Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 263

Food Waste: The World’s Most Solvable Environmental Problem

If you spend enough time watching the news, then you already know that our world has a long list of problems. Many of these issues, especially the environmental ones, seem so far out of our reach that we doubt whether or not our personal efforts will ever make a difference.  

The good news is nothing could be further from the truth. There are a lot of things we do everyday that make a significant difference for a whole list of reasons. One of those things is controlling our food waste. This is far simpler than you think and the best part is that our actions have an immediate impact. 

So join me for E263, Food Waste, The World’s Most Solvable Environmental Problem.

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E263. 

But before we get to focusing on some of our global problems, let’s first talk about the good news story of the week. 

Good News Story of the Week

This week’s good news story has to do with a small act of generosity the benefited an entire village in France. 

Mr Michel Perinchard inherited a large, empty field in Western France. For a long time he nor anyone else in his family had any interest in developing it. 

Then he had the idea to donate the entire land parcel to the town of his childhood—provided the mayor and council promised to turn it into a fruit orchard and community garden that the whole town could benefit from. The town had a population of 560. Estimated development cost was $12K USD. 

Approximately 50 fruit trees were planted last year including apple, pear, and plum trees. This year, another 50 will be planted, as well as a new hedge, flower beds, and flowering trees. It will take about four years before the first harvests. But no one seems impatient. The project has already fulfilled its function: to gather, excite, and return the land to a common use to benefit everyone. 

So, there you have it, a small act of generosity that benefited 560 people. Imagine what a better place our community would be if everyone committed a small act of kindness simply for the benefit of others. 

Now let’s move on to this weeks episode because I am going to give a you a good bit of additional good news about the world’s most solvable environmental problem. Now since this is a lot of information, I am going to have to break this down into two separate episodes. Otherwise, we will be here for an hour. So, let’s get started with Part One. 

If you really focus the world’s most significant problems,  the list is quite disturbing. Climate change, biodiversity loss and species extinction, deforestation and habitat destruction, water scarcity and fresh water depletion, pollution (air, water, soil), plastic pollution and waste overload, unsustainable food systems and food waste, land degradation and soil loss, overconsumption of natural resources, and even environmental injustice and human vulnerability. 

But, the bigger picture here is that all of these issues are deeply interconnected. Climate change worsens water scarcity. Deforestation accelerates biodiversity loss. Pollution undermines food and health systems. It is obvious that fixing these environmental concerns requires fixing the system.

But instead of having a conversation about overwhelm we should shift our focus to strategy. If anything, having an understanding of this list of our top concerns also helps us to focus on high-leverage actions. Things such as protecting ecosystems, cutting carbon emission, and reducing food waste do not require reinventing the wheel or developing new technology. We already have the ability to take effective action. 

But of all the things that we can do, reducing our food waste is one of the most impactful and it is something we can start today and it is some that will have an immediate impact. That is the focus of this episode. 

Of all the things we are doing to destroy our planet, food waste stands out as one of the world’s most solvable environmental problems because it sits at the intersection of human behavior, system design, and immediate opportunity. Unlike many environmental challenges that require new technologies or decades of infrastructure change, food waste can be reduced right now—with tools, knowledge, and systems we already have in place

Food waste is a uniquely solvable environmental issue for a whole list of reasons. 

1) The Solutions Already Exist

We don’t need to invent new science to reduce food waste. The most effective solutions are simple, proven, and accessible:

• Meal planning and smarter shopping
• Better food storage and preservation
• Using leftovers creatively
• Clarifying food date labels
• Redirecting surplus food to people or animals

These are behavioral and logistical fixes, not technological long-shots.

 2) Prevention Is Far Cheaper Than Cleanup

Most environmental problems focus on managing damage after it occurs. Food waste is different in that the prevention of the waste costs less than disposal after the fact.

• It’s cheaper to eat food than to throw it away
• It’s cheaper to prevent waste than to compost or send it to the landfill
• It saves money for households, businesses, and governments

Few environmental actions pay for themselves immediately—food waste reduction is the exception.

Prevention avoids costs; disposal adds new ones

When food is wasted, you’ve already paid for:

• Production (seeds, feed, fertilizer, water)
• Processing and packaging
• Transportation and refrigeration
• Labor at every step
• The purchase price

Disposal then adds new costs:

• Trash hauling or landfill  fees
• Compost collection or processing fees
• Staff time to sort and manage waste
• Environmental cleanup and emissions management

Prevention stops the loss before disposal costs even exist.

Eating food is cheaper than managing waste

At the household level:

• Eating leftovers costs $0
• Throwing food away costs the price of the food plus trash service

At the business level:

• Selling or serving food generates revenue
• Disposing of food generates only expenses

There is no financial upside to disposal—only damage control.

 -Prevention reduces labor, disposal increases it

 -Disposal costs rise as waste increases

Disposal systems scale linearly or exponentially with waste:

• More waste → higher fees

Prevention scales in the opposite direction:

• Better planning → immediate reduction
• One habit change → ongoing savings

Composting is better than landfilling—but still costs more than prevention

Composting is environmentally preferable, but it still involves:

• Collection infrastructure
• Transportation
• Processing facilities
• Ongoing operating costs

While simple prevention avoids all of that.

 Keep in mind that the most sustainable waste is the waste that never exists.

Businesses save substantially with food waste prevention

Restaurants and institutions that track and prevent food waste often see:

• Lower food purchasing costs
• Reduced disposal fees
• Higher profit margins

Many recover prevention costs within weeks, not years.

Municipalities have reduced costs when waste never enters the system

Simple comparison

Prevention

• Eat food you already bought
• Requires planning, awareness, small habit changes
• Saves money immediately
• Reduces labor and emissions

Disposal

• Pay for unused food
• Pay again to remove it
• Adds labor, infrastructure, and pollution
• Produces no value

Bottom line

Food waste prevention costs less because it eliminates waste before resources are spent twice. Disposal is a downstream expense that treats symptoms, not causes. Prevention keeps food valuable, money in pockets, and improve system efficiency. Prevention is an upstream approach. Waste is a downstream approach. 

That’s why food waste reduction is one of the rarest environmental solutions that saves money at every level—household, business, and government.

3) Individuals Have Real Power 

Many global environmental issues feel distant or abstract. Food waste is deeply personal and daily.

• Everyone eats
• Everyone shops
• Everyone stores food

That means individuals can make changes without waiting for governments, corporations, or new laws—and those changes add up fast.

Here’s why it hits so close to home.

-Everyone participates in the food system every day

You can go a day without driving, flying, or buying new things—but you can’t go a day without food.

Every day, people:

• Decide what to eat
• Open the refrigerator
• Prepare meals
• Manage leftovers

Food waste is created—or prevented—during these everyday moments.

-It happens in private spaces, not faraway places

Most environmental harm feels distant: melting ice caps, polluted rivers, burning forests.
 Food waste happens in kitchens, lunchboxes, offices, and refrigerators.

Because our individual waste is a private affair, it often goes unnoticed:

• A forgotten container in the back of the fridge
• Leftovers tossed during cleanup
• Produce that spoiled quietly

These small moments add up.

This is one time where personal habits matter more than big systems

Unlike many environmental issues dominated by industry or infrastructure, food waste is largely shaped by personal routines:

• How much we buy
• How we store food
• Whether we eat leftovers
• How we interpret date labels

Small habit changes—made by millions of people—create massive collective impact.

-The cost is felt immediately

Food waste doesn’t just affect the planet—it affects personal budgets.

• Throwing away food feels like throwing away money
• Grocery bills rise when food isn’t fully used
• Waste creates frustration and stress

That immediacy makes the issue personal in a way few environmental problems are.

-Food waste decisions repeat daily

Food waste isn’t one big decision—it’s dozens of tiny ones:

• “Do I cook this tonight or tomorrow?”
• “Is this still good?”
• “Will I eat this later?”

Because these decisions happen daily, change doesn’t require perfection—just consistency.

-Personal action feels meaningful

Many environmental problems feel overwhelming. Food waste is different because:

• Action is visible
• Results are immediate
• Success feels tangible

An empty trash can or a well-used fridge shelf feels like a win.

-Daily choices scale into global impact

A single wasted meal seems insignificant. But multiplied by billions of people, every day, it becomes a global crisis.

That’s why food waste is both:

• Deeply personal
• Profoundly global

Bottom line

Food waste is personal and daily because it’s shaped by human routines, emotions, time, and care. It doesn’t live in policy papers or distant ecosystems—it lives in our kitchens.

And that’s exactly why it’s solvable: when daily habits change, global outcomes follow.

4) It Reduces Multiple Environmental Impacts at Once

Food waste is a “multiplier problem.” Reducing it tackles several crises simultaneously:

• Climate change (less methane from landfills)
• Water scarcity (less water wasted growing unused food)
• Land degradation (less land farmed unnecessarily)
• Energy use (less fuel for transport, refrigeration, processing)

There are few actions that offer this many environmental benefits from a single shift in our perspective

Food waste prevention is powerful because it’s a single action with ripple effects. When food isn’t wasted, it quietly reduces pressure on multiple global crises at the same time—climate, water, land, energy, food security, and even household economics. Few solutions do that.

Here’s how one choice tackles many problems at once.

-Climate crisis: less methane, fewer emissions

When food is wasted and sent to landfills, it breaks down without oxygen and releases methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.

Preventing food waste:

• Keeps food out of landfills
• Reduces methane emissions
• Avoids emissions from growing, transporting, refrigerating, and disposing of uneaten food

Result: Immediate climate impact without new technology.

-Water scarcity: saving “invisible” water

Food production is extremely water-intensive. When food is wasted, all that water is wasted too.

Land and biodiversity: less pressure on ecosystems

Producing wasted food requires farmland that could otherwise support:

• Forests and carbon storage
• Wildlife habitat
• Soil regeneration

-Energy and fuel use: fewer wasted inputs

Food doesn’t appear magically—it relies on:

• Fuel for farm equipment
• Energy for processing and refrigeration
• Transportation across long supply chains

When food is wasted, that energy is wasted too.

-Food insecurity: more food available without growing more

Food waste and hunger coexist because the problem is distribution and access, not total supply.

Preventing food waste:

• Keeps food available longer
• Enables food recovery and redistribution
• Reduces pressure to overproduce

Result: More food reaches people without increasing environmental damage.

-Economic strain: saving money at every level

Food waste is expensive:

• Households lose grocery money
• Businesses lose inventory and labor
• Cities pay for waste management

-Soil degradation: slowing extractive farming

Overproduction to compensate for waste leads to:

• Soil nutrient depletion
• Heavy fertilizer use
• Long-term land degradation

Why this matters

Most global crises are treated separately:

• Climate plans here
• Water plans there
• Hunger programs elsewhere

Food waste prevention cuts across all of them at once.

-The big picture

Preventing food waste should not be viewed as a “small lifestyle change.”

It’s a systems-level solution quietly disguised as a daily habit.

By simply valuing food more and wasting less, we:

• Cut emissions
• Save water
• Protect land and biodiversity
• Reduce hunger
• Save money
• Strengthen resilience

That’s why food waste prevention is one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost actions immediately available.

5) Most Wasted Food Is Perfectly Edible

Most of the food we waste is perfectly edible because the systems around food—not the food itself—are inefficient, risk-averse, and culturally distorted. The waste happens long before safety or nutrition is actually compromised.

Unlike pollution or toxic waste, food waste is often still good food.

• Leftovers
• Overripe produce
• Food past a quality date, not a safety date
• Surplus from events or stores

This makes food waste emotionally and ethically easier to solve—people want to save food once they realize it’s safe and usable.

“Freshness” Is a Marketing Concept, Not a Safety One

We’re taught that food must be:

• Ultra-fresh
• Recently harvested
• Recently cooked

In reality:

• Many foods improve with time (soups, stews, fermented foods)
• Proper storage dramatically extends edibility
• Refrigeration and freezing preserve nutrition extremely well

Result: Food is discarded because it’s “not ideal,” not because it’s inedible.

Fear of Liability and Illness

Retailers, institutions, and restaurants often throw away edible food because:

• They fear lawsuits
• Food safety rules are complex and conservative
• Staff are trained to err on the side of disposal

Ironically, laws like the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act protect food donors—but many organizations don’t know or trust this.

Result: Edible food discarded to manage risk, not health.

Now, so far in this episode we have covered a few things about our world:

1. We have a long list of environmental problems
2. Most of these problems feel far away and distant so we are completely disconnected from them. 
3. Food waste is the except. 

Unlike so many other global problems, reducing our food waste is one of the easiest things we can do as individuals. There are ten reasons why food waste is the world’s most solvable environment problem. In this episode we have covered five of those reasons. 

-The solutions already exist

-Prevention is far cheaper than clean up

-Individuals have the real power

-It reduces multiple environmental impacts at once

-Most wasted food is perfectly edible

In the next episode I am going to cover another five reasons why this is a problem we can solve. Now to close out this episode, I would like to encourage you to download the transcript because I have a nice info-graphic called the Hierarchy to Reduce Food Waste and Grow Community. There is a lot of valuable information in the graphic so take the time to download it.