Abstract
Food waste comprises a significant portion of the waste stream in industrialized countries, contributing to ecological damages and nutritional losses. Guided by a systems approach, this study quantified food waste in one U.S. County in 1998–1999. Publications and personal interviews were used to quantify waste from food production, processing, distribution, and consumption. Approximately 10,205 tons of food waste was generated annually in this community food system. Of all food waste, production waste comprised 20%, processing 1%, distribution 19%, and 60% of food waste was generated by consumers. Less than one-third (28%) of total food waste was recovered via composting (25%) and food donations (3%), and over 7,000 tons (72%) were landfilled. More than 8.8 billion kilocalories of food were wasted, enough to feed county residents for 1.5 months. This case study offers an example of procedures to quantify and compare food waste across a whole community food system.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- NSWMA:
-
National Solid Waste Management Association
- USDA:
-
United States Department of Agriculture
- EPA:
-
Environmental Protection Agency
References
Allen, N. 1994. Composting food scraps at a Georgia prison. BioCycle 35 (4): 90.
American Dietetic Association. 2001. Position of the American Dietetic Association: Dietetics professionals can implement practices to conserve natural resources and protect the environment. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 101 (10): 1221–1227.
Baker, R. 1978. The problem of food waste. New York’s Life Sciences Quarterly 11 (2): 22–23.
Banks, G.H., and R. Collison. 1981. Food waste in catering. Proceedings of the Institute of Food and Technology (UK) 14 (4): 181–189.
Belasco, W. 1993. Appetite for change: How the counterculture took on the food industry. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Benedict, F.G., and A.G. Farr. 1931. The energy and protein content of edible food waste and mixed meals in sorority and fraternity houses. New Hampshire Agricultural Experimental Station Bulletin: University of New Hampshire-Durham, No. 261.
Blair, D., and J. Sobal. 2006. Luxus consumption: Wasting food resources through overeating. Agriculture and Human Values 23: 63–74.
Block, D. 1998. Promoting community composting. BioCycle 39 (3): 76–78.
Bonhotal, J., S. Conway, and L. Leopold. 1994. Waste prevention tools at work. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Media Services Resource Center.
Burton, R.J.F., and G.A. Wilson. 1999. The yellow pages as a sampling frame for farm surveys: Assessing potential bias in agri-environmental research. Journal of Rural Studies 15 (1): 91–102.
Cooper, J.L., K. Dostal, and P.A. Cavroad. 1985. Report of the workshop session on environmental issues. Food Technology 39: 33R–35R.
Engstrom, R., and A. Carlsson-Kanyama. 2004. Food losses in food service institutions: Examples from Sweden. Food Policy 29: 203–213.
Environmental Protection Agency. 1996. Characterization of municipal solid waste by weight. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Falk, P. 1994. The consuming body. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ferris, D.A., and C.W. Shanklin. 1993. Cost of alternative methods of disposal of food waste in a university food service operation. National Association of College and University Food Service Journal 26 (10): 49–56.
Ferris, D.A., R.A. Flores, C.W. Shanklin, and M.K. Whitworth. 1995. Proximate analysis of food service wastes. Agricultural Engineering 11 (4): 567–572.
Freeborne, J. 1993. Food waste diversion at Seattle markets. BioCycle 34 (5): 28–40.
Gallo, A.E. 1980. Consumer food waste in the United States. National Food Review 3 (12): 13–16.
Getlinger, M.J., C.U.T. Laughlin, E. Bell, C. Akre, and B.H. Arjmandi. 1996. Food waste is reduced when elementary school children have recess before lunch. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 96 (9): 906–908.
Hamm, M., and A.C. Bellows. 2003. Community food security and nutrition educators. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 35 (1): 37–43.
Harris, K.J., N.W. Jerome, and S.B. Fawcett. 1997. Rapid assessment procedures: A review and critique. Human Organization 56 (3): 375–378.
Harrison, G.G., W.L. Rathje, and W.W. Hughes. 1975. Waste behavior in an urban population. Journal of Nutrition Education 7 (1): 13–16.
Haughton, B. 1987. Developing local food policies—one city’s experiences. Journal of Public Health Policy 8 (2): 180–191.
Herrin, M., and J.D. Gussow. 1989. Designing a sustainable regional diet. Journal of Nutrition Education 21: 270–275.
Heywood, P., and M. Lund-Adams. 1991. The Australian food and nutrition system: A basis for policy formulation and analysis. Australian Journal of Public Health 15: 258–270.
Hollingsworth, M.D., C.W. Shanklin, B. Gench, and M. Henson. 1992. Composition of waste generated in six selected school food service operations. Food Service Research Review 16 (2): 125–131.
Hollingsworth, M.D., C.W. Shanklin, and E.W. Cross. 1995. Waste stream analysis in seven selected school food service operations. School Foodservice Research Review 19 (2): 81–87.
Hoornweg, D., L. Otten, and W. Wong. 1991. Wet/dry household waste collection. BioCycle 32 (6): 52–55.
Jacob, M.T. 1993. Classifying the supermarket food waste stream. BioCycle 34 (2): 46–51.
Kantor, L.S., K. Lipton, A. Manchester, and V. Oliveria. 1997. Estimating and addressing America’s food losses. Food Review 20 (1): 2–12.
Kling, W. 1943. Food waste in distribution and use. Journal of Farm Economics 25 (4): 848–859.
LaBianca, O.S. 1991. Sedentarization and nomadization: Food system cycles in Hesban and vicinity in Transjordan. Berren Springs, MI: Andrews University Press.
Lieb, K. 1993. Waste from grocery stores. Waste Age 24: 87–91.
Lind, B.A., G.K. Newell, A.D. Dayton, A.G. Vaden, and S. Greig. 1986. Effect of family versus cafeteria style service on students’ attitudes, food intake, and food waste. School Food Service Research Review 10 (1): 18–25.
Luboff, C., and K. May. 1995. Measuring generation of food residuals. BioCycle 36: 66–68.
Lyson, T.A. 2004. Civic agriculture: Reconnecting farm, food, and community. Medford MA: Tufts University Press.
Marquis, K.L. 2001. The managers’ guide to loss prevention. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Food Industry Management Distance Education Program.
Moon, N.J. 1980. Maximizing efficiencies in the food system: A review of alternatives for waste abatement. Journal of Food Protection 43: 231–237.
Munro, R. 1995. The disposal of the meal. In Food choice and the consumer, ed. D. Marshall. New York: Blackie Academic and Professional.
Nelson, M.K. 2000. Characterizing a food system: An analysis of the food and nutrition system of Tompkins County. M.S. Thesis, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca NY.
National Agricultural Statistical Service. 1997. Census of agriculture. http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/index1997.htm.
National Agricultural Statistical Service. 1998. 1998 Vegetable Summary, New York. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture.
National Agricultural Statistical Service. 1999. County estimates report. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture.
National Solid Waste Management Association. 1985. Solid waste amounts, composition, and management systems. Technical Bulletin #85–85.
Newell, T., E. Markstahler, and M. Snyder. 1993. Commercial food waste from restaurants and grocery stores. Resource Recycling 12: 56–61.
Newton, L., and C. Burger. 1994. Source separating small town food waste. BioCycle 35: 40–44.
Ohlsson, T. 2004. Food waste management by life cycle assessment of the food chain. Journal of Food Science 69 (3): 107–109.
Poppendieck, J. 1986. Sweet charity: Emergency food and the end of entitlement. New York: Viking.
Poppendieck, J. 1996. Breadlines knee-deep in wheat. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Rabasca, L. 1993. Food waste from restaurants. Waste Age 24: 77–81.
Rathje, W.L. 1991. Once and future landfills. National Geographic 179: 116–134.
Rathje, W., and C. Murphy. 1992. Rubbish: The archaeology of garbage. New York: HarperCollins.
Robinson, W.B., and R.E. Kraus. 1978. Our wasted and underused food resources. New York’s Food and Life Science Quarterly 11 (4): 3–17.
Sehgal, H.S., and J. Thomas. 1987. Efficacy of two formulated supplementary diets for carp, Cyprinus carpio var communis: Effects on flesh composition. Biological Wastes 21: 179–186.
Senauer, B., E. Asp, and J. Kinsey. 1991. Food trends and the changing consumer. St. Paul: Eagan.
Singer, D., and G. Smart. 1977. Food waste survey unit. Nutrition and Food Science 49: 6–7.
Smil, V. 2003. Improving efficiency and reducing waste in our food system. Environmental Sciences 1 (01): 17.
Sobal, J. 1999. Food system globalization, eating transformations, and nutrition transitions. In Food in global history, ed. R. Grew, 171–193. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Sobal, J. 2004. Food and nutrition systems. In The Oxford encyclopedia of food and drink in America, ed. A.F. Smith, 495–498. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sobal, J. 2007. Using a model of the food and nutrition system for examining whole grain foods from agriculture to health. In Whole grains and health, ed. L. Marquart, D.R. Jacobs, G.H. McIntosh, K. Poutanen, and M. Reichs, 17–25. Ames, IA: Blackwell Publishing.
Sobal, J., and M.K. Nelson. 2003. Food Waste. In Encyclopedia of food and culture, ed. S.H. Katz, 28–29. New York: Charles Schribner’s Sons.
Sobal, J., L.K. Khan, and C. Bisogni. 1998. A conceptual model of the food and nutrition system. Social Science and Medicine 47 (7): 853–863.
Tarasuk, V., and J.M. Eakin. 2005. Food assistance through “surplus” food: Insights from an ethnographic study of food bank work. Agriculture and Human Values 22 (2): 177–186.
Tchobanoglus, G., H. Theisen, and S. Vigil. 1993. Integrated Solid Waste Management: Engineering principles and management issues. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc.
Winne, M. 2005. Waste not, want not? Agriculture and Human Values 22: 203–205.
United States Department of Agriculture. 1997a. Data tables: Results from USDA’s 1994–96 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals and 1994–1996 Diet and Health Knowledge Survey. Washington, DC: United Stated Department of Agriculture.
United States Department of Agriculture. 1997b. A citizen’s guide to food recovery. Washington, DC: USDA.
United States Department of Agriculture. 1999. Nutrient data laboratory. Washington DC: United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/.
University of Arizona, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. 2000. Garbage studies. http://bara.arizona.edu/gs.htm.
von Bertalanffy, L. 1968. General systems theory: Foundation, development, applications. New York: Braziller.
Waste Management Institute. 1998. Composting case studies. Cornell University. http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Cornell.html.
Wenlock, R.W., D.H. Buss, and B.J. Derry. 1980. Household food wastage in Britain. British Journal of Nutrition 43: 53–70.
Woods, R.M. 1998. School foodservice to the rescue. School Foodservice and Nutrition 52 (3): 40–45.
Yepsen, R., and N. Golstein. 2007. Source separated residential composting in the US. BioCycle 48 (12): 27–33.
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this study was presented at the annual meeting of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society. The authors thank the community participants who provided information for this project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Thomas A. Lyson—Deceased.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Griffin, M., Sobal, J. & Lyson, T.A. An analysis of a community food waste stream. Agric Hum Values 26, 67–81 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9178-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9178-1