Food waste is also a major problem in Australia: Food waste costs the economy around $20 billion each year. (Even animals that have been killed for meat have eaten plants, or have eaten animals that have eaten plants). Half of the food produced in the US is wasted between the farm and the fork! Over 5 million tonnes of food ends up as landfill, enough to fill 9,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. You can also sign up with Too Good To Go, an app that fights food waste by selling extra meals for a lower price at the end of the day, or order from companies that sell ugly produce to shoppers at a lower rate. Globally, we throw out about 1.3 billion tons of food a year, or a third of all the food that we grow. In Russia, approximately 17 million tons of food are wasted annually, which is almost like tossing 1.6 trillion rubles ($25 billion USD) directly into the trash, according toThe Moscow Times. The annual retail value of Australian food waste is estimated at more than $5 billion. One in five shopping bags end up in the bin = $3,800 worth of groceries per household each year. These include consumer education, investment in waste treatment infrastructure, waste diversion from the retail and commercial sector, food collection for redistribution, and research into high value uses for food waste . Food Waste Facts. You can freeze food, eat your leftovers instead of tossing them, sign up for a meal delivery program, make use of food scraps, and simply learn to store food properly. Last year, the New York City Department of Sanitation expanded upon their organics separation rules, proposing that even more food-related businesses would be required to separate organic waste in an effort to keep nearly 100,000 tons of wasted food out of landfills each year. With that in mind, though, the amount of food that countries waste annually is truly astronomical — keep reading for more on how much food is wasted per year by some of the most wasteful countries worldwide. Wasted food is a growing problem in our modern society and an untapped opportunity. Globally, more than 870 million people are chronically undernourished yet 1.3 billion tonnesof perfectly edible food is wasted each year. The U.S. discards about 40 million tons of food every year, according to RTS, which is equal to about 219 pounds per person, and upwards of 30 percent of the country's food supply. This number includes losses that occur at every step in the production of food. One in five shopping bags end up in the bin = $3,800 worth of groceries per household each year. Or at least, that’s what some prominent organizations suggest. Americans waste about a pound of food per person each day, with people who have healthier diets rich in fruit and vegetables the most wasteful, research has found. In Australia : The Government estimates food waste costs the Australian economy $20 billion each year. About half of the amount of food wasted (between 17 and 18 million) is tossed during the last stage of the supply chain, at the grocery store or during consumption. Why Japan's Cherry Blossoms Are Blooming Earlier than Usual This Year, Environmentalists Demand Biden Shut Down the Line 3 Pipeline, Climate Envoy John Kerry's History of Working to Protect the Planet, These Car Companies Are Going All-Electric, 60 percent of that waste is produced at home, companies that sell ugly produce to shoppers. That’s important for at least two reasons. The country wastes approximately $20 billion worth of food annually, which translates to 7.3 million tonnes of food. Concepts: Our food comes from plants. Global Waste Facts. Our food comes from lots of different plant parts. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that the United States wastes 103 million tons of food . There are many reasons why we tend to waste so much perfectly good food. The average Australian family throws out over $3.5k worth of food every year – that’s about a tonne! Food waste that ends up in landfills produces a large amount of methane – a more powerful greenhouse gas than even CO2. China Chinese consumers in the country’s biggest cities wasted 17 to 18 million tonnes of food in 2015, which is enough to feed 30 to 50 million people in China for a year, writes the People’s Daily Online. Every year, 10 million tonnes of food go to waste in South Africa, which is equal to about a third of the food produced nationwide, according to WWF.