1.2. Impacts of Food Waste and Disposal
We have already seen some of the problems associated with food waste disposal, but there are a number of hidden impacts that we can’t see. Watch the following video to discover what these are.
We can summarise the different impacts that food waste has across three pillars of sustainability:
Environmental.
Social.
Economic.
Environmental Impacts
Production of food requires the use of natural resources from the land and sea. We also need to use energy to produce, store and distribute food. The loss and wastage of food means that a lot of these resources also get wasted as a result, with the disposal of food having impacts on climate change and air quality as well.
This next section covers each of the environmental impacts in more detail across four specific areas.
Land Use
Currently, 38% of global land surface is used for agricultural purposes.
A predicted increase of 2 billion people by 2050 means more land will be needed to produce more food to feed this growing population.
However, finding more and suitable land is not easy. Lots of agricultural land is currently poorly managed, which leads to desertification, deforestation and a loss of biodiversity. This means that once fertile ground is left almost incapable of producing food again and so further reduces the amount of land we have available to grow food on.
Image Source: https://planetb.com.au/2019/09/03/food-waste-a-global-and-local-perspective/
With a limited amount of suitable and available land for food production, reducing the 1/3 of wasted food each year could provide one solution to an increasingly urgent problem.
Water Footprint
Growing and processing food also uses extremely high quantities of water, so when we waste food, we also indirectly waste the water that went into producing it. Indeed, agriculture alone is responsible for 70% of the global fresh water consumption.
Different products require different amounts of water to produce them:
Water is an extremely important natural resource, however, in many parts of the world, people are experiencing water scarcity and a lack of access to water. In fact, 1 in 10 people globally lack access to clean drinking water.
Wasted food is a huge drain on a vital resource and preventing water loss where possible is important to reduce risk of water scarcity.
Energy Usage
Food production is also heavily reliant on energy, with 30% of the global available energy used in harvest, transportation, processing, storage, and distribution of food.
Of this, it is estimated that around a third of this energy is used on food that is ultimately not eaten, meaning that around 10% of the world’s total energy consumption is linked to food loss and waste.
In addition, most of this global available energy is produced through the burning of fossil fuels, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
Air Quality
Our food system accounts for around 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which are a key driver of climate change.
While greenhouse gases are produced across all stages of food production, food that ends up in landfill is a significant problem, mainly due to the methane it produces as it breaks down which then escapes into the atmosphere.
Global food loss and waste alone account for up to 10% of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions. To put that into perspective:
Food waste generates over four times more greenhouse gas emissions than the global aviation industry
If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the USA.
Social impacts
Food loss and food waste can also have social impacts which affect people and their communities. While we have 820 million people around the world who are undernourished and struggle with basic access to food, 1 billion people are overfed and overweight.
With around 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption ending up as waste, calories intended to feed humans are lost and the unequal access to food around the world means that this comes at the expense of many people’s basic rights to food.
The prediction for the number of people globally who will be affected by hunger and malnourishment is expected to rise over the coming years, and there are several reasons behind these increasing levels of food insecurity:
Climate-related shocks that affect harvests (eg floods and droughts)
Economic losses for farmers, leading to food price rises for consumers
Growing number of conflicts based around access to food.
Economic Impacts
Food loss and food waste also have impacts on the economy, particularly on people’s jobs and incomes. In the UK, food waste is estimated to cost the economy around £19 billion a year, of which UK households account for nearly £14 billion of this. In fact, the average UK household with children throws away £730 worth of edible food every year.
But the financial impacts of food loss and waste do not stop there. The high use of natural resources along the supply chain can contribute to them becoming increasingly scarce which, in turn, drives up the price of these resources, putting added financial pressure on farmers and, in turn, consumers.
While these additional impacts are difficult to put a price on, the cost of reverting the damage done increases as time goes on.