Reducing Wasted Food
Between 25 to 40 percent of all food grown or imported into the U.S. and Canada for human consumption is never eaten, costing consumers and businesses $218 billion annually in the U.S., and $31 billion in Canada. The impact of food waste is felt not only in our landfills and our wallets, but also in its carbon footprint, amounting to 2.6 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Preventing wasted food altogether—and promoting rescue and recovery efforts downstream—holds significant potential to reduce greenhouse emissions on the West Coast. We are working together to reduce wasted food regionally through a combination of prevention, rescue, and recovery strategies.
HIGHLIGHTS
Regional Commitment: 50% Reduction by 2030
PCC partners—Washington, Oregon, California, British Columbia, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland and Vancouver, British Columbia—have committed to a regional goal of halving food waste by 2030. Reaching that goal will require public and private sector efforts to prevent, rescue and recover wasted food, engagement from industries across the supply chain, and developing jurisdictional specific strategies, including prevention goals, that will reduce the amount of edible food that is wasted. Learn more about this commitment and strategies to reach it in this 2020 policy brief on reducing wasted food.
The Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment (PCFWC) is cutting regional food waste and creating a more sustainable food system through innovative cross-sector collaboration and partnerships. Since beginning data collection in 2019, the PCFWC and its partners have made significant and measurable progress in reducing the amount and impact of food waste in the region. See the PCC Food Waste factsheet to learn more about regional successes.
Food Retail and Brand Manufacturer Engagement
To effectively reduce wasted food, we need broader engagement and leadership from industry across the supply chain in addition to policy actions at the local, state and provincial level. The PCC invites leaders from the food product and retail industries to collaborate and convene with west coast jurisdictions to commit to reducing wasted food 50% by 2030, jointly create interim benchmarks to 2030 that address a full suite of options to measure, act and report on reducing wasted food across the supply chain, and work together to develop tools to support industry in meeting this goal and ensure meaningful measurement and waste prevention practices by food retailers and their suppliers.
