How to reduce food waste this holiday season
Americans waste around one-third of all purchased food each year, but whether it’s leftovers from parties or uneaten fruitcake, food waste tends to rise between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Compared with any other time of the year, Americans throw away 25 percent more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period, amounting to around one million extra tons of garbage per week, according to data from Stanford University’s Waste Reduction, Recycling, Composting and Solid Waste Program. Food also accounts for around 24 percent of all municipal solid waste, according to the EPA, while the average family of four loses around $1,500 each year to uneaten food. There are ways Americans can cut down on food waste this holiday season. Doing so will not only reduce methane emissions released when food ends up in landfills, but will also help curtail energy used throughout the food supply chain. That can include energy expended on labor, processors, transportation hubs and retailers, along with chemicals and water used on food. For Roe, one key way to cut down on food waste is to encourage people to take home leftovers or excess food. “I just encourage people to love their leftovers,” he said. “Composting is by far the better approach than putting things in landfill,” Roe said, “But it doesn’t reduce the amount of waste being created, typically.”