Curious about food waste’s environmental impact after it’s been sent to a landfill? A report from the UK provides the dirt on London’s food waste carbon footprint. (If you’re curious, here’s the entire report.) The headline:
Londoners produce food waste which emits 6.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, a new report reveals.
Just how bad is that? I’m not quite sure, since my last name isn’t Gore and the press release doesn’t provide any context. Still, I know it’s millions of tons more than there has to be.
The report uses the estimate that 25 percent of landfill waste is food, which is a bit high for the U.S. (it’s 18 percent here, according to the EPA). While our rate is slightly lower than Britain’s, I’d guess that we have a few more landfills than the U.K.
One final note: the City of London studied this topic. Can you imagine Washington or New York City having that kind of interest in the effects of food waste? Me neither.
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