Dumpster diving in Nashville to save the world
The average person in America throws away 240 pounds of food every year. That 40% of the food we buy annually.
And an important new study on food waste is being conducted in Nashville right now. Hundreds of homes and businesses across the city are participating by keeping a journal of all the food they throw away.
And behind them, scientists in HazMat suits will be digging through their dumpsters to see if they are telling the truth.
After they leave Nashville, they will do the same thing in Denver and New York City.
They hope to gather information from a thousand homes and more than one hundred businesses and use that information to help us be more efficient with our valuable resources.
Just cutting our food waste in half would save consumers more than $165 billion every year.
Yes, that’s a billion with a “B.”
We would not only save big bucks at the grocery store, but we could also cut our water usage by 25%.
Although we don’t have a big problem in Nashville with water, it’s huge out west and in the farm belt where many aquifers are running dry and citizens are already rationing water.
In addition to the water, we waste 300 million barrels of oil every year on the food that is thrown away. Of course, oil is used to fuel the equipment that raises our crops and brings it to our table, but it also is the main ingredient in most fertilizers.
And if we didn’t waste so much, we might be able to do a better job of feeding those who need our help the most.
If you know me, I can’t stand waste in life or business.
So, I’m proud that Nashville stepped up to participate in this study being funded by the Rockefeller foundation to help America cut food waste in half by 2030.
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