The Folly of Food Waste

What if our trash was the Earth’s treasure?

We have a serious problem with food waste in America. It happens at every stage in the supply chain, from farm to table, and it really adds up. In 2018, we produced 63.1 million tons of wasted food. As outlined in our previous article, this is a multi-faceted problem. A lot of the items that wind up in landfills don’t belong there: imperfect produce; restaurant leftovers; food that we buy but don’t end up eating. When we let these resources go to landfills, they release methane gas which in turn contributes to global warming. In fact, the EPA found that 15% of human-related methane emissions come from municipal solid waste landfills. So not only are we wasting resources, we’re making an already catastrophic problem that much worse.

Why Is There So Much and Where Is It Coming From?

In short, we buy more than we eat. We let food go bad in the fridge, we cook too much and throw away leftovers, and all of that makes up a good portion of the food that sits in landfills. According to ReFed, a non-profit committed to reducing food waste in the U.S., in 2019, 38.9% of our nation’s food waste came from homes. That’s 21.2 million tons of food. But it’s not just that we think we need more than we actually do, we also misread expiration dates and throw out food that’s still okay to eat. When there’s little consistency in how food is labeled, it’s easy to misunderstand whether the date on a carton of eggs represents when the eggs are unsafe to eat or simply when the grocery store needs to sell them by. Since most people don’t want to gamble with food poisoning, they play it safe and wind up discarding something they could have eaten.

“Imagine this: You go to your favorite supermarket and come out with three bags full of groceries. Before you get in your car, you toss one of those bags in the garbage. Sound ridiculous? Of course it does, but that’s in essence what food waste looks like every day across our country,” says Frank Yiannas, the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response.

If you’ve ever worked in the restaurant industry, you know exactly how much food is wasted during every shift. The huge portions that so many restaurants serve are often too much for one person. Not everyone takes leftovers home, so whatever remains on their plate goes in the trash. A few bites here and there might not seem like much, but in 2019, it added up to 10.8 million tons, or 19.9% of our national food waste that year.

How might we bring these numbers down?

The first step in reducing the amount of food that winds up in landfills is to more effectively use the food we have. Better labeling could help with this. What if — instead of an ambiguous sell-by date — food labels described both the optimal consumption date AND how long after that it’s still safe to eat? Additionally, what if that same label gave you ideas on how to use the food past the recommended consumption date? Expired milk won’t taste great in your cereal, but it’s still useful to make buttermilk or even cheese.

In the restaurant world, a shift in operations could be helpful. Smaller portions would definitely cut back on the amount of wasted food but it could also leave some people wanting more. What if it were commonplace to “add on” second helpings? What if, for a couple extra bucks, you could simply request another serving if your initial portion wasn’t enough?

Of course, not every person and every restaurant is going to make their own buttermilk or change their entire business model. There will still be discarded food, so what do we do with the waste that’s leftover?

Keeping Food Waste Out of Landfills

Composting is one of the oldest and easiest solutions to deal with food waste. It diverts organic material away from landfills and breaks it down to become nutrient-rich soil that, in turn, gives us back more nutrient-rich food. If it’s so awesome, then why isn’t it commonplace?

It all boils down to three primary challenges:

• Education: There is not widespread public knowledge about food waste and its impact on the environment.
• Behavior: Behavior is hard to change, especially when it’s accompanied by expectations around cost vs. value and convenience. We need to meet consumers where they are.
• Access: Many communities don’t have access to composting at all.

Many people don’t know what composting is let alone how to do it. And even if they do, they may not fully grasp the dire consequences of food waste in landfills. There is a broad assumption that, because food is organic, it will naturally break down regardless of where it ends up. That critical misunderstanding diminishes the motivation to act. Since lack of awareness is part of the problem, education has to be part of the solution. And the earlier we start, the better. Why not teach kids what happens to food when they throw it away? Why not have compost bins in schools for kids to put their food scraps in, and learning gardens for them to see the the life cycle in action? And who needs a whole garden when an up-cycled plastic bottle planter on a windowsill can become a science lab?

Several of us at Magic+Might have started composting this year and we are here to assure you: it’s actually not that complicated (or smelly!) and you probably have more compostable waste than you think. Coffee grounds and filters, vegetable scraps, stale bread, cooked pasta, and eggshells are all excellent additions to a compost bin. From there, you can either create your own soil or simply hand it off to a commercial compost facility. Unlike recycling and trash, compost pickup isn’t a widely-offered city service, but you can usually find a private service to fit your needs. In Chicago, we have Block Bins, a subscription-based service that lets you drop your compost off in one of the many locations through out the city. Even though services like this are becoming more common, they are consumer-sought. Americans are all about convenience culture and, admittedly, it IS more convenient to throw something out right here and now than it is to save it and drop it off somewhere else later.

How might we make composting not only convenient but the easier, more attractive option? What if restaurants directly benefitted from composting the food that would go in the trash? What if there was an exchange program that partnered restaurants with farms who could use that compost to grow food that went back to the restaurant to sell? What if instead of paying for a subscription-based service to take our compost, we got a kickback for providing them with the compost we produce? Not all people are motivated by the greater good, so having some sort of individual benefit could be key in getting more on board.

Success Stories: Who’s Doing It Right?

South Korea is doing an excellent job of diverting and recycling their food waste. In 1995, only 2% of food waste in South Korea was recycled but today they’re at 95%. So what changed? In 2005, they started banning food waste from landfills. In 2013, they introduced a food waste recycling program. This program collects food waste and turns it into compost and fertilizer, animal feed, and biogas by squeezing the liquid and moisture from the waste. A majority of this service is paid for by selling biodegradable bags to consumers, encouraging them to participate.

San Francisco is a good example of what success looks like in the U.S. In 2009, they implemented a mandatory composting law as well as recycling requirements. According to CNBC, the city now diverts 80% of their waste from landfills. How’d they do it? The city started by setting the trash collection rate higher than the compost and recycling rates. Collection bins are sized for success, too — recycling bins are the largest, compost bins are a medium size, and trash bins are the smallest. The final measure of the legislation requires businesses to pay a fee if they put food waste or recyclable material in their trash.

Responsibility does not fall solely on the government to enact sweeping public policy, however. Businesses need to be part of the solution, too. Restaurants, as we know, are a huge part of the food waste conundrum, but it’s not for lack of desire to help. Part of the reason that restaurants have a hard time donating excess food is that they need to physically drop it off at a food bank or soup kitchen. Since most restaurants don’t have the extra labor to do that, the food goes to the trash instead of a hungry person. In 2018, Door Dash launched Project DASH, a platform that takes care of the logistics for them. Restaurants that are already on Door Dash can request a driver who will come take their surplus to a food rescue organization. Within a year, Project DASH had diverted one million pounds of food from landfills.

It’s Time To Think Backwards

Project DASH is a program that effectively addresses root cause vs. symptom; for many restaurants, food waste is the symptom of what’s actually a mobility issue at the core. This inverted way of thinking is critical in solving “unsolvable” problems. If we look at grocery stores, for example, we know that large quantities of imperfect and expiring food items end up in landfills. There are programs designed to get this food from stores to those in need, but what if the food didn’t have to move in the first place? What if grocery stores had special, high-visibility sections where they could offer expiring or imperfect food at a steep discount, or even free? And what if buying or taking this food was normalized?

Consider this: Pinterest inspires nearly half a billion users in the U.S. to DIY on a daily basis. If Chrissy Teigen posts a video of herself cooking on Instagram, she has 34 million sets of eyes and ears ready to watch and listen. The same media conglomerates that used to make smoking look sexy across TV, film, and advertising also managed to deglamorize it when it was found to cause serious health issues. It’s going to take more than facts and figures to inspire action. If Pinterest can fuel a dalgona coffee revolution, Chrissy Teigen can inspire millions to play in their kitchens, and production companies can pivot for sensitive content, then behavior can change. We truly just need to meet people where they are.

As designers, strategists, and problem solvers, it’s important for us to first identify the real issues — the root cause, not the symptoms — to get to workable solutions. There are magic moments in thinking backwards to make unexpected connections, and we think that’s a great starting point for issues like food waste that call for mighty efforts.

Postscript: The Work Starts at Home

Food waste is a complicated problem and it’s easy to feel like change can’t come from one person. But there are plenty of small steps that each of us can take to help make a difference. Be mindful of how much you buy versus how much you need. Pick the ugly produce that no one else wants. Save your leftovers. Put your scraps in a compost bin. Educate your friends and family on why this all matters and what they can do. These are all manageable tasks on an individual level and when done by many people, they become part of a solution.