Why is this an issue?
Food waste—a problem that we keep hearing about all the time. But have you ever actually looked into the roots of the issue? Why is this such a big issue that we constantly talk about and is it really such a huge problem? Well, the short answer is yes. Food waste is a gigantic problem that needs addressing not only on an individual level but also governmental one.
To help you illustrate this we are going to take a look at the data regarding both global and national (in this case the Netherlands) food waste. Numbers, in this matter, speak for themselves and leave little room for discussion. With this website we want to aid you in navigating the issue on an individual level - so let’s zoom in on the data regarding household food waste.
Food waste globally
In 2024, a Food Waste Index report was released by the United Nations. Its release was aimed to “catalyse essential action towards reducing food waste” and measuring the actual extent of the issue. The findings there were pretty straightforward and built upon a similar report published three years prior:
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an estimate of 60% of food waste happens on the household level across all income groups
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1.05 billion tonnes of food was wasted in 2022
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food waste (edible food discarded unnecessarily) is much more prevalent in the Western countries,
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whereas food loss (food is damaged or destroyed before the consumer can eat it) is an issue in the Global South
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minimum estimate of 1 billion meals of edible food is being thrown away by households every single day
Food waste in the Netherlands
As you can see, the data regarding global food waste speaks volumes. But what does the situation look like in the Netherlands?
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household waste amounts to 41,2 kilo per person, per year
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consumers contribute to 38% of all food waste and hence are the largest food wasters
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the environmental impact of food waste contributes to 15–16% of the total environmental impact of the food chain
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households in the Netherlands are responsible for a share of 27–39% of the total waste in the chain.
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the European FUSIONS project (2015) reports that at the EU level, 53% of food losses take place with consumers and that about 60% of these losses (32%) consist of avoidable waste
It’s hard not to notice that the numbers in both cases are huge. In the survey we conducted amongst our peers, almost 35% admitted to frequently throwing out food because of buying too much in the supermarkets. So now you are probably wondering - what can I do about it? How can I change my behaviour to reduce food waste? Take a look at the next sections of our website.