4. Post Harvest Food Waste In the United States
Disposal = 80 billion lbs
Diversion = 40 billion lbs
Total Generation 120 billion lbs
=
5. Total Food Waste Disposed by Sector
20% - 40% of
all food grown
and processed
US Food Waste Disposal Data
Industrial
2%
Institutional
10%
Grocery
Stores
11%
Residential
44%
Quick Service
Restaurants
13%
Full Service
Restaurants
20%
6. Better Use for Food Waste
Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy
Food Weight
(US Tons)
Source Reduction
N/A
Reduce the volume of food waste generated
Feed Hungry People
550,000
Donate extra food to food banks, soup kitchens and shelters
Feed Animals
13,187,555
Divert food scraps to animal feed
3,300,000
Industrial Uses
Provide waste oils for rendering and fuel
conversion; and food scraps for digestion to
recover energy
4,043,489
Composting
Create a nutrient-rich
soil amendment
Total Diversion 21,081,044
Total Disposal
Food Waste
Diversion
39,686,955
Landfill/
Incineration
Last resort
for disposal
Food Waste
Disposal
Total Generation 60,767,998
6
8. • Phase III Assessment – Industry Survey
• Example questions:
– How much unsalable food does your company
donate each year?
– How much food waste does your company recover
for recycling or reuse each year?
– How much food waste does your company send to
the landfill each year?
• Timing: February - distribution
March - completion
9. The Business Case
Participation in the Food Coalition’s food waste
survey will help us all:
•Avoid future regulation
•Avoid future risk
•Avoid negative press
•Get ahead of the curve
•Save money
10. Food Donation and Food Waste Survey
• Purpose:
• To gauge where our industry is today
• To raise awareness and promote improved measurement
• To demonstrate progress each year
• Confidentiality:
• Surveys submitted to third party (NDA in place)
•The data will be aggregated and all identifying information removed
before it is provided to FMI, GMA and NRA
•Questions:
•General Information?
•How much food is donated?
•How much food is recycled?
•How much food is thrown away?
•How much solid waste is generated?
11. Learning's
• Inventory management systems may be great for some
things, but not others.
• Look for a way to double check your data and when
results do not agree, decide which method is likely to give
the most accurate answer.
• Sometimes the best you can do is take a very limited data
set and apply it across the entire enterprise.
• As you gather data, look for ways to improve existing
processes and data management tools. Set reasonable
expectations for improvement. The expectation should be
to improve accuracy and reporting each year, not to be
done by next year.
12. Questions and Answers
Q: How do I account for food products that go down
the drain?
A: All food products that go to the sanitary sewer as
part of the normal cleaning cycle are not counted as
disposed. However, food byproducts that are
containerized prior to being released to the sanitary
sewer or transported to a wastewater treatment plant
are counted as disposed. The same is true for
finished food products that is poured down the drain.
13. Questions and Answers
Q: If I have a wastewater pretreatment process at my
manufacturing operation, do I count the solids
generated by that process as solid waste or food
waste?
A: It is unlikely that these solids will significantly
impact your survey results. Since food products that
go to the sanitary sewer generally go uncounted, it is
recommended that you do not count the solids
regardless of whether they are disposed or recycled.
14. Questions and Answers
Q: Does construction debris count towards my total
solid waste number?
A: Sometimes. If you are remodeling or building onto
an existing operation that is owned by you, the
construction wastes should count. If you are the
tenant of a leased space, do not count construction
debris generated by construction of the building you
occupy, but do count wastes generated as you finish
or remodel the interior space you are leasing.
(note: do not be concerned if you do not have any data regarding
construction debris sent to the landfill, but please consider measuring it
in the future so that you can include it in future surveys)
15. Questions and Answers
Q: How do I account for pet food?
A: Please do not include pet food in your survey
response, only food produced for human
consumption.
Q: How do I account for bottled water and other
beverages that have little or no nutritional value?
A: We are interested in hearing whether survey
respondents think these beverages should be
counted as food. We realize that significant resources
go into producing these items, but for now please do
not count them as food.
16.
17. Contacts and Follow Up
Jeanne von Zastrow,
FMI Senior Director of Sustainability & Industry Relations
PH:(435) 259-3342
Email: jvonzastrow@fmi.org
Laura Abshire,
NRA Director of Sustainability Policy and Gov. Affairs
PH:(202) 973-5380
Email: labshire@restauarant.org
Matt Foley,
GMA Manager Federal Affairs
PH:(202) 639-5937
Email: mfoley@gmaonline.org
Notas del editor
Providing food to the world:
-Uses 40% of the world’s land
-Uses 70% of the world’s freshwater
-Creates 1/3 of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions; and
-Generates huge amounts of waste.
As a global society we waste more than 30% of the calories produced every year. In a world where 1 billion people go hungry every day, this clearly is NOT the right thing to do.
Converting to Pounds:
Food waste disposal = 79.4 billion pounds
Food waste diversion = 42 billion pounds
Food waste generation = 121.6 billion pounds
Food waste disposal = 39.7 million tons per annum. BSR’s estimate suggests that on an annual basis 39.7 million tons of food is sent to landfill or incinerated post harvest (between the industrial and residential categories of the food value chain) in the U.S. This equates to approx. 12-20% of the total U.S. food supply and is broken down across sectors as follows:
Residential = 44%
Restaurants (full-service and QSR) = 33%
Grocery stores = 11%
Institutional = 10%
Industrial (i.e. manufacturers) = 2%
Food waste diversion = 21 million tons per annum. BSR estimates that at least 21 million tons of food is diverted from landfill/ incineration across sectors per annum in the U.S., with the majority of this being diverted to animal feed. The accuracy of the food waste diversion numbers will be improved when primary data is collected from an upcoming food waste survey.
Food waste generation = 60.8 million tons per annum - When the food waste diversion estimate is combined with the total food waste disposal estimate, this results in a food waste generation estimate of 60.8 million tons per annum for the U.S..
Numerous data gaps exist - The majority of reports reviewed for this assessment acknowledge the need for new, comprehensive, nationwide estimates of food waste in the U.S. to allow for more precise numbers to be generated.
Data is lacking on infrastructure for recycling organic waste - The available infrastructure for organics waste recycling in the U.S. is, at best, a “patch-work quilt”. More data gathering is required (both primary and secondary) to obtain a true picture of the existing infrastructure
Percentages vary depending on total food supply numbers for the US, since USDA and FAO numbers vary. USDA estimates total food supply at approx. 214 million tons (2008 figures); FAO estimates total US food supply at approx. 318 million tons (2007 figures)
As you can see from this chart, the residential piece of the pie is significant. Equally significant though are the restaurant, retail, and food services industries, which is why we created a cross-industry coalition to tackle the issue.
The 2% attributed to industrial, which is food manufacturing, is almost certainly too low, but it is based on the data that exists today. The in-depth assessment we’ll launch this spring will give us a number we are more confident in.
When we talk about food waste- we walk about food waste diversion and disposal. Disposal, right now, means sending that material to an incinerator or a landfill. That is the 79.4 billion pounds number I just referenced.
Diversion, means sending that food somewhere else, like feeding the hungry, to animal feed, or composting. Producing less food waste in the first place is also considered diversion.
