Unfortunately, food waste in landfills is a massive problem that is only getting worse. According to Food Waste News, ⅓ of all food produced globally is wasted or thrown away. Where does all this food waste go? Mainly landfills. To bring it close to home, American’s contribute 96 billion pounds of food waste annually. Food waste is overcrowding American landfills, with each American on average producing over 200 pounds of food waste each year.
Let’s get specific to Iowa. The IWRC article, The Importance of Food Waste Reduction, referenced the 2011 Iowa Statewide Waste Characterization Study performed by the DNR and found 13.3% of all landfilled waste in Iowa is food waste. Also, that food waste is the number one category for municipal solid waste in Iowa. Food waste is a serious problem.