Blog post: Small Steps Add Up: International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day

Written by Jennifer Scherer, ESPC volunteer

September 29 is International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day, which highlights the impact of food loss and waste and raises awareness of steps everyone can take to reduce food waste. Food loss is defined as when food is discarded during production, manufacturing, or distribution process (National Zero Waste Council, 2018) and accounts for 13% of the world’s food supply (UN, n.d.) or 1.3 billion tonnes of food (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2022). Food waste is defined as when food is discarded from retail stores, restaurants, or homes (Zero Waste Canada), and accounts for 19% of the world’s food supply (UN, n.d.). Between food loss and food waste, 32% of food is discarded instead of being used. Food loss and food waste is widespread and greatly impacts us. The resources, effort, and land that was devoted to producing this food has been wasted, and the decomposition of this food emits methane. These methane emissions contribute 8-10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Part of the reason for food cost increases is due to scarcity, and currently around 735 million people experience hunger (UN, n.d.).

Food waste happens in many settings. In Canada, the three largest contributors to food waste are manufacturing (23%), consumer waste (21%), and processing (20%) (National Zero Waste Council, 2018). Canadian households throw away an average of 140 kilograms of food per year, with an average cost of $1300/year (Love Food Hate Waste, 2024). With consumers being a large contributor to the problem, consumers can be a significant part of the solution. Consumers waste food for many reasons which include:  Lack of meal planning and timely food storage; limited access to technology to help food last longer such as packaging and refrigeration; and people wanting to avoid getting ill from consuming food past expiration dates (National Zero Waste Council, 2018).

National Zero Waste Council (2018) has developed a strategy for Canada with the goal of reducing food loss and waste by 50% by 2030. The three main strategies they have built their recommendations on are:

• Prevention- Stop food loss and waste from happening. Strategies include having clear date labelling on foods, retail stores implementing good inventory management, improved packaging to help food last longer, and a culture shift to help everyone develop habits that will help prevent food waste (National Zero Waste Council, 2018).
• Recovery- Redirect food that would otherwise be wasted to feed people or animals. Strategies include donating unused food to food banks and other non-profits who can use the food, removing obstacles that prevent people from being able to donate food, and using food that would otherwise be discarded to feed animals (National Zero Waste Council, 2018).
• Recycle- Make use of energy or nutrients from unavoidable food loss. Strategies include investing in composting and biofuel technologies, limiting food waste that goes to landfills, and setting up homes and public spaces to make it easier to separate food waste from other waste (National Zero Waste Council, 2018).

Since International Food Loss and Waste Day was started in 2019, the efforts made to raise awareness and promote change have made a difference. Research and policy recommendations are being developed to help support producers, companies, governments, and consumers understand how to address food loss and waste (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2022). Most major grocery chains have initiatives to improve sustainability and prevent food loss. The strategies, progress, and targets of each company are outlined on their websites. Governments and municipalities are implementing the recommended changes and policies to support reductions in food loss and waste. Public awareness campaigns have been launched, helping people understand the changes they can make in their own households to make a difference in preventing food waste.

Edmonton has a Zero Waste Framework with the goal of reducing waste (City of Edmonton, 2024). As part of that framework, the curbside cart rollout for residential waste collection has made it easy for households to separate organic waste. This diverts it from the landfills and turns the organic waste into something useful (City of Edmonton, 2024). Keeping food waste out of landfills is an important step in reducing greenhouse gases, as landfills account for 23% of Canada’s methane emissions (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2023). Canada has signed the Global Methane Pledge, which commits countries to reducing methane emissions caused by humans to 30% under 2020 levels by 2030 and diverting food waste from landfills is essential to meet this target (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2023).

A campaign to help households reduce food waste called Love Food Hate Waste Canada has been reaching out to Canadian consumers through a website and a series of publicity campaigns. They provide education on food labelling, food storage, meal planning tips, ideas to use leftovers, and other resources (Love Food Hate Waste Canada, 2024). The practical tips it provides helps consumers notice that their individual efforts and small steps toward change can add up to real change towards reducing food waste.

One policy recommendation is to make clear and simple food dating and labeling rules (Goodwin et al, 2022) as best before dates and use by dates are often misunderstood by consumers, leading to unnecessary food waste. Another recommendation is to have food retailers and restaurants divert unsold food to food banks and other charitable organizations so that food could be redirected to people who need it (Goodwin et al., 2022).

After becoming aware of the scope of the problem that food loss and waste causes, it can feel challenging to try to make changes. These changes can have a big impact by lowering our food costs, reducing greenhouse gases, getting food to those who need it, and producing our food without waste. When we learn more about the series of small steps that we can all take together and make those practical changes, our individual efforts can add up to substantial change.

References

City of Edmonton. (2024). Edmonton’s Zero Waste Framework.
https://www.edmonton.ca/programs_services/garbage_waste/zero-waste-framework

Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2023, September 29). The Government of Canada launches research fund to help prevent and divert food waste from Canadian landfills.
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2023/09/the-government-of-canada-launches-research-fund-to-help-prevent-and-divert-food-waste-from-canadian-landfills.html

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2022). Voluntary Code of Conduct for Food Loss and Waste Reduction. Food and Argriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/policy-support/tools-and-publications/resources-details/en/c/1635033/

Goodwin, L., Blondin, S., Bassett, G., Roberts, M., Wistrand, L., White, H., Swannell, R., Leib, E.B., Plekenpol, R., & Rouse, H. (2022). Changing Behavior to Help More People Waste Less Food. Champions 12.3. https://champions123.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/Champions_12.3_Playbook_HIGH-RESOLUTION.pdf

Love Food Hate Waste Canada. (2024). Love Food Hate Waste Canada. https://lovefoodhatewaste.ca/

Love Food Hate Waste Canada. (2021). Love Food Hate Waste Canada: Making Every Bite Count: Our First Three Years- 2018 to 2021. https://nzwc.ca/Documents/lfhw-canada-three-year-report-2018-2021.pdf

National Zero Waste Council. (2018). A Food Loss and Waste Strategy for Canada.
https://nzwc.ca/Documents/NZWC-FoodLossWasteStrategy-EN.pdf

United Nations. (n.d.). International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste Reduction. https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-food-waste-day