The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, today announced the "National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics" as part of a whole-of-government approach to tackle climate change, feed people, address environmental justice, and promote a circular economy.
GASP lauded the strategy released Wednesday, which provides tangible goals that the U.S. government partners along with retailers and consumers can work toward to help further prevent the loss and waste of food, increase recycling of food and other organic materials to support a more circular economy for all, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save households and businesses money, and build cleaner, healthier communities.
Along with the FDA, USDA and EPA efforts, U.S. consumers and retailers play an important role in meeting the National Strategy's goal of reducing food loss and waste by 2030. As part of the release of this Strategy, the FDA has made important resources available to guide, support, and accelerate their food loss and waste activities including the 2022 Food Code, Tips to Reduce Food Waste and the Food Loss and Waste Social Media Toolkit.
They encourage all stakeholders to take advantage of these resources as we work together to reduce food loss and waste.
Recent EPA research shows that 58% of methane emissions released to the atmosphere from landfills are from food waste. Each year in the U.S., food loss and waste create potent greenhouse gas pollutants equal to the emissions of 60 coal-fired power plants.
The strategy aims to prevent and divert organic waste from landfills to reduce GHG emissions and highlights opportunities, especially where there are environmental justice concerns, to build community-scale organics recycling infrastructure, reduce pollution and create jobs.
You can read the full plan here.