Landfill no place for good food
12 December 2019
Most of us at least try to do our bit to reduce waste but sometimes it feels like an uphill struggle to reduce the food mountain currently sent to landfill to rot.
Besides, how much harm to the environment can throwing the odd carrot, brussel top or even chicken carcass into the rubbish bin actually do?
The answer is a lot. In fact, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, if food waste were a country, it would be ranked the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet.
The New York Times reported this week that in the United States alone, food waste generates the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as 37 million cars, according to the Natural Resources Defence Council. That accounts for both the energy used in agriculture to grow unused food and the methane released as the food degrades in landfill.
The point? If we all bought into the idea of composting our scraps and using up everything in our fridge, the impact on climate change could be significant.
The good news is that cities across the globe are actively seeking solutions.
“Because most municipalities run their own sanitation systems they’re uniquely positioned to tackle the problem,” said Yvette Cabrera, deputy food waste director at the Natural Resources Defence Council.
By controlling their sanitation systems, cities have significant control over what happens to discarded food and waste. Seoul in South Korea, for example, has started to charge a fee for food waste and since 1995 its recycling rate for food waste has risen from less than two percent to 95 percent.
New York City has introduced a multimillion-dollar program to cut down greenhouse gas emissions by turning food scraps and yard waste into compost and, soon, clean energy. The goal is to get the city to zero waste by 2030.
In addition to the composting program, the city runs a robust online food donation portal, food waste fairs and waste-reduction challenges that recognize successful efforts by restaurants and supermarkets.
As of now, the city wastes four million tons of food a year. Of that, 500,000 tons come from restaurants. The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that cutting commercial food waste by five percent would save more than 120,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year
In many ways France leads the way when it comes to food waste recycling. French law has made it illegal for supermarkets to dispose of edible food, requiring it instead to be donated to charity.
Food rescue programmes are not climate programs per se but there is a clear win-win where cities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help those in need at the same time.
The Italian city of Milan has been a global leader in the rescue movement since 2015 when chef Massimo Bottura’s anti-waste campaign saw 15 tons of food given to homeless people in the space of a few weeks.
Since then, the city has written the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, an international food waste protocol for cities, and led a charge that helped to get Italy’s national government to pass food waste legislation.
According to its organisers, the food policy pact has been signed by 207 cities from around the world.
“Once you tell people they can’t throw food away, they start making different, creative decisions with it,” said Emily Broad Leib, the director of the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic.
It may literally be a case of too much food for thought but, as we approach Christmas, let’s all take a minute to consider we can reduce food waste.
Written by Sam Peters, founding partner at Planted