Bonnie Lang

Food waste isn't just not wanting to leave food on your plate at a restaurant or at the dinner table. Food waste is causing and creating dangerous  gasses like methane and excess carbon dioxide.

Food waste is polluting our air and waterways. It is ruining our planet. It produces methane - a greenhouse gas that is  even more potent than carbon dioxide. I believe that we need to do something about this.

As of September 2021, it was estimated that approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food was wasted globally each year. This is a primary cause of thee current methane gas production. This isn't the only problem caused  by food waste;

Food waste is not just an inconvenience; it is a moral and environmental challenge that demands our immediate attention.

According to World vision, up to 811 million people, about 10% of the worlds population, regularly go to bed hungry. More than 48 million people are facing emergency levels of hunger, with the threat of acute malnutrition, starvation and death, according to the WFP. And yet we still choose to waste food instead of using it for good.

Some ways that shops  and businesses can help change this are by either donating food that they  don't sell, for example, donuts. Or if the food is no  longer edible in that form, someone can take the food and make compost to create vegetable and fruit gardens.

We create more carbon emissions by wasting this produce, would you like to know how?

According to EPA, Approximately one third of the food produced is never eaten. When food is produced but unnecessarily wasted, all of the resources used to grow and transport the food from farms to shops, and then to our tables, are wasted as well.

This is causing more unnecessary air pollution due to the vehicles used to transport this  produce, producing excess carbon dioxide. 

If we want to save our planet we need to become more manageable in our food waste, this will save money, reduce our air pollution and save lives.