Cut Food Waste, Cut Water Waste

There’s nothing good about wasting food.

Besides the fact that there are more than seven billion other people on the planet who could eat it, consider all the water needed to grow and produce that food. Everything we eat has a water footprint. The same is true for the rotten lettuce, the long-forgotten eggs and the half-eaten steak grabbed from the back of the fridge and thrown in the garbage. When we waste food, it’s like we’re dumping huge amounts of water — or more precisely, “virtual water” — into the garbage.

In the United States an estimated 40 percent of all food is lost or wasted annually. The average person in America wastes 26,500 gallons of water per year by tossing just six common food items in the trash: lettuce, almonds, apples, tomatoes, eggs and beef.

The average person in America wastes 26,500 gallons of water per year by tossing just six common food items in the trash: lettuce, almonds, apples, tomatoes, eggs and beef.

To drill down on the water lost to food waste, let’s take a look at the lettuce, eggs and beef wasted by an individual person. To begin, water footprints vary greatly; it all depends on the type of food and where and how it’s grown. Meat and dairy generally have a larger water footprint compared to fruits and vegetables. The water footprint for a head of romaine lettuce is 29 gallons, one egg is 52 gallons and one pound of beef is a whopping 1,800 gallons. Combine those numbers with typical edible food waste at home each year — which equals about eight heads of lettuce, 64 eggs and 11 pounds of beef — and the water wasted comes to about 92 gallons for the lettuce, 5,260 gallons for the eggs and 19,800 gallons for the beef!

But moves are being made to cut food waste. Recognizing all the hungry people around the world that could use the food that would otherwise be wasted, the squandered resources like water and energy and the significant greenhouse gas pollution from decaying food, a range of groups are tackling the issue, from the NRDC, to Feedback and ReFED as well as student groups like the Food Recovery Network.

As eaters, we have a part to play in fixing our food system with how we purchase and cook food. When it comes to cutting food waste out of our lives, it’s a no-brainer. Here are seventeen ways to reduce the amount of food you waste right now. Our water resources will thank you.

This post was originally published in January 2016.

Top photo by Patryssia/Adobe Stock.