From Plate to Landfill: UNEP's 2024 Report on Global Food Waste
Households worldwide tossed away over 1 billion meals each day in 2022, a staggering revelation juxtaposed against the harsh reality that 783 million individuals grappled with hunger, while a third of the global population faced food insecurity. This unsettling data forms the cornerstone of a groundbreaking report released by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024, co-authored in collaboration with WRAP, delivers a stark assessment of the global food waste crisis, offering precise estimates of waste levels at both retail and consumer tiers. Beyond mere statistics, the report serves as a blueprint for nations striving to enhance data collection methodologies and transition from measurement to active reduction strategies.
First published in 2021, the current report builds on recent and greater datasets and provides an update on the scale of food wasted worldwide. In this edition of GREENEXT Talks, let’s dive into the key findings of the Food Waste Index Report 2024.
Key Messages in the Food Waste Index Report 2024:
In 2022, the world wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food. This amounts to one-fifth (19 percent) of food available to consumers being wasted, at the retail, food service, and household level. That is in addition to the 13 percent of the world’s food lost in the supply chain, as estimated by FAO, from post-harvest up to and excluding retail.
Most of the world’s food waste comes from households. Out of the total food waste in 2022, households were responsible for 631 million tonnes equivalent to 60 percent, the food service sector for 290, and the retail sector for 131.
Reducing food waste provides compounding benefits: Food loss and waste generates 8-10 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – almost five times the total emissions from the aviation sector. It occurs while 783 million people are hungry and a third of humanity faces food insecurity.
Other findings include:
Households waste at least one billion meals a day. On average, each person wastes 79kg of food annually. The equivalent of at least one billion meals of edible food is being wasted in households worldwide every single day, using a very conservative assessment of the share of edible food waste. This is the equivalent of 1.3 meals every day for everyone in the world impacted by hunger.
Food waste is not just a ‘rich country’ problem. Following a near doubling of data coverage since the 2021 Food Waste Index Report was published, there has been increased convergence in the average per capita household food waste. High-income, upper-middle-income, and lower-middle-income countries differ in observed average levels of household food waste by just 7 kg/capita/year.
Hotter countries appear to have more food waste per capita in households. This is potentially due to increased consumption of fresh foods with substantial inedible parts and lack of robust cold chain. Higher seasonal temperatures, extreme heat events, and droughts make it more challenging to store, process, transport, and sell food safely, often leading to a significant volume of food being wasted or lost.
Middle-income countries display variations between urban and rural populations, with rural areas generally wasting less. Possible explanations include greater diversion of food scraps to pets, animal feed, and home composting in rural areas. The report recommends focusing efforts to strengthen food waste reduction and circularity in cities.
Only four G20 countries (Australia, Japan, the UK, and the USA) and the European Union have food waste estimates suitable for tracking progress to 2030. An additional two G20 countries have suitable household estimates (Canada, and Saudi Arabia), with Brazil’s estimate expected in late 2024. G20 countries can take a leading role in international cooperation and policy development to deliver SDG 12.3, can use their substantial influence on global consumer trends to promote awareness and education about food waste at home, and can share their expertise with countries just getting started in tackling this issue.
Countries such as the UK and Japan how that change at scale is possible, with reductions of 18 percent and 31 percent respectively. Governments, cities, municipalities, and food businesses of all sizes should work collaboratively to reduce food waste and help householders to act.
