Between 30% and 40% of the U.S. food supply is thrown out each year. In 2010, an estimated 133 billion lb. of food from U.S. retail food stores, restaurants and homes never made it onto the table. And food waste is the single largest type of waste entering landfills, producing harmful greenhouse gases such as methane.
So say the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency as they launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge in 2013. The program’s goal is to encourage those in the food chain to reduce, recover and recycle food waste.