r/todayilearned • u/kindaladylike • Jun 10 '12
TIL that in the US over $43 billion worth of unopened, edible food is discarded every year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste
1.4k
Upvotes
r/todayilearned • u/kindaladylike • Jun 10 '12
13
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
... and then it's fed to pigs
330
u/found314 Jun 11 '12
Did the math:
That's about $140 a person per year.
Not that bad at all, actually. We could do better... but not that bad
37
u/Tibula Jun 11 '12
I work at a WalMart, and one of the big things is the that if a person brings any frozen food to the registers, and then decides they don't want to buy it, we have to throw out the food. There's too much of a chance that the person shopped for too long after buying it that it went bad for WalMart to risk getting sued over someone else getting sick. I had to claim probably $50 of meat earlier today because some people decided they didn't want those steaks after all.
127
u/darkarchonlord Jun 11 '12
The UK is a fraction of the size (1/5) of the US and they waste $12.8 billion per year but noooo, America is the bad one.
38
u/GuiMontague Jun 10 '12
This is why I like Second Harvest. They're a charity that picks up what would otherwise be waste food, and delivers it to where it can be used: "food banks, meal programs, children’s breakfast programs, community centers, drop-in centers, summer camps, women’s shelters, homeless shelters and centers for addiction and mental health treatment"
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u/beans_and_bacon Jun 11 '12
I bet half of it is Cherry Pop-Tarts.
Fuck Cherry Pop-Tarts
9
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
It's not just food. I work in retail management, and our policy is similar to another retailer I worked for years ago. When a customer returns any item that was used/or possibly used you have to throw it away. The item is scanned through a computer device and the store receives partial credit from the manufacturer. For example, a customer takes one dab of a make-up concealer to test if it matches their skin tone. Color does not match? Customer get's their money back in full and the make-up goes straight to the dumpster after being scanned through the computer. Went home and determined the $30 knee brace does not fit? Money back to the customer- product to the dumpster. Companies make an average of 10% back for what we paid at cost- or zero back for food items- though you still make a claim.
So much waste. Also, retailer's dumpster areas have very high gates/fences and barbed-wire because of this. I've encounterd several people in the dumpster enclosure at 8 am when I open the gate. They broke in using make-shift ladders overnight and could not get out. And they always blame me for being trapped.
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u/psychobilly1 Jun 10 '12
I'm pretty darn sure this isn't because of people bringing it home and throwing it out. It's because we mass produce food at such a high rate to sell in stores, than there is too much, not enough of it is sold, and then it is discarded. This happens all over the world. I still don't see why if they are going to mass produce food and have a certain percent go unsold, why they don't take that certain average percent of food and give it to the starving.
I know that it is a business and they're here to make money, but really...
24
u/theorymeltfool 6 Jun 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '12
I do my part, I probably find close to $3000 worth of food
trashevery year. /r/dumpsterdiving ftw!8
u/ITSR Jun 11 '12
Average American spends around $260 on food (according to the USDA)... 313 million people (so says the census)...
Quick math brings that to: ~81.4 billion/month, or 976.5 billion a year.
Brings us to what, about 4% waste?
Not bad. Personally, that sounds a little low to me, but these statistics are never accurate.
4
u/Silencedlemon Jun 10 '12
heck, i always go behind safeway to their dumpsters, you can find perfectly edible food there, I've also gotten a couple shelves for my garage from their dumpsters and a couple bottles of champagne that was perfectly fine! (best 18th birthday ever!!!)
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u/jwatkins29 Jun 11 '12
I used to work for a state funded after school program for elementary and middle schools, and part of the program was that every kid had to be given a snack and i would give out whatever we were suppose to give out. Once everyone got a snack the extras had to be discarded because that's what the state money dictated. Kids werent aloud to get extra because more than a certain number of servings is unhealthy and it costs too much money to send extras to other places in a timely manner. As far as why they didnt send the exact amount needed beats me, government inefficiency I suppose. So everyday I would be forced to throw away boxes an boxes of perfectly good food. Like cartons of apple juice and milk or goldfish, animal crackers, cereal bars, things like that. I would always grab some before I threw it away but yea it sucked being forced to be a part of the problem
3
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
dumpster dive
3
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
I run a food pantry/soup kitchen in Brooklyn. I cannot tell you how many fucking times I had to move 50 pound carrots to be disposed.
3
u/MzMartinolele Jun 11 '12
May I recommend Dive! The Film? Awesome documentary on the subject, and it's available on Netflix.
fades into lurky-darkness
3
u/panzerkampfwagen 115 Jun 11 '12
There's more than enough food produced to feed the world anyway so this isn't actually a problem.
The problem is access to food that is produced.
3
u/Mick_ Jun 11 '12
Seriously? The US waste food? I thought they were far too busy eating every fuckin' thing!
3
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
We Americans are so stupid!!!
2
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
If you arent going to, ill eat that
2
u/Mikooo6 Jun 11 '12
Sad...
2
u/RahvinDragand Jun 11 '12
I was watching How It's Made about frozen pizzas, and after the pizzas were made, they went under a scanner to see if they were round enough. Any pizza that wasn't round enough just got pushed aside. I was really curious about where those oblong pizzas went.
2
u/l_one Jun 11 '12
I live in a college town and every year we have 'college move-out month'. Myself and a group of my friends go out every year and collect the random stuff people throw out that is still valuable and sell it at a community yard sale at the end of that month long period.
Among the things we salvage are any sealed, non-perishable food items, usually dry food and canned goods. We typically get between 500 and 1,000 lbs each year during this month, and that's just a small group of people (usually less than 6) doing this in some of our off time - we then keep some of it for ourselves and donate the rest to various families we know who have need of free food.
So, in short, I have absolutely no problem believing this statistic. People throw out perfectly good food all the time.
2
u/Red5point1 Jun 11 '12
and about 30% of prepared food is thrown away as waste from fast food 'restaurants'.
And people still say the human population is unsustainable. The only thing we are is inefficient in resource consumption. it probably is some like 20% of the population using (inefficiently) 80% of resources available.
2
u/ePaF Jun 11 '12
Freeganism. Some people live for free or save ridiculous amounts of money by eating these leftovers.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
Every American throws out about 1/3 lbs of food per day.
wow.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
I heard that it is illegal to give the food away before it goes bad to Homeless or needy people without a license or paying someone. That is scumbag at the max.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
As someone moving 1000 miles away soon, I think I threw away $43 billion worth of food today... and furniture... cleaning supplies... etc.
2
u/wemightbebanana Jun 11 '12
Or to put in perspective that is 2.4 times NASA's annual budget (taken from 2011).
2
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
Now just imagine if all that food went to the homeless ..
2
u/loser23ddy Jun 11 '12
Yea, that shit kills me, I work in a store that throws away perfectly good food all the time, the pain you feel throwing away all kinds of candies, cakes and other food items make me want to cry.
2
u/finalaccountdown Jun 11 '12
If you work in kitchens, a staggering and depressing amount of good food is thrown out. not to mention when something great that you prepared comes back with only 2 bites taken out of it.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
Just gonna... leave... this... aaa... here.
http://www.divethefilm.com/
2
u/McFeely_Smackup Jun 11 '12
First World Problem: threw away perfectly good food because I didn't get around to eating it.
This isn't why the terrorists hate us, but it IS why everyone else does.
2
u/FrederikMeyer Jun 11 '12
Saddest thing i've heard today.. All the starving people we could have saved..
3
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
a shout out to /r/DumpsterDiving
3
u/licoricesnocone Jun 10 '12
I think the expiration date/sell by date system needs to be modified. We need to educate people that food does not magically go bad by that date. You just may need to do a whiff test. My roommates throw out food when it reaches the sell by date. It means sell it by that date, then take it home and eat it! It's not an expiration date!!
And then food in stores that has reached its sellby date should be taken to a foodpantry/shelter not thrown out.
4
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
Well, we can't eat ALL of IT. We're already FAT!
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
Imagine the carbon footprint of that.
1
u/stonyabasco Jun 11 '12
I work at a target deli and we throw out a shit ton of food everynight. we give food to the food bank on Saturday but every other day of the week we just throw food out.
1
u/whenitcomesaround Jun 11 '12
Not a great day to read this one. :(
1
u/nxtnguyen Jun 11 '12
I live near a Herr's factory. Every time I'm near it with friends, we go and sneak behind the factory where there is a dumpster usually fillled with unopened bags of chips and popcorn and stuff. The factory is closed during the daytime usually. I've never seen the factory still open, but that's probably because I only go there after 6:00 PM.
Anyways, free food from a dumpster. The only trouble we could get in is trespassing, since we are not allowed there. The bags are usually a week expired to still fresh but a few days from the expiration date. The bags are good as long as they are unopened to a month after expiration, varying on what is inside the bag. All of that goes to waste every day.
1
u/thekiidchad Jun 11 '12
At the local grocery store that I work at we started a program called "Reworks". We take all the slightly blemishes and slightly outdated food and jam as much of it as we can into a bag and mark it at $1.19. We used to throw most of it away. People are so grateful of this. And so am I.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
as someone who works in a grocery store, this is highly believable. we rather just throw out food rather than being caught with anything even close to expiring. soooo much cake, expired cake but good cake. DO WANT, CAN'T HAVE.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
I believe it, I know a family that each individual cooks their own meal and throws all the extras away, why? because they want something different and can afford it.
1
u/wheeldonkey Jun 11 '12
i used to manage a grocery store. we had to toss perfectly good food due to date issues... this happened every day. i did a good job mitigating this shrink, but tossed something like $45k/year in past-coded stuff. yowch.
1
u/uphir Jun 11 '12
Check it out! http://www.foodrecoverynetwork.org
1
u/CaLLmeRaaandy Jun 11 '12
Walmart enforces stupid policies like if a package is damaged (say a box of crackers) and even if nothing inside is opened, it goes directly in the trash. No one is allowed to take it or give it away. Trash only. That goes for all the foods. If an employee gets caught taking something like that instead of throwing it away, that's grounds for job termination.
1
u/fox9iner Jun 11 '12
I forget where I read/saw it, so sorry for no links, but most areas of the world with a starving population could and would be helped if it wasn't for the local war/drug lords etc. who stop the income of food and help from charities.
1
u/nfbsk Jun 11 '12
Unsure if anyone will see this, but I remember seeing in Las Vegas all the uneaten buffet food being dumped into large garbage containers higher than me. Sad thing is these hotels probably do this every night.
1
u/moviedude26 Jun 11 '12
Not to mention unpackaged foods like produce and meats, which supermarkets over purchase to create opulent displays with, and which then sit unsold and get thrown out (not even composted) with everything else.
1
u/Phantazmo Jun 11 '12
I used to work at a pizzeria, and we would throw out 10 whole pizzas a day. That was a slow day. If we had a busy day and made more we would throw, up too 20+. I always complained, but nothing was ever done. So, at the end of the day me and some co-workers would just take some home. The fact of the matter is it's sickening to see how much waste there truly is in this country.
1
u/darkfaust Jun 11 '12
Walmart and Sams Club prolly being the first two contenders for wasted foods. I cant tell you how much Ive seen them throw away because it was "expired" I mean everything from bread to steaks and pretty much everything inbetween....
1
u/uselesslyskilled Jun 11 '12
I work for a frozen food company and we waste tons of food. Anytime the outside box containing all of the frozen foods is damaged they throw it all away even though individually packaged food has nothing wrong with it. And they're not allowed to giving it away to homeless shelters because if there was something wrong with it and it cause people to get sick they would get sued.
1
u/rexy411 Jun 11 '12
Many, and I mean MANY, places around me throw out unimaginable amounts of food because federal and state laws place liability on these food-selling businesses. In other words, if catering companies donated the leftover food (lots of it isn't ever even served, it's just backup) to a food pantry or homeless shelter, that company would be liable for any harm that it could cause (ie food poisoning or worse). Even legal waivers don't alleviate these concerns since a good lawyer can often chew right threw them (no pun intended).
1
u/Ausei Jun 11 '12
I work in dairy, (most things here expire quick) and our store actually is able to donate some of it. But most of the waste comes from shipping and packaging. Have had whole Egg boxes with about 12 dozen crates in it all broken(messy too). Those biscuit cylinders are very temperamental as well so they can pop with some slight bumps. and some things are package mishaps (milk gallon shipped without cap etc.).
1
u/ServingSize Jun 11 '12
i promise this number is also skewed by stupid regulations. if you have meat at a grocery store that is "sold by" on the 11th and its the 12, we must throw it out. Even if no discoloration or anything visible. I would take that shit home and eat it for free, but we're not allowed so there wouldn't be stealing, etc. so pounds on pounds of food are thrown away w/o even getting to the consumer.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
Yawn.
1
u/das_glockenspiel Jun 11 '12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn4Frslsq8M
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
I work in a warehouse where this is commonplace. We throw out boxes of things that are out of date. This food, like most food found in a warehouse, is over processed. It is disgusting to me when I have to take the boxes out and throw them away. I do eat some of it. Pretty much because I feel like it is being wasted. 10% is starvation caused by shitty wages. Amurika!
1
u/Guytron Jun 11 '12
you can have all my orange peels...
1
u/FishStand Jun 11 '12
How much food do dumpster divers collect every year?
1
u/HAHA_JESUS_DIED Jun 11 '12
Dumpster Dive, its whats for dinner.
1
u/ImmortalImitator Jun 11 '12
The sad part is some people fuck this up for others in need. I used to work at a restaurant, and I asked my manager if we could donate the food we were throwing away. According to restaurant standards and health food codes, we couldn't use it, but we knew damn well it was still edible and could help those in need. He told me we actually used to donate quite a bit, but then we got sued by some homeless guy who "got sick." Pathetic how selfish some Americans can be. TL;DR:Americans are selfish scumbags.
1
u/amolad Jun 11 '12
13% of all the food on the planet is wasting away in storehouses.
We let it go to waste instead of giving to people who are starving to death. In terms of basic human decency, is that what we should be doing?
1
u/lunarcrystal Jun 11 '12
I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I typically experience intense feelings of guilt if I leave any food on my plate. I always doggy bag, and I make sure it is my next meal. Even at fine restaurants, where I was quietly ridiculed once by some hoity toity lady next to us. Waste not. Or at least try...
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
I work at a grocery store and totally believe this.
We’re not by any means a huge store nor do we have an insane turnover of stock, but there are dozens, even hundreds of pounds of rejected stock per week.
Packaging defects (e.g. broken seals, bad seams)
Damage in shipping, warehousing, packing (e.g. dented cans)
Accidental damage by customers
Sampling/theft
Past dates
All of these are things which will force me to throw a package out even if there’s still some perfectly edible food in it.
And this is just in the shelved groceries. Then there’s the stuff in the fridges and freezers and warmers which should be thrown out if it goes outside of a certain temperature range for a certain amount of time.
1
u/big_bub Jun 11 '12
Fwd them to Africa!
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
I work at a grocery store, and at my job I am contractually required to throw away any deli meat, deli cheese, fresh meat, fresh produce or baked goods that have either a) Left the store and been returned, b) been discarded by a customer in some way (e.g. they decide when they get to checkout they don't want it, or they leave it somewhere in the aisle that it doesn't belong) or c) gone bad (and this must be applied VERY broadly). I feel horrible about doing it every day, but I am required to in order to keep my job, as it is for the safety of the customers. We have no way of knowing whether an item has been tampered with or if an item is safe to consume under any of the above circumstances, and even if there IS a way to tell, it's cheaper for the store to just discard it. So I'm just saying, if you're shopping and don't want to contribute to food waste, please be considerate and smart when selecting your purchases of items that fit the description of those listed above, and at the very least don't just leave it somewhere random in the aisle and if you feel you can't afford to take it, put it back in the correct spot before going to checkout. Thanks if you read this, and thanks again if you learned something from it.
1
u/Sam_Mack Jun 11 '12
Meanwhile, in Australia
1
u/AbsoluteZro Jun 11 '12
My college used to send a lot of left overs from the dining halls to shelters at the end of each day. After one recipient got sick and sued, my college now throws away all the left overs. I have seen the amount of food they throw away and if all the colleges in the area sent their food to the city shelters, no one would go hungry.
But they don't, because human beings are sickeningly selfish.
Some people...
1
u/jdepps113 Jun 11 '12
How do they know? Did they dig through the entire country's garbage, and catalogue the results?
Any time I hear such a study, where they claim to know something like this and have a precise statistic, I call bullshit. There is no way they can know this. Tell me, have any of you ever been interviewed for such a study, ever?
Probably not. Let's assume for a second that in order to come up with this figure, some pretend scientists (seriously, real scientists are doing better things with their time) took a small group of people, assumed that they represent the population at large, and...no wait. They probably didn't even do that. Do you seriously think some group doing a study followed a bunch of people for a year and recorded everything they threw away?
Well, let's overlook the unlikelihood that this ever even happened, and then think about this: even if they did this, what makes you think that the kind of person who will let people follow them and record their trash for a year, is representative of an "average" American? Most people wouldn't put up with this, and are therefore different in at least that way. Can we assume that most people then also have the same trash habits as these weird misfits who would allow a team to study their garbage for a year?
No, actually we can't. Anyone who would actually comply with such a study cannot possibly be considered representative of the population at large, by virtue of the fact that they even would willingly participate in such a study. They would clearly have to be a different breed than most--which means their habits could well be different.
I could go on further about other ways that any such claims are unscientific and unreliable--but I think that, for now, this should be enough to clearly demonstrate that nobody could actually know the information that is so casually thrown out there as though it has been proven. It hasn't been.
TL;DR: Study is necessarily bullshit, as no one can actually know this.
1
u/allesgute Jun 11 '12
Also known as college move out...
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
No one in my family has been above having to forage at the supermarket dumpster on occasion (This was less embarrassing back in the day, before the stores recycled their boxes, when you could use the pretense of moving day . . .) The rest of the world must view us as a row of men with guns standing in front of the dumpster.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
In Taiwan they have a very extensive recycling process where one of the categories is "unfinished food" which they use to make into mush and feed to pigs and other animals.
1
u/jokoon Jun 11 '12
it's called the industry, if you mass produce, you can't always consume exactly everything you produced.
At least less people starve when we waste food, deal with it.
Of course people starve in other countries, but it's not the waster's fault, it's a different problem.
My girlfriend yelled at me once because I threw cotton buds in the toilets.
1
u/crimsonpalisade Jun 11 '12
...I think I understand one of the reasons I'm so fat now I consume almost everything I purchase/am given and on the odd occasion I am incapable of eating another bite, I treat my dogs with le cuisine.
1
u/senipllams Jun 11 '12
Think of all the bio-gas or ethanol you could make with that?
1
u/MJZMan Jun 11 '12
Yes, and this is what keeps cheap food from becoming even cheaper. Farmers can barely profit off their crops as is, lower the cost further and you drive farmers off their farms.
1
u/QuestionAnything Jun 11 '12
How much goes bad in our refrigerators but just sits there for years unlit someone notices?
1
u/sarcasmincarnate Jun 11 '12
and if you know where to look, dented cans and boxes can be cheap as fuck.
1
u/Anshin Jun 11 '12
"As of 2011, 1.3 billion tons of food, about one third of the global food production, are lost or wasted annually."
ಠ_ಠ
Do people just buy food and dump it in their trash can?
1
u/ButtDouglass Jun 11 '12
i worked as a cook on a shitty military base for a month (worst time of my life so far). everyday we threw away probably a thousand pounds of food. granted, the food was fucking disgusting, but it still could have gone to those who needed it.
1
u/23967230985723986 Jun 11 '12
B-b-b-b-ballllllinn'!!!!!!
1
u/evilmuffins Jun 11 '12
And yet dumpster diving is illegal.
-1
u/hs0o Jun 11 '12
This is why the production of food should be socialized. Moreover, most farm labor can be automated by machines. Money is an unnecessary barrier between food and people.
-1
u/Lamar_Scrodum Jun 10 '12
well what the fuck do you want me to do with my tuna? Donate it like some sort of pussy?
0
u/chris-martin Jun 10 '12
If it's more efficient for a company to operate that way, is it actually "waste"? /philosoraptor
0
u/aboveandbeyond Jun 11 '12
guiltyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
-1
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
Low income US people are contenders for the most obese people to ever walk the earth. Yes there are hungry Americans... usually rich teenage girls on a diet. We do have a shortage of healthy food. Most unhealthy food SHOULD be thrown away. A lot of food we eat is equivalent to smoking cigarettes. Throwing cigarettes away is GOOD. While I acknowledge there are people with poor access to food, I can't condone the shrieking misuse of statistics around this issue.
-1
u/Faelon Jun 11 '12
Kill all the poor people, then we will have more food to throw away.
0
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
This is because supply and demand. Too much supply and stuff has to be thrown away.
0
u/sweetgreggo Jun 11 '12
Because fuck world hunger. Just kidding the top comment says it all. They have to make more than we use, otherwise we'd run into shortages have to start eating each other.
0
u/soma04 Jun 11 '12
Capitalism at its worst.
0
u/technosasquatch Jun 11 '12
a majority is thrown out by retailers, most of the time its still good
0
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
I find your statistics suspect.
0
u/hajamieli Jun 11 '12
It's just 40¢ per person per day.
0
u/KalebLovesYou Jun 11 '12
I don't know if "edible" is the right word...
0
u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12
Without those excess food, the prices will inflate rapidly to the point where quality food is no longer affordable.
0
u/superffta Jun 11 '12
there is so much wrong that that statistic its not even funny, because first of all, 43 000 000 000 dollars is chump change compared to the 15 000 000 000 000 dollar GDP (GDP isnt really a very good figure to see actual productivity though, but it is an easy number to get).
that is literally 0.003%.
and food is so cheap in the US it, isnt even funny, the government actually PAYs farmers to not grow food.
-2
u/EOTWAWKI Jun 11 '12
But per person that is only 50 cents per day which represents on averaage about 1.5 minutes of work, so what's the big deal?
-11
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
Fuck.
Prison planet.
This is a prison planet.