When you are having a hearty meal, you’ll get full. There is a possibility that you’ll not finish your entire meal. What happens to your leftovers when you’re already full? Do you feed them to stray animals? Dispose of them in a segregated trash bin? Have you ever thought of repurposing them in your kitchen?
Wasting food is more than just ditching your leftovers. On a bigger picture, you could have saved a lot of food and used it for a better purpose. Before we dive deeper into the possibilities and consequences of this, let us discuss what food waste is.
An overview: what is food waste?
Food waste, also known as food loss, is food that is uneaten or lost for some reason. From stages of producing to consuming, there are several reasons to consider. On a global scale, food loss amounts to one-half of all food produced. Food loss comes in different forms and occurs at all food supply and value chain stages. Usually, massive food waste disposal is a common problem. This is dealt with by companies that haul massive quantities of food waste around the neighborhood.
Not all countries experience the same food loss crisis. In developing countries, most of the food loss happens during production due to quality control and monitoring. Meanwhile, in developed countries, pretty much everything lost is in the consumption stage. Generally, all countries experience the same problem in different forms.
Food waste revelations that will shock you
Maybe, you’re not convinced that your everyday habits can cause harm to the community. These are just some of the facts about food waste.
Before the doom and gloom, let us kick off with the first fact. Most of us produce at most 25% of food waste. That is a huge contribution to the concurring issue. You can think that we are in a great state right now, can’t you?
Meanwhile, there is 3% food wastage on a global scale and it goes straight into the landfills without any repurposing actions. However, there is a same day junk removal company that performs very well in repurposing junk.
But, hey, get this. Kicking off with your fitness plan can hurt the environment. How? Being selective with your diet has massive consequences. Strict diets and fitness plans require organic fruits and vegetables. This results in a shorter shelf life compared to commercially-produced food items. It is advisable to store food items like these in a temperature-monitored storage system.
Certain food items such as bread and seafood are the most commonly wasted foods on Earth. They have an approximate 46% overall wastage. Also, eight percent of this fraction contributes to the production of GHG (greenhouse gases). This type of gas is a major contributor to climate change.
All in all, even the simplest of things that we do like food waste management can have good or bad effects. It’s up to us to balance things out.
Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/compost-garbage-biological-waste-1136403/
Sources:
https://www.businessinsider.com/food-world-wastes-most-2016-10#4-cereal-bread-and-rice-291-4
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0195405
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/nr/sustainability_pathways/docs/FWF_and_climate_change.pdf