Food Waste Essay

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Food Waste: Pass on Your Leftovers

“I’m full.” This thought enters your head as you gaze down at your third plate of food. There’s at least a full meal before you but you underestimated how much your stomach can take. What should you do? Well, you are at a buffet. Just put the plate to the side so that the server can take it and throw it away. After that, you have nothing to worry about. Your stomach is saved and you can just repeat the same process whenever you cannot finish a plate of food. No harm is done right? Think again.
Whenever food is wasted, the consequences prove to be detrimental towards America in more ways than one. America pays up to $165 billion per year on food waste and the cost is rising steadily (Uslan). Out of the 36 million tons of food produced by America yearly, roughly around 95 percent gets put into incinerators and landfills (“Resource Conservation”). According to the Environmental Protection Agency, food rots in landfills and “becomes a significant source of methane –a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide” (“Resource Conservation”). Many supermarkets, colleges/universities, stadiums/venues, are some of the biggest contributors to food waste among the nation. These businesses throw away food because they do not fit “quality standards”. Although the food may not be deemed suitable for the public, little do they know is that most of the food can still be consumed, used as renewable sources, and more. Unfortunately, perfectly fine food is still wasted daily. With the pouring amount of “food waste”, why not put good food to good use? By using food as compost, America can reap environmental/economic benefits and significantly reduce the amount of food waste i...

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...fresh foods are rarely donated due to their limited “shelf-life” in groceries. Although this method can potentially lower food waste, it would not be wise to give people food that is barely fresh or close to expiring. Realistically, using these foods as compost would be a better choice due to their condition.
All in all, compost minimalizes the amount of food waste in America. When food waste is lowered, so are the problems that come with it. America needs to put more consideration into using compost because current methods today are simply not working by causing harm to the environment and increasing financial issues for the country. Turning food waste into compost has beneficially demonstrated its use for better soil/waste management, virus/disease prevention, and cheap costs. Considering compost can potentially get rid of most, if not all food waste in America.

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