Holy $#@%! The Average American Family Wastes 122 lbs of Food Every Month
May 27, 2008 · Print This Article
Being freegan never looked like such a good idea. The average American family of four produces 122 pounds of waste each month, and most of that goes straight to landfills. That total doesn’t count food wasted by farms, processors and wholesalers. It adds up to a whopping 1,464 pounds per year. That waste includes lots of stuff that’s perfectly good, and the rest could at least be composted. Remember that the conditions in landfills prevent things from biodegrading like they would out in the open. This kind of waste causes our landfills to pile up, fast.
Christ on a bicycle, this is insanity. I knew we were a wasteful culture, but, wow. Most of us can recall our mothers telling us to eat up because there are starving children in Ethiopia, but damn, clearly what we really need to be doing is buying less in the first place – or giving the stuff we can’t eat to those in need. It’s truly sad to see so much waste when there are so many people struggling for a morsel of food every day.
Click here to see a higher resolution copy and read the details. Crazy!
Link [Groovy Green]
Photo credit: The New York Times
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Holy $#@%! is right! WOW. I try to be very concious about what we purchase and use things that are immediately perishable first and things that are less likely to go bad (like sweet potatoes) later in the week.
I would love for there to be markets in every town at least every other day of the week. Small markets, local farmers, carry locally produced goods so that I could walk to it and do a little light marketing every couple of days in order to prepare my meals. Such as I would if I were in Europe.
This is something I will definately be sharing with family and friends.
I’ve been thinking about this lately, too. Buying organic is good, but it’s still not as good as simply not throwing away 122 pounds of food a month. I’m trying to do better. I should freeze more leftovers.