If you’re anything like me, your folks were militant about not wasting food when you were a kid.
If so, there's also a high chance you spent at least one entire evening sitting at the dining table alone because you refused to finish your mom’s tuna casserole. And while it seemed wildly unfair at the time, your parents were actually onto something, because food waste was — and still is — an enormous global issue, especially in the United States.
If you're not convinced, here are some facts that will probably leave you feeling determined to change your most wasteful habits for good:
1. Every year we throw away 40% of our food supply — a fact that's pretty outrageous considering one in six Americans doesn't have access to enough food.
Food also requires a lot of resources — land, water, animal feed, fuel, and carbon emissions created from travel — to get to our plates, so when we waste food, we waste resources too.
2. The average American household throws away $2,200 worth of food each year.
That’s enough dough for a luxury solo trip to Bali, or a few months of full-time child care in most major cities.
3. And that means collectively, Americans toss around $165 billion of food annually.
To put things in perspective, that’s 28 times the federal budget.
4. Forty two million people are "food insecure" in the United States, including 13 million children and 5.4 million seniors.
Being food insecure means you currently live without access to a sufficient amount of nutritious food
5. America’s food waste could provide an estimated 2,000-calorie diet to 274 million people.
That's about 84% of the population.
6. Food waste is the single-biggest occupant of American landfills.
It's also responsible for 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions
7. And the amount we waste grows more and more every year.
Next time you throw away an egg, remember that water.
8. It takes 53 gallons of water to produce a single egg, which is enough to fill a large bathtub.
Since 1960, our annual food waste has grown by 204%.
9. Nuts also require a surprising amount of water per pound: 1,929 gallons for almonds and 1,704 gallons for cashews.
10. As does chocolate, which requires an average of 2,061 gallons per pound.
If you’re that rare specimen who has chocolate you’re looking to offload, HMU before you toss it in the trash!