The multi-faceted impacts of food waste reach far and wide, affecting all aspects of our lives. A little food dumped can go a long way in influencing the various aspects of our world.

The wastage of food also implies the inefficient allocation of resources, and the failure to maximize the usage of scarce resources.

A large amount of organic elements is required as input for agriculture, such as land (soil), water, animal feed and fertilizer. The amount of raw materials put into producing food equates to the amount of food produce that comes out of it. Hence for every unit of food wasted, it is equivalent to the amount of resources required to produce that unit of wasted food. This results in an inefficient allocation of the already-scarce natural resources. The resources that went into producing the wasted food could have been allocated for other essential use of it.

Environmental

Pollution has close links to food waste, by both the production and disposal of the wasted food.

Air pollution: According to the author of the book ‘Waste’, Tristram Stuart, anaerobic decomposition of food waste disposed in landfills produces methane, a gas over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. The growing and transporting of the food that goes to waste creates carbon emissions as much as 39 million passenger vehicles. Other sources of air pollution created by the food industry are deforestation for more crop land and the practice of uncontrolled crop burning at the end of harvesting season.

Land pollution:

During the production process, a large amount of synthetic fertilizers is used to boost the growth and quality of plants and crops. The usage tends to be excessive which itself is harmful to the soil, as it causes the soil to be logged with excess minerals, polluting it and degrading the soil’s ability to retain water, as well as reducing fertility over time. Pesticides used for pest control also become toxic pollutants which disrupts the food chains in the ecosystem. The substances produced by large amounts of decomposing food waste disposed in landfills may also leach into the land below the landfills, polluting the land and groundwater below. Our unnecessarily growing demand for food will only cause this trend to worsen.

Water pollution:

As mentioned earlier, substances from decomposing food waste in landfills pollutes the groundwater below the landfills. The contaminated groundwater beneath will eventually flow to main river streams and merging downstream eventually as it flows towards the ocean. The substance leaked from decomposing food waste are usually nutrient-based substances, and together with the excess amounts of compounds such as nitrogen and phosphorus from artificial fertilizers, a nutrient overload is created in the water which is harmful to aquatic life living in water bodies.

Food waste also has a close link to the worldwide issue of climate change today. Being organic items, food waste tends to generate more greenhouse gases than most other types of waste when decomposing n landfills, which exacerbates the impact of each unit of food being discarded. As we all know, the excessive amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the main culprit for causing global temperatures to rise, and the global food system is responsible for up to one-third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Social

Food wastage is a phenomenon that is proof of a careless and frivolous culture within our affluent society. This lack of mindfulness contributes to worldwide hunger, a phenomenon that is not salient for nor directly affecting us, but not therefore any less real.

While Singapore rests snugly on the side of the world with filled stomachs and excess food, there are many other people in the world who suffer from hunger and malnutrition. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, around 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally every year and believed to be enough to feed the world’s 815 million hungry people four times over.

A significant portion of them come from Africa and South Asia. Starvation has resulted in the deaths of many in these areas, while the others are left with malnutrition which gives rise to many deficiency-related diseases and health disorders. The amount of food thrown away each year could have helped to save many lives in these underdeveloped corners around the world.