Preventing food waste

The cafeteria at Seaton Elementary School in Washington, DC,

has linoleum floors, cinderblock walls, and, because it

doubles as the school auditorium, a stage with a well-worn

red velvet curtain. But what looks ordinary and, at least today,

a little chaotic, is actually a pioneering laboratory set up to

tackle food waste. Along one side of the room is a line of

color-coded bins: black for landfill, yellow for compost, blue

for recycling, and white for milk and other liquids. At the end

of the lunch period, students separate their trash into the

appropriate bins, each of which is weighed and recorded.

There’s also a cart on wheels that serves as a “share table,” a

place where students can leave uneaten or unopened food for

peers who may want or need it.

This idea—that kids who are hungry might be able to grab an

extra carton of milk or take food home—motivates Seaton’s

“wellness ambassadors,” a group of fourth- and fifth-graders

investigating food waste at school. At Seaton, all the students

receive free lunches, and many know what it means to go

hungry. “My grandma and I sometimes put food in a cooler to

give out to the homeless,” says Robert Saunders Jr., a fourth-

grade wellness ambassador. “Someone should eat it if it’s

going to go in the trash.”

The lunchroom weighing and recording began last fall when

the school’s wellness coordinator, Bonnie Gallion, learned

about WWF’s food waste program for schools. “It’s sad to see

all this food going in the trash. But we didn’t know where to

start,” she says.

With WWF’s help, Seaton conducted its first food waste audit

in November 2017. For the second round, on an unseasonably

warm day in February, several wellness ambassadors patrol

the cafeteria, offering stickers to students who finish their

lunches; others help their peers figure out what to throw

where—empty plastic fruit cups go to recycling, but their

aluminum lids end up in the trash. Untouched portions of

cinnamon-sweetened carrots go into the compost bin.

The decline in food waste at Seaton is astonishing. Landfill

waste plummeted 47%, from about 155 pounds in November

to 82 pounds in February. Wasted milk fell 27%, from 52

pounds to 37 pounds. “We’re thrilled to see such a significant

decrease,” Gallion says, though she wonders if giving out

stickers made the difference or whether the food that day

simply weighed less. (It’s also possible that students prefer

spaghetti and meatballs or burgers to the hot ham and cheese

sandwiches served in November.) Regardless, she adds that

“it is encouraging to think about the difference small changes

make.” The school’s next steps are to restart composting,

create a permanent share table, and periodically offer

incentives like stickers to encourage kids to eat up.

Fast. Dramatic. Minimal investment. It’s hard to argue with

these kinds of results. But why is WWF working to slash food

waste in schools? If it seems an odd fit, think again.

Each year, the US federal government serves 30 million

children 5 billion meals, and a lot of it goes in the trash. In

fact, one-third of the world’s food—1.3 billion tons—is lost or

wasted at a cost of $750 billion annually. When we throw

away food, we waste the wealth of resources and labor that

was used to get it to our plates. In effect, lost and wasted

food is behind more than a quarter of all deforestation and

nearly a quarter of global water consumption. It generates as

much as 10% of all greenhouse-gas emissions.

Another negative aspect of food waste is its connection to

species loss. Consider this: Food production is the primary

threat to biodiversity worldwide, expected to drive an

astonishing 70% of projected terrestrial biodiversity loss by

2050. That loss is happening in the Amazon, where rain

forests are still being cleared to create new pasture for cattle

grazing, as well as in sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture is

expanding rapidly. But it’s also happening close to home.

Take, for example, America’s breadbasket: A WWF report

estimates that across the North American Great Plains about

2.5 million acres of native grasslands were lost to crop

production from 2015 to 2016. Such losses have put grassland

birds in perilous decline: Six songbird species, found only in

the Great Plains, have seen declines of between 65% and 94%

since the 1960s. Yet a percentage of the crops grown

eventually ends up in landfills.

“You have a situation on this planet where we are losing

habitats and species because we need to grow more food for

humans,” says Pete Pearson, the director of WWF’s food

waste program. “And then you look at the food waste

statistics and you think, wait...what? We don’t need to take

more habitat away from wildlife to grow more food; we need

to waste less of what we already produce. We are

squandering everything in the name of convenience,

abundance, and cosmetic perfection, and no one understands

that connection. Food waste is a conservation issue.”

The statistics are especially staggering in the United States.

Americans throw away 40% of their food—upward of 400

pounds per person per year. This, while 42 million Americans

report that they don’t have enough to eat.

What these sweeping figures do not tell us, however, is how

to solve the problem. The US government has set an

ambitious goal to halve food waste by 2030. To that end,

WWF is partnering with industries and institutions that have

the potential to make the biggest gains: public schools,

hotels, retail grocers, and agricultural producers. In every

case, success rests on gathering more granular, actionable

data. Doing so is at the heart of every one of WWF’s food

waste initiatives.

Take hotels. The US hospitality industry produces an

estimated 2-4 million tons of food waste each year. This is

driven in part by many hotels’ policies to overproduce food for

banquets and buffets to create a sense of abundance.

To rethink such policies, WWF partnered with the American

Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), which counts brands

such as Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott among its members.

With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, WWF and

AHLA set up demonstration projects in member hotels to

separate and measure food waste and assess the behaviors,

perceptions, and costs associated with it.

For the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC, the pilot program

was a no-brainer, says Phelton Calhoun, the hotel’s executive

steward. It was low-tech and relatively inexpensive, requiring

only some new garbage cans—one set to dispose of and

weigh “pre-production” food, such as fruit and vegetable

peels, and another for food to be composted. The goal was to

create a system first to prevent food waste, second to donate

what could be used elsewhere, and, as a last resort, to divert

the rest from landfills. “It wasn’t more work, just different,”

says Calhoun, who rolled out the project on Earth Day 2017 to

help workers make the connection between the process and

its impacts.

The results were immediate and impressive. In the gallons

and gallons of trash, staff were able to visualize the impacts

of serving that extra tray of sliced beef or strawberries at a

buffet. As important, they could see which foods were left

over. So instead of producing an extra 5% of everything, they

might make, say, extra shrimp, but not chicken. Over the

course of the project, Calhoun saw a 50% reduction in food

waste per guest. He also saved money by reducing weekly

garbage pickups by as much as 40%.

Results were consistent throughout the program. Participating

hotels saw, on average, reductions in food waste of at least

10%. Some properties reported saving 3% or better in food

costs.

Based on the findings, WWF and AHLA released a toolkit for

hotels , challenging the industry to create systems—and a

culture—to address food waste. It outlines opportunities to

engage and empower everyone from the dishwasher to the

head chef. In April, WWF held the first of several meetings, in

Singapore, to bring together hoteliers, associations,

government officials, and NGOs to discuss opportunities to

fight food waste in the hospitality sector globally.

Grocery retailers represent another huge opportunity to reduce

waste. Retailers that once viewed overripe pears or meat near

its sell-by date as sunk costs of doing business now

increasingly see food waste, which totals $18.2 billion

annually across the industry, as something that can be

controlled. Donating what would otherwise be wasted is also a

smart way to fight hunger. According to nonprofit ReFED,

retailers can provide nearly 1.2 billion meals to those in need

by increasing their donations to food pantries.

To that end, in September 2017, Kroger—the nation’s second-

largest grocery retailer, with 2,800 stores—introduced its Zero

Hunger | Zero Waste plan to end hunger and eliminate waste

in its communities, working with national partners WWF and

Feeding America. Again, measuring was the first step. Over

the first six months, Kroger worked with WWF to understand

how food waste was being managed in its stores.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to prevent food waste and

loss in the first place, so much of the work must be done on

the farm. In 2017, WWF worked with researchers at Santa

Clara University, the University of California-Davis, and the

Global Cold Chain Alliance (which focuses on retaining food

quality and safety throughout supply chains) to measure on-

farm losses of four specialty crops: potatoes, tomatoes, leafy

greens, and peaches. The crops were chosen because each

has a significant footprint on the landscape and each is grown

differently and suffers different types of loss.

The studies showed that growing potatoes for processing is

very efficient. Contract growers know what people want (yes,

the answer is french fries) and how much. Potatoes are also

pretty hardy—easy to transport and store. The WWF study

showed an average loss rate of only 2.5%. But the numbers

climb fast when looking at fruits and vegetables for the fresh

market. Tomato growers in Florida saw losses of around 40%;

Arizona leafy green growers lost 56%. In New Jersey, growers

of peaches lost nearly 5,000 pounds of peaches per acre, as

much as 37% of the crop. More still was lost in the packing

houses, where another 108,000 pounds of peaches, or 14%,

was tossed each day.

“There is loss at so many levels,” says Pearson. “Quantifying

that loss across different crops and different parts of the

industry lays the groundwork for rethinking how we do things—

from the ground up.”

In March 2018, WWF gathered academics, government

officials, farmers, and tech experts to start a conversation.

With the data in hand, it was possible to bypass the usual

handwringing and dig into actual solutions. These included

new ways to structure farm contracts, using technology to

more fairly divide costs along the supply chain, and creating

new supply chains to connect growers to alternative markets

that can utilize more of what they grow.

“Until you measure something, it’s not real,” says Pearson.

“I’m hopeful that food systems will look dramatically different

in 10 years because we’re going to start designing them with

zero tolerance for loss and waste.”

“Businesses have a critical role

to play in advancing a more

sustainable food system that is

both good for the world and for

the people it serves. The

results from our partnership

with WWF demonstrate the

importance of implementing

simple, measurable, and

scalable changes to further our

goal of making nutritious food

available for all—without

breaking the back of the

planet.”

DEVON KLATELL

Senior Associate Director and Initiative Strategy Lead for

Food at The Rockefeller Foundation

If WWF’s initial work is about measuring loss in order to

manage it, it’s also about something bigger. Back at Seaton

Elementary, the wellness ambassadors are looking out for the

health of their fellow students and community, for sure;

they’re also campaigning for culture change. “All you have to

do is have lunch with the kids in the cafeteria and you see

that we have to change attitudes and culture,” says Pearson.

If students understand the impacts of wasting food, they may

change their behavior—for life.

Over the past few years, WWF has collaborated with the

School Cafeteria Discards Assessment Project (SCrAP) and

other programs to develop a curriculum aimed squarely at

helping students understand the impacts of wasted food on

natural resources and wildlife—and empowering them to

effect change. (WWF also worked with the US Department of

Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency to

develop a guide to conducting a school food waste audit.)

Last year, more than 25 schools participated in a joint WWF-

SCrAP pilot program; based on feedback from students and

educators, the curriculum and lesson plans were rewritten

and rolled out at Seaton and seven other schools during the

2017-2018 school year. Their feedback will further hone the

materials.

Whether in a farm field or at a hotel buffet, it is only when we

understand a problem that we can begin to fix it.

“We all need to appreciate food a little more, where it comes

from, and what is sacrificed when we grow it,” says Pearson.

“When we sit down at the dinner table, we need to appreciate

its value more. Even if you’re not religious, take a moment to

reflect and give thanks.”

WWF and partners work to prevent food waste from

occurring; donate what cannot be prevented, but is still safe

for people to eat; and divert the rest from landfills for use in

animal feed, compost, or biofuel. Efforts to prevent food

waste (at the top of the inverted pyramid) have the greatest

impact.

SOURCE REDUCTION : Avoid generating

food waste

FEED PEOPLE IN NEED :Donate extra food

to food rescue charities, soup kitchens,

and shelters

FEED ANIMALS: Divert food scraps to

animal feed

COMPOSTING/RENEWABLE ENERGY :

Convert unavoidable food waste to

compost and energy

LANDFILL :Dispose of food as a last resort

Dining out or eating in, you can reduce waste and save money

by making easy changes in how you order, shop for, store,

and prepare food.

Dining out

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

When dining out, ask for a share plate and split a meal with a

dining companion.

DOGGIE BAG IT

55%

OF LEFTOVERS AREN’T TAKEN HOME

Ask to take home restaurant leftovers, and even go the extra

waste-free mile by bringing your own container.

Eating in

BUY UGLY

Gnarly carrots and other imperfect veggies and fruits taste

just as good as perfect-looking ones. Ask your grocer for ugly

produce and give it a try. It may save you money, as well.

SNIFF BEFORE YOU PITCH

90%

OF US THROW OUT FOOD BEFORE IT GOES BAD

Sell-by and best-by labels aren’t the final word in freshness.

Use your own senses to determine what’s still usable and

what needs to go.

PLAN IT OUT

34%

OF AMERICANS RARELY OR NEVER TAKE STOCK OF THEIR

GROCERIES BEFORE GOING TO THE STORE

Take stock of your pantry and refrigerator and make a weekly

menu plan to help yourself avoid buying too much at the

grocery store. Be realistic: Include meals out and leftover

nights.

UTILIZE YOUR FREEZER

Freezing food increases its staying power. Freeze foods you

don’t have time to prepare, and label freezer containers with

frozen-on and eat-by dates.

LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS

Tonight’s leftover roast chicken or vegetable scraps can

become tomorrow’s soup.

MOVE IT OR LOSE IT

44%

OF AMERICANS HAVE FOUND AN ITEM IN THEIR FRIDGE IN

THE PAST MONTH THAT THEY DIDN’T REALIZE WAS THERE

When restocking your fridge, move older items to the front

and use them first.