Food Waste

Environmental Impacts Of Food Waste

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Waste Of Natural Resources

It is possible for food waste to harm the ecosystem in a number of ways. Energy, water and fuel are the three main resources that are wasted when we throw away food.

All phases of food production and all kinds of food are dependent on water. 70% of water utilized worldwide is consumed by agriculture. Water for livestock, poultry, and fish rearing is also included in this category, as is irrigation for crops.

Fresh water is wasted when food is thrown away. Countries are anticipated to be uninhabitable in a few decades due to catastrophic water shortages, so saving freshwater is a global priority.

A lot of fresh water is used to grow plants and raise animals. Fruits and vegetables, which are full of water, need a lot of the water to grow. Also, different kinds of plants grow best with different amounts of water. Animals also need a lot of water for their bodies to grow and for their meat to be enjoyable. More water is needed to make meat, but meat is the food that gets thrown away the most.

The Natural Resources Defense Council found that wasted food causes people to throw away a quarter of the water supply. That’s the same as wasting 172 billion dollars’ worth of water. They also found that they spend over $220 billion growing, transporting, and processing almost 70 million tons of food that ends up in landfills.

So, growing food that gets thrown away uses up to 21% of fresh water, 19% of fertilizers, 18% of cropland, and 21% of the space in landfills. If you throw away a kilogram of beef, it’s like wasting 50,000 liters of water. When you pour a glass of milk down the drain, you waste almost 1,000 liters of water. Also, when you think about how food is moved around the world, you realize that a lot of oil, diesel, or other fossil fuels were used.

Contribution To Climate Change

When food goes bad in our landfills, it releases methane, which is a strong greenhouse gas that is twenty five times stronger than CO2 as far as global warming is concerned. When methane is let out, it stays in the air for twelve years and keeps the sun’s heat inside.

Methane is responsible for 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions around the world. When we take into account greenhouse gas emissions that come from using natural resources, the amount of change in the climate is shocking. If a good system for dealing better with food waste was put in place, it would stop 11 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

How Does Food Waste Affect The Environment, Land Degradation Of Land

Food waste is the third largest item found in landfills. Scarily, some studies have found that trash bins are often full of edible food. The Environmental Protection Agency says that America throws away nearly 27 million tons of food each year.

This is a large part of the country’s food supply. This waste has a negative impact on the environment. For example, all that food rots in landfills, producing methane. Since methane is a greenhouse gas, landfills are a contributor to global warming and air pollution. This debris could be stored and processed by dumpster rental companies, which would then help to dispose of it more safely.

11.5 million hectares of the world’s land are used for farming. There are two kinds of land: land that can be used to grow crops and land that can’t (which cannot grow crops). 900 million hectares of land that can’t be grown crops on are used to raise animals that make meat & dairy products.

As more people want to eat meat, more farmland is being turned into places where animals can graze. By doing this, we are slowly ruining our natural land to the point where nothing will be able to grow there anymore.

What Kind Of Trash Comes From Farmland?

Farms are the main source of organic garbage. Farms are abundant with old plants, roots, and other organic waste that can be recycled. Farmers do not have the proper time to collect and dispose of these materials.

In this case, they can hire a dumpster rental company that offers waste removal services, like Bargain Dumpster Atlanta. There are also other sources of organic waste. Organic waste materials are also found in areas that have lots of animal inhabitation.

It is not uncommon to find pig farms and cattle ranches that produce a lot of organic garbage. Organic waste is also generated in pet clinics and animal shelters. Incineration is the main way to get rid of organic waste.

Companies that offer waste disposal hire trucks that use special processes to dispose of it. They use high heat to destroy these waste materials. Like other kinds of waste, composting is another way to handle these organic materials. The composts are actually fertilizer for people who are looking to grow vegetables and plants.

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