World Waste
Here is information from around the world on our global waste. Check to see how your country is doing. Contact me if there is a country not listed that you would like to know more about. Email [email protected] or post on the Forums
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Canada
We waste approximately 40 per cent of our food, or $27-billion worth, according to the Value Chain Management Centre, an independent think tank based in Guelph, Ont. And just over half (51 per cent) of that gets tossed from households. More Information United States
Did you know?
More Infomation New Zealand Confusion over "best before" labels is contributing to Kiwis needlessly dumping uneaten food worth $750 million a year." "In New Zealand, land filling is the most common method of solid waste disposal. At a national level, it is estimated that 3.2 million tonnes of waste was sent to municipal landfills in 2006 (Ministry for the Environment, 2007a). More Information Switzerland
In the EU countries about 90 million tons end up in the garbage; that is, about 280 kg per person per year. In Switzerland the annual wastage of foodstuffs is estimated at around 1-2 million tonnes. As much as 20% of the wastage occurs in the agricultural sector (harvest losses, discarded goods), another 40% in the course of transportation, trade and processing, and about 40% at the hands of the consumer. More Information Ireland
We all generate Food Waste - at home, in school, at work, on the run...everywhere. On average, wasted food costs each Irish household €700 a year. For some households this can be over €1,000! This is an unbelievable waste of money and food - think of the holidays you could have instead of throwing all this food out! |
Australia
Statistics:
More Information Japan
What do we waste? In Japan, roughly 19.40 million tons of food waste were generated in 1996. Of these, about nine percent, or 1.68 million tons, were recycled. Some 50,000 tons of food waste from households were recycled, which accounts for only 0.3 percent of the total. Most of this garbage was incinerated and landfilled, contributing to Japan's growing shortages of final disposal sites. More Information Denmark The total amount of food waste, which also includes actual waste such as egg shells, chicken bones and orange peel, amounts to 76 kg per person per year. However, of these 76 kilos, 42 kilos could have been eaten. This corresponds to 105 kg of good, edible food per household per year for an average household in a single-family dwelling consisting of two adults and one or two children. More Information Norway
Each year an average Norwegian throws away over 50 kg of food, that would be otherwise consumable. This makes up to 240 000 tons of food that could be actually eaten or about one quarter of all food produced in Norway. More Information |
United Kingdom
UK households waste 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one third of the 21.7 million tonnes we purchase. Most of this food waste is currently collected by local authorities (5.9 million tonnes or 88%). Some of this will be recycled but most is still going to landfill where it is liable to create methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The remaining 800,000 tonnes is composted by people at home, fed to animals or tipped down the sink. More information China
According to the study on 2,700 families in small, mid-size and large cities, the amount of food wasted on these tables in one year alone could feed 200 million people. In university canteens, the study reported that one-third of the food purchased was wasted, enough to feed an additional 10 million people for one year, highlighting that the waste problem is not just among China’s rich and powerful, as many suspected. More Information Netherlands
Of the annual 4.4 billion euros of food wasted in the Netherlands, more than half is thrown away by Dutch consumers – around 110 lbs per person. This is equivalent to around 100,000 garbage truck loads of good edible food going to waste. More Information |