The U.S. wastes 63 million tons or $218 billion of food each year—that is roughly 40 percent of food in the country. In addition, food waste represents more than $75 billion in costs to American farms and food businesses, like grocery stores and restaurants. And it’s a $144 billion cost to American consumers, totaling nearly $1,600 per household.
“It’s a huge problem,” says Chris Cochran, executive director of Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data (ReFED) and a 2019 Waste360 40 Under 40 award recipient. “It is not only an enormous issue, but it is solvable. It has huge opportunity for financial and economic benefit but also for environmental and social benefits as well.”
