Is Waste Ethical?

Have you ever wondered where all the food goes that we don’t eat? Well, as it turns out, after being sorted into many different groups, including compost, it still mostly ends up in the landfill. Landfills can cause harmful local environmental impact, which can even lead to global impact. Every time we waste food, we are contributing to the 92 billion pounds of food that the United States wastes each year. And if our country wastes this much, imagine how much food we waste globally! 

Food waste affects more people and places than you might think. First, food waste is not fair to all the workers who spend time growing and harvesting plants and crops. Instead of appreciating the work that they are doing for us, our food waste simply contributes to water pollution, air pollution, and even greenhouse gas emissions! These impacts can lead to habitat loss and another very large impact we’ll explore further: global warming. 

Global warming affects ecosystems and communities around the world. We often think that it only affects animals, but that's not true. We have learned that it causes sea levels to rise and changes weather patterns, meaning that our daily water and food supplies could be affected. In short, we are not only putting ecosystems in danger, we could be putting ourselves in danger. 

To help with global warming and habitat loss through reducing food waste, we can do many things. Some tips to help with global warming are using less energy by switching to more efficient appliances, reducing food waste by donating extra food, conserving water by taking shorter showers, recycling, and encouraging sustainable transportation! Some tips that can help with habitat loss include using nature-based products and helping to care for our environment! 

If we follow these tips, we can be one step closer to living on a happier, healthier planet. There are so many ways that we can reduce waste. We should be doing as much as we can to help our planet. Let’s do our best to help our planet and save as much as we can!