Food Waste Friday

Food scraps on top of rich, dark compost.

Take the Food Waste Pledge!

Take the pledge and commit to making choices that will keep your food from becoming waste. You can take the pledge as an individual, school, business/organization, household, or community.

When you take the Food Waste Pledge, you’ll commit to:

  • Learn about food waste in Canada
  • Take action to reduce your food waste by:
  • Planning meals and making a grocery list
  • Storing fruits and vegetables properly so they last longer
  • Getting creative with leftovers
  • Thinking about expiry dates
  • Compost leftover organics
  • Share your food waste reduction tips and encourage others to take the pledge on social media using the hashtag #WasteReductionWeek
take the pledge

Facts and Stats

  • It is estimated that Canadians waste $10.37 billion in food lost to landfill – an average cost of $1,766 (in 2019) per household every year!
  • Across Canada, 58% of all food produced is wasted – that’s 35.5 million tonnes of food waste, 32% of which is still edible. This amounts to a staggering loss of $49.46 billion in value.
  • Canada’s food waste is equivalent to 56.5 million tonnes of CO2e annually.
  • When organic material is sent to landfill to decompose it releases methane into the atmosphere, which is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and is the single largest waste stream found in landfills. When composted food waste can turn into a valuable nutrient in compost it can then be applied to farming. When broken down in an anaerobic digester methane can be captured to produce renewable natural gas.
  • When edible food is redirected to food rescue organizations for distribution it maintains its highest value and security is improved for those that need it most: children’s breakfast programs, community centres, drop-in centres, and shelters.
  • In Canada the most prominently wasted foods by weight are:
    • Vegetables: 30%
    • Fruit: 15%
    • Leftovers: 13%
    • Bread and Bakery: 9%
    • Dairy and Eggs: 7%
  • Every day in Canada we waste:
    • 130,000 heads of lettuce,
    • 1,300,000 tomatoes,
    • 2,600,000 potatoes,
    • 650,000 loaves of bread,
    • 1,300,000 apples,
    • 640,000 bananas,
    • 1,000,000 cups of milk
    • 470,000 eggs
  • One-third of all food produced in the world – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – is lost or wasted every year.
  • Globally, if food waste could be represented as its own country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the U.S.
  • The resources needed to produce the food that becomes lost or wasted has a carbon footprint of about 3.3 billion tons of CO2.

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