clippings, etc.)
- Cut or torn into small pieces
- Kept damp (not overly wet)
- Aerated by turning the pile (3 ft. max) every week or so
- At 131-160℉ (internal temperature) for several days before turning
Depending on the time of year and environmental conditions, it may take one month or up to a year to form the dark, earth-smelling and crumbly soil known as compost resulting from this process.
Home Composting Tips
To ensure better composting success at home, here are some tips:
- Allowable food scraps include: vegetable and fruit peels, skins, ends, pits, rinds, etc., coffee grounds, used tea leaves in compostable bags (not plastic), paper filters, egg shells
- Avoid oils, dairy, meat and bones
- Bury green materials under brown ones in your pile to avoid fruit flies
- Strong, sour smells means the compost isn’t finished curing yet, so wait before adding it to your garden or flower pots.
- An enclosed, outside compost bin will control rodents but may risk going dry, so watering is essential.
