It is no secret that America wastes a lot of food. Each year this country wastes 40 million tons of food, the largest contributor to the shocking and disturbing global amount of 1.4 billion tons. There are various reasons why America’s food waste is so high, the first being that consumers overbuy. Food security is a massive issue in this country, and it has been exacerbated by the pandemic. People are over-purchasing food more than ever. Most of the time, people cannot eat all this food and end up throwing it out. Overproduction is also an issue. A lot of food is thrown out for going bad before it is even purchased. While there are many complicated reasons why food waste occurs, one thing is clear as day: this has to end now.

As outlined in the graphic below, greenhouse gases, water and energy waste, fertilizer use, and land are the largest concerns.

We’ll start with greenhouse gases. The machinery, production, and transportation of food requires the burning of a lot of fuel. With greenhouse gas emissions being one of the greatest threats to climate security, we can not afford to produce so many unnecessary gases. Additionally, when food decomposes in a landfill, large amount of methane are released, even further increasing the carbon footprint of food waste.

Water and energy are resources wasted when food is not produced responsibly. Electricity that could be used to power homes, buildings, and more is instead being used to produce food that will ultimately go to waste. Water, being one of the most important resources in the world, is not something we want to be misusing either. Not only is the water treatment intensive, but millions of people accross the world do not have access to clean water, and yet it is something we continue to waste.

Fertilizer is one of the less obvious impacts of food waste. Many fertilizers contain phosphates and nitrates that seep into the soil when crops are watered. This agricultural runoff eventually makes its way into streams and rivers, potentially doing serious damage to the ecosystem. High concentrations of these products can be toxic to fish, and it bioaccumulates up the food chain, ultimately harming humans as well. These chemicals can also cause algal blooms. This is  when large amounts of algae grow in a water ecosystem and essentially use up all the oxygen, making the surrounding water toxic and desomating the ecosystem.

Finally, comes land use. Almost one third of America’s food production ultimately goes to waste. This also means we are wasting a third of our agricultural land! This is land that could instead be restored into wilderness areas to benefit wildlife.

This is a large and overwhelming issue, and as an individual, it can be hard to know where to start or how you can make a difference. Well, the best place to start is right at home. Start by buying less grocieries and keeping better track of when your food will go bad. And while you’re here at PSU, maybe put a little less on your plate when you stop at the buffet!

Images and references:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56271385

Food Waste in America in 2024

https://www.epa.gov/land-research/farm-kitchen-environmental-impacts-us-food-waste#:~:text=Impacts%20include%3A%20greenhouse%20gas%20emissions,to%20California%20and%20New%20York.

https://moveforhunger.org/the-environmental-impact-of-food-waste

Today’s post will explore one of the hottest topics in sustainability and individual environmentalism: fast fashion. The low price and trendy looks of fast fashion can be quite enticing, and in our consumerism-centered society, difficult to resist. While the affordability of these clothes may save our wallets, what is the true cost of fast fashion?

To answer this question, I’ll start by giving a quick background on what exactly fast fashion is. It is the production of clothing and accessories with the goal of producing it as cheaply as possible and to get the cosumer to buy as much as possible. These garments are often low quality and never last long, forcing people into replacing their clothing much more frequently than they should. Fast fashion companies are constatnly updating their styles to apply pressure to consumers to keep buying in order to stay “in style”. They employ something called “micro seasons”, which means they release new styles and lines of clothing multiple times per season instead of just once, which constantly bombards consumers with new styles to choose from. To give some context, some famous fast fashion brands are Shein, H&M, Forever 21, American Eagle, UNIQLO, Zara, and Urban Outfitters.

So what makes it so problematic? Well, many things. Textile waste is a massive one. Since these garments are often not made with care, there is lots of leftover fabric that gets dumped into landfills. The materials are typically synthetic, so they don’t biodegrade. Not to mention, manufacturing textiles and/or growing cotton uses a lot of water and enery, so it is a collosal waste of resources all around. It is estimated that fast fashion is responsible for about 10% of yearly fossil fuel emissions, so while fossil fuels are labelled as the “big bad” of environmentalism, fast fashion is a contender as well. Additonally, with the increase in purchasing that comes with fast fashion also comes an increase in disposal. The aerage American throws out about 70 pounds worth of textiles per year, overwhelming land fills. A lot of the time, these garments are made out of microplastic, so when they are washed, or getting rained on in a landfill, these microplastics leech into the earth and ground water, leading to serious water pollution and the bioaccumulation of microplastics up the food chain. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues associated with fast fashion.

What can we do? To put it simply, stop buying clothes you don’t need, and when you do buy more, research sustainable brands to buy from. That being said, the affordability of fast fashion can make it the only clothing some people can afford. However if you can afford higher quality, do the planet a favor and buy responsibly.

Images and References:

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-chile-dumping-ground-fast-fashion.html

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/what-fast-fashion-why-it-problem#:~:text=Fast%20fashion%20is%20’fast’%20in,few%20times%20before%20being%20discarded.

https://www.treehugger.com/fast-fashion-environmental-ethical-issues-4869800#:~:text=Besides%20the%20sheer%20bulk%20of,flights%20and%20maritime%20shipping%20combined.

https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/plastic-problem/plastic-affect-animals/plastic-food-chain/#:~:text=When%20plastic%20ends%20up%20in,a%20process%20called%20bio%2Daccumulation.