Thanksgiving Food Waste Will Top 300 Million Pounds/$600M in 2023
Photo by Karolina Grabowska
According to ReFED, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending food loss and waste by advancing data-driven solutions, this Thanksgiving, Americans will waste ~312 million pounds of food - enough to feed every person struggling with food insecurity in this country for a week.
Learn
Depending on the source, it is estimated that between 38 and 44 million people in the U.S. live in food-insecure households[1]. Which makes it doubly ironic that our nation’s annual celebration of abundance results in enough food waste to feed every single one of those households for seven full days.
Of course, the impact of that waste doesn’t stop with just the food itself. It also represents $600M worth of spending that is currently going straight from our pockets and into our landfills, at a time when expenses (and consumer debt taken out to cover them) are skyrocketing. ReFED notes that this figure is “a 35% increase in money wasted from 2022,” and that, “With inflation and the cost of living on the rise, it’s a data point that consumers should be mindful of when they go shopping for Thanksgiving.”
But perhaps one of the more worrying longer-term impacts is the result of food waste on climate change. According to the USDA, “Production, transportation, and handling of food generate significant Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions and when food ends up in landfills, it generates methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas.” Each year, just the base carbon footprint of food waste in the U.S. equals “the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants,” and that’s not including “the significant methane emissions from food waste rotting in landfills.”[2]
This is important because in 2023, nearly 1 in 5 Americans were faced with extreme weather incidents, including “extreme heat, wildfires, storms and floods,” and experienced them more often than in previous years [3]. Climate-based health impacts are a significant and fast-growing threat to public health, and create a huge burden on our already strained healthcare system, especially in high-population areas that are already operating at well over capacity in those sectors and that concentrate the impacts of incidents such as power outages, fires, heat, and extreme weather events. And those most vulnerable and with the fewest resources to manage these impacts - such as the elderly, the unhoused, the chronically ill, and those living in poverty, all of whom are also more likely to be suffering from food insecurity during this season of (over)abundance - are the ones most disproportionately affected[4], thus bringing the issue of food waste back full circle.
Act
Consumer-based food waste “accounts for more than 48% of surplus food in the U.S. at a cost of $229 billion” (ReFED) and almost 25% of all landfilled and about 22% of combusted municipal waste, making it “the single most common material landfilled and incinerated in the U.S” (USDA).
While these number are nothing to be thankful about, the good news is that this means food waste is one area that we as individuals and households can all have a significant impact by on just making a few relatively small, manageable changes in how we personally handle our food planning, purchases, storage, and usage.
Both ReFED and the USDA have several tips and resources for minimizing food waste during this holiday season and beyond, including: using Save the Food’s Guest-Imator dinner party calculator for holiday meals, making sure you have a plan for purchasing, storing and using leftover food wisely, and donating extra food. The USDA also recommends composting leftover food rather than throwing it in the trash if at all possible, to reduce methane production.
Engage
To learn more about ways to reduce food waste in your home, check out the links below:
ReFED’s Consumer Food Waste data, tips and strategies
Preventing Food Waste at Home (EPA)
Learn more about food waste in general, as well as innovations for reducing waste and its impact, at the links below:
Looking for resources to help feed others (or find food resources for your own household) this holiday season and beyond? Check out these resources below:
AVL Today’s holiday food insecurity resources page
MANNA Food Bank’s Where To Get Help page
Feeding America’s “Free Thanksgiving Dinners and Turkeys” page
