Household Food Waste and its Disruptive Results on Climate Change

Food waste represents an issue that need to be solved in order to achieve sustainable development and reduce their environmental impact. The current level of waste has already implications for our health, food production and economy.

A study conducted by the European Union Committee reveals that approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year are lost or wasted globally.

In the United States alone, 30 percent of all food, worth $48.3 billion are uneaten and thrown away each year (UN Environment Programme), followed by the United Kingdom that produced around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste with surprisingly 6.6 million tonnes (70%) are from household (WRAP, 2018).

Since food is plentiful, people tend to overbuy it than they actually need. Leftovers on their plates and the uneaten foods in the fridge become food waste that go straight to landfill or down the drain.

Devastating consequences resulting from food waste

The food in landfill produces a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions i.e methane, which is more potent than carbon dioxide can cause climate change.

Household consumption alone has negative contribution on the environment, estimated for approximately 60% of global Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions and 50%-80% of total resource use.

Household food waste is influenced by a variety of interlinked factors such as household perceptions on food waste itself, poor planning, overbuying, over preparing and food spoilage. When it comes to food waste, every household has different perceptions.

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For most of them, food waste is something they have control over like leftovers or food that has been allowed to go off and so inedible are usually not included in their thoughts (WRAP, 2007b).

This different perception can lead to people’s awareness of the food waste itself. Furthermore, most people tend to have poor planning in their shopping activity that cause them to buy the unplanned ingredients or foods.

These unplanned items therefore cause bulk buying and food spoilage. The latter at home occurs due to improper storage, lack of visibility in refrigerators, partially used ingredients and misjudged food needs (Gunders, 2017).

A 2016 data from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN shows that potatoes, beets, radishes, and carrots loss have the highest percentage (46.2%), followed by fruits and vegetables (45.7%), cereal, bread and rice loss ranked on the third position (29,1%), and milk, yogurt, and cheese (17,1%).

For diary product per se, it is often thrown away by customers in an unopened packaging.

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Considering these wasted foods and the impact on climate change, according to a 2007 study conducted by Smith et al, stress that food originating either from plant or animal sources, through its life cycle from production to its final consumption, impacts adversely on global warming, in addition to numerous natural resources such as land and water which are needed for plants cultivation and animal husbandry.

The fact that food is wasted from initial agricultural production to final household consumption.

The study also shows that different food items pose varying degrees of adverse burdens on global warming. GHG emissions, for instance, is associated with food products from animals include N₂O and CH₄ resulting from animal feed production, from enteric fermentation and manure management.

GHG emissions can be wasted along with the food wasted, namely during the food production, processing, distribution, refrigeration and cooking. The emissions can also directly be resulted from the management of food waste.

The impact of food related to GHG emissions is predicted to increase in the long run because of the simultaneous increase in the world population and in the consumption of animal products.

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