Last week, founding member of the Zero Food Waste Coalition (ZFWC), ReFED — with support from the Global Methane Hub — released a study revealing methane hotspots from uneaten food in the U.S. The report also included corresponding solutions that can reduce food waste and slash methane emissions.

This first-of-its-kind data emphasizes that wasting less food is a critical lever to mitigate climate change, as it is effectively a one-two punch—reducing methane both in food production and in its disposal. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas that is increasingly being targeted as an “emergency brake” to limit catastrophic warming.

According to the report, surplus food is responsible for almost 4 million metric tons of methane, which equates to nearly 14% of the country’s total methane emissions and is equivalent to what’s generated by 75 million cars annually. Methane comes both from the production of food—primarily beef and dairy—and from systems like landfills and sewers that manage food waste.

The Coalition was excited to see that, in addition to providing an accurate picture of the urgent state of food waste-caused methane production, ReFED also included key strategies for achieving reduced methane emissions from food loss and waste, including:

• Establishing organics diversion infrastructure,
• Addressing consumer food waste, and
• Incentivizing business adoption of food waste prevention solutions.
• Accurate data is critical to implementing the most impactful solutions, and the Coalition congratulates ReFED and the Global Methane Hub teams on this innovative learning tool that will help drive progress toward reducing food waste-related methane emissions, thus helping slow down global warming.
• To read the full report, click here.