An estimated one-third of the world's food is lost or wasted from production to table.
On the occasion of International Zero Waste Day, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today released a report showing that all households around the world waste more than 1 billion meals a day, while 783 million people are still hungry and a third of humanity is facing food shortages. Food waste continues to harm the global economy, exacerbating climate change, natural environment loss, and pollution.
Unsustainable human production and consumption practices are pushing the planet to ruin. Households, small businesses, and public service providers generate between 2.1 billion and 2.3 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste each year, including packaging materials, electronics, plastics, and food. However, global waste management services are not well equipped to handle such a large volume, 2.7 billion people lack access to solid waste collection services, and only 61-62% of municipal solid waste is managed in controlled facilities. Humanity must act urgently to address the waste crisis.
Guterres: Putting an end to the destructive cycle of waste
March 30 is the second International Zero Waste Day. In his message, Secretary-General António Guterres said that overconsumption is killing us, and measures should be taken to correct this pattern of human consumption.
He pointed out that businesses must rethink their products to minimize wasteful packaging and maximize their lifespan and life cycle, that consumers must think twice about the goods and products they buy and recycle or reuse them as much as possible, that governments at all levels must build a circular economy that addresses resource depletion and management issues, and that they invest in reuse, remanufacturing, A modern waste management programme based on recycling and prevention of waste generation, and the global community must come together to work towards a legally binding treaty to eliminate plastic pollution.
"Our planet is drowning in a flood of garbage," he said. On this Zero Waste Day, let's commit to ending the destructive cycle of waste once and for all. ”
© Pfau/Sumi Presidents
As shown here, food waste in Uganda's Lila market is a huge challenge for both farmers and hawkers.
Food waste is a global problem
In 2022, humans produced a total of 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste (including inedible portions), equivalent to 132 kilograms per capita and nearly a fifth of all food available to consumers, according to UNEP's Food Waste Index 2024 report released on Wednesday. Of the total amount of food wasted in 2022, 60% occurred at the household level, with 28% in the food service sector and 12% in retail.
The data confirms that food waste is not just a problem in "rich countries", with the average household food waste in high-, upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries differing by only 7 kg per capita. At the same time, warmer countries appear to produce more food waste per household, likely due to the consumption of more fresh food with large amounts of inedible parts and the lack of a well-developed cold chain.
Less food is often wasted in rural areas, perhaps because more food scraps are used for pet and livestock feeding or home composting. Greater efforts to reduce food waste and improve circularity are expected to benefit urban areas in particular, according to the report.
Food waste comes at a huge cost to the environment, society and the global economy
According to recent data, food loss and waste is responsible for 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, almost five times that of aviation, and takes up nearly one-third of the world's agricultural land, leading to significant biodiversity loss. It is estimated that food loss and waste are responsible for an estimated $1 trillion in global economic losses.
Food waste comes at a huge cost to the environment, society and the global economy, and it's critical to ensure that food ends up in people's mouths rather than landfills, according to the report.
However, as of 2022, only 21 countries have included food loss and waste reduction in their national climate plans. Countries need to establish robust baselines and measure them regularly to show changes over time. As a result of policy implementation and partnerships, countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom have demonstrated that large-scale transformations are possible, reducing food waste by 31% and 18%, respectively.
Build partnerships to reduce food waste
UNEP continues to track progress at the national level to halve food waste by 2030 and is increasingly focusing on solutions that go beyond measurement to reduce waste. One solution is to take systemic action through public-private partnerships: engaging the public, private, and non-governmental sectors to work together to identify bottlenecks, work together to develop solutions, and drive progress.
Proper financing can help public-private partnerships reduce farm-to-fork food waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water stress, while sharing best practices and encouraging innovation to achieve long-term, comprehensive transformation. Globally, including in Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, public-private partnerships to address food loss and waste are growing. Between 2007 and 2018, public-private partnerships helped reduce per capita food waste in the UK by more than a quarter.
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, said food waste is a global tragedy. Millions of people go hungry while food is wasted around the world. Not only is this a major development issue, but this unnecessary waste is also taking a huge toll on the climate and nature. If countries focus on this issue, they can significantly reverse food loss and waste, reduce climate impacts and economic losses, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals faster.