A huge amount of uneaten food is thrown away every day in the world
Last reviewed: 07.06.2024
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An annual report by the United Nations Program indicates that there is a simply enormous amount of uneaten food thrown away every day around the world. For example, in 2022, more than one billion portions of food worth more than a trillion dollars and a total weight of more than a billion tons were sent to the trash, while 783 million people suffered from hunger. If we believe the statistics, it turns out that up to 20% of all food is wasted, and one person throws away more than 70 kilograms of food every year.
The challenge is that up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with the accumulation of food waste, which is especially noticeable in countries with particularly hot climates where there are problems with the safe storage, transportation and marketing of perishable products.
It is noteworthy that people living in rural areas tend to be more frugal in terms of nutrition and food disposal than urban populations. Therefore, scientists recommend additional attention to awareness among urban populations, as well as strengthening food waste reduction programs.
The countries most prepared to study food volumes and utilization were Japan, Britain, the United States and Australia. This could also include Saudi Arabia and Canada. In these countries there is a strong trend of change at the national level, and in Japan the amount of food waste has decreased by more than 30% over the last few years.
A sad situation is noted in the United States, where the share of food products in landfills exceeds 20%. At the same time, it is pointed out that organics (including food residues) in almost every second case cause spontaneous methane emissions from areas of garbage accumulation. Both methane - a strong greenhouse gas, one of the factors of global warming - and carbon dioxide participate in spontaneous emissions. At the same time, methane is almost 30 times more effective in maintaining atmospheric heat than carbon dioxide.
A report by the World Meteorological Organization says that the concentration of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere is steadily increasing. And one of the sure ways to prevent further catastrophe is to reduce methane emissions. By the way, methane does not live long in the atmosphere, completely decomposing in a dozen years.
More and more countries are becoming partners in the food waste reduction program. It is important that businesses, large households and governments work together on this problem: this is the only way to effectively reduce methane emissions and the negative impact on the climate.
At the same time, some countries have approached the issue incorrectly and inaccurately, which indicates the need for a more complete tracking of the process. Only in this way it is possible to assess the real scale of the problem, identify the territories with the highest amount of food waste and determine effective measures to stabilize the situation.
Massive food waste is not only a blow to the hungry, but also a significant progressive damage to the global climate and nature in general. It is good to see that this issue is receiving sufficient attention. This gives hope for a speedy solution to the problem of atmospheric pollution and global climate change.
Details of the report are available on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) page