The volume of food waste generated in the United States has been growing since 2016. In 2019, 66.22 million tons of food waste were generated in the country. This is an increase of almost four million tons compared to the food waste generated in 2016.

This statistic represents the volume of wasted food in the United States in 2015, broken down by facility. In that year, American households generated approximately 27 million metric tons of food waste.

Food waste in the United States – additional information Farms, grocery stores, and restaurants are often blamed for creating vast amounts of food waste, where in reality, families and households generate the largest volume of wasted food, totaling some 27 million metric tons in the United States in 2015, which equaled about 144 billion U.S. dollars. A large proportion of food that goes to waste is from perishable items such as fruits and vegetables, which accounted for about 42 percent of waste in 2015. Fruit and vegetables are some of the least expensive, yet, fastest to spoil and thus, often get discarded. On the other hand, seafood and meats are among the most expensive items and are two of the least discarded products. In one survey, almost half of the American respondents believed that grocery stores could help consumers reduce waste by offering certain food items in smaller quantities. Others believed that offering bulk food bins and incentives to encourage buying things when they are needed could also reduce the production of food waste. Annually, the U.S. sends about 52.4 million tons of food to the landfill and another 10.1 million tons remain unharvested from farms. A significant portion of the unharvested food is due to cosmetic imperfections, but is mostly left on site to be composted. Waste from farms is usually only sent to landfills due to surplus and rejected products from packinghouses. However, only about 10 percent of food waste from consumer-facing businesses and homes are recycled and recovered. Transportation costs for food scraps tend to be disproportionately high and market values for energy and compost end products from scraps are worth less than those garnered from plastics and metals.

These Flow-By-Sector (FBS) datasets capture food waste flows between waste-generating sectors and waste management pathways. The sectors are generally North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2012 codes. The first dataset, method 1 (m1), attributes food waste generation and disposition data from the USEPA Wasted Food Report to sectors. The second method, method 2 (m2), attributes wasted food data from the National Commercial Non-Hazardous Waste (CNHW) FBS dataset to sectors. These food waste datasets were generated with FLOWSA v1.3.2 (https://github.com/USEPA/flowsa/tree/v1.3.2). M1 is generated with https://github.com/USEPA/flowsa/blob/v1.3.2/flowsa/methods/flowbysectormethods/Food_Waste_national_2018_m1.yaml and m2 is generated with https://github.com/USEPA/flowsa/blob/v1.3.2/flowsa/methods/flowbysectormethods/Food_Waste_national_2018_m2.yaml. The metadata text files included as a supporting document records the FLOWSA tool version and input dataset bibliographic details. The CNHW data were generated in FLOWSA v1.3.0, with the method file https://github.com/USEPA/flowsa/blob/v1.3.0/flowsa/methods/flowbysectormethods/CNHW_national_2018.yaml.

This statistic represents the value of food wasted in the United States in 2015, by facility. In that year, American households generated food waste worth of some 144 billion U.S. dollars. In total, food worth of about 218 billion U.S. dollars was wasted by households, consumer-facing businesses, farms and manufacturers in 2015.

These data were used to generate the results in the article “Household Food Waste Trending Upwards in the United States: Insights from a National Tracking Survey,” by Ran Li, Yiheng Shu, Kathryn E. Bender & Brian E. Roe, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (doi – pending). The Stata code used to generate results is available from the authors upon request. U.S. residents who participate in consumer panels managed by a commercial vendor were invited by email or text message to participate in a two-part online survey during four waves of data collection: February and March of 2021 (Feb 21 wave, 425 initiated, 361 completed), July and August of 2021 (Jul 21 wave, 606 initiated, 419 completed), December of 2021 and January of 2022 (Dec 21 wave, 760 initiated, 610 completed), and February, March and April of 2022 (Feb 22 wave, 607 initiated, 587 completed). We are not able to determine if any respondents participated in multiple waves, i.e., if any of the observations are repeat participants. All participants provided informed consent and received compensation. Inclusion criteria included age 18 years or older and performance of at least half of the household food preparation. No data was collected during major holidays, i.e., the weeks of the Fourth of July (Independence Day), Christmas, or New Years. Recruitment quotas were implemented to ensure sufficient representation by geographical region, race, and age group. Post-hoc sample weights were constructed to reflect population characteristics on age, income and household size. The protocol was approved by the local Internal Review Board. The approach begins with participants completing an initial survey that ends with an announcement that a follow-up survey will arrive in about one week, and that for the next 7 days, participants should pay close attention to the amounts of different foods their household throws away, feeds to animals or composts because the food is past date, spoiled or no longer wanted for other reasons. They are told to exclude items they would normally not eat, such as bones, pits, and shells. Approximately 7 days later they received the follow-up survey, which elicited the amount of waste in up to 24 categories of food and included other questions (see supplemental materials for core survey questions). Waste amounts in each category are reported by selecting from one of several ranges of possible amounts. The gram weight for categories with volumetric ranges (e.g., listed in cups) were derived by assigning an appropriate mass to the midpoint of the selected range consistent with the food category. For the categories with highly variable weight per volume (e.g., a cup of raw asparagus weighs about 7 times more than a cup of raw chopped arugula), we use the profile of items most consumed in the United States to determine the appropriate gram weight. For display purposes, the 24 categories are consolidated into 8 more general categories. Total weekly household food waste is calculated by summing up reported gram amounts across all categories. We divide this total by the number of household members to generate the per person weekly food waste amount.

This statistic shows the results of a survey among Americans in 2017 in regards to their most commonly wasted food types, with a breakdown by ethnic group. As of March 2017, some 58 percent of Hispanic or Latin American respondents stated that they threw away dairy products most often.

Summary statistics of food waste tendency (score of 0 to 100).

The food waste management market is projected to be valued at US$ 70.0 billion in 2023 and is rising to US$ 121.8 billion by 2033. Sales of food waste management systems are likely to grow at a CAGR of 5.7% during the forecast period.

Top Two Segments in the Market

Top Countries Data Table Mentioned Below

Scope of Report

How big of a problem is food waste in the United States? One thousand United States adult citizens responded to this question. Around 60 percent of those surveyed said it is "a very big problem." Notably, ten percent of respondents were unsure if food waste is a big problem.

Diverting food waste from landfills is crucial to reduce emissions and meet Paris Agreement targets. Between 2014 and 2024, nine US states banned commercial waste generators---such as grocery chains---from landfilling food waste, expecting a 10–15% waste reduction. However, no evaluation of these bans exists. We compile a comprehensive waste dataset covering 36 US states between 1996 and 2019 to evaluate the first five implemented state-level bans. Contrary to policymakers' expectations, we can reject aggregate waste reductions higher than 3.2%, and cannot reject a zero-null aggregate effect. Moreover, we cannot reject a zero-null effect for any other state except Massachusetts, which gradually achieved a 13.2% reduction. Our findings reveal the need to reassess food waste bans, using Massachusetts as a benchmark for success., The raw data for this paper have been received by individual states in PDF or Excel files. (For each state there might be several PDF or Excel files for each year.) In the data we uploaded on GitHub, we transferred these raw data (the various pdfs and excels) into a single CSV file and have created a standardized waste outcome---specifically, state-generated, municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal. In the README file, we include more details regarding all the other supporting data and code we have used., , # Data for: Of the first five US states with food waste bans, Massachusetts alone has reduced landfill waste

https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bzkh189h4

In this repository, we provide all the data and necessary information for replication of our paper titled "Of the first five US states with food waste bans, Massachusetts alone has reduced landfilled waste". We include all the raw data and software we used to produce all tables and figures in this paper. Additionally, for easy replication, we include some outputs generated by our code, such as power analysis results. These are available in the "Data from Code" section.

Raw data

1. Waste data: includes all the data we use for our analysis (power2_impexp.csv)
   • Note: in this file "disposal" refers to state-generated MSW for disposal. That is, we have (i) used only the MSW fraction of the total waste and (ii) excluded the imported waste and included waste exports. (For more details, please se...

This statistic represents the value of food that was waste every year in households in the United States in 2018, with a breakdown by leading state. In this year, households in Texas wasted about 1,100.82 U.S. dollars worth of food. About a quarter of food in American households is wasted each year.

This statistic represents the average daily per capita food waste in the United States between 2007 and 2014, with a breakdown by product group. During the time period, roughly 164 grams of fruits and vegetables were thrown away per capita per day.

Graph and download economic data for Export Price Index (Harmonized System): Residues and Waste from the Food Industries; Prepared Animal Feed (ID23) from Dec 1992 to Feb 2025 about animals, waste, harmonized, exports, food, industry, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

This dataset provides estimated tons generated and recycled by U.S. zip code and material. It relies on materials management reports and surveys from various states and regions, State Measurement Program (SMP) data, Ball Corporation’s Fifty States of Recycling report, EPA’s Excess Food Opportunities Map, and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American County Survey dataset. Quantities generated and recycled by zip code were estimated by dividing state reported generation and recycled quantities by the population for each state and for each material to arrive at state-specific per capita rates and then those per capita rates were applied to the population of each zip code in each corresponding state. Estimated recycling potential for each material is the difference between estimated tons generated and estimated tons recycled. Those zip codes with the greatest difference in generated and recycled tons have higher estimated recycling potential. The data was then integrated with a U.S. Census Bureau Tiger Database zip code shapefile to create the resulting data layer. The zip code shapefile was simplified to remove vertices. This dataset includes 16 recyclable material types: aluminum, cardboard, electronics, food waste, glass, HDPE bottles #2, PET bottles #1, PET other #1, PP (polypropylene) containers #5, rigid plastics #3 to #7, steel cans, tires, paper, textiles, yard trimmings, and wood. Note that there are certain materials for which data are not available for every state. In these cases, the layer will only display zip codes where data is available. This dataset is a snapshot of U.S. recycling quantities, infrastructure, and materials markets as of 2019-2021. The map was created by Industrial Economics, Inc. (IEc), a consultancy supporting EPA to develop the Recycling Infrastructure and Market Opportunities Map. The map is managed by EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management. This project was supported in part by an appointment to the Research Participation Program at the Office of Land and Emergency Management, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and EPA.

This table lists composting facilities associated with the Food Waste Recipient Count by Zip Code GIS dataset. This table identifies operational composting facilities, and some currently accept excess food as a feedstock. This dataset was compiled in 2018 using composting facility data from various state websites or provided by state agencies as detailed in EPAs 2019 publication: Technical Methodology for the EPA Excess Food Opportunities Map. This dataset contains 3,021 facilities.

United States Exports of residues, wastes of food industry, animal fodder to Ukraine was US$602.4 Thousand during 2024, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. United States Exports of residues, wastes of food industry, animal fodder to Ukraine - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on March of 2025.

Food wasted in primary and secondary education institutions creates nutritional losses, financial inefficiencies, and environmental degradation. While there is some evidence of how particular interventions within schools may influence the amount of waste created, there is little recent information about typical levels of food waste generated in U.S. primary and secondary schools and how waste correlates with school and meal characteristics. We analyze data reported by more than 100 schools from 24 states as part of the World Wildlife Fund’s Food Waste Warriors project and identify how plate and beverage waste from school lunches are associated with school and meal service characteristics. We find schools that permit students to choose their own amount of milk report 76% less milk waste than those reliant upon individual milk cartons while schools that implement at least one non-curricular intervention (e.g., a table where students can share unopened food) report significantly less produce waste than other schools. We confirm several patterns observed or hypothesized in the literature, including more waste generated by younger students and during the earliest and shortest lunch periods. We document several novel associations including more plate waste at smaller schools, during winter months and in the Northeast region. We find several nuanced patterns of waste related to the prevalence of free and reduced meal service and whether all meal elements are offered versus served. While this study cannot support rigorous evaluation of intervention effectiveness, it provides insights into school and program characteristics that may pose challenges for schools interested in reducing student plate waste.

This statistic shows the annual food waste in the United States as of 2015, distributed by disposal location. According to the source, approximately 62.5 million tons of food is wasted in the United States each year. About 52.4 million tons of that amount is sent to the landfill, while the other 10.1 million tons are on-farm loss.

United States Imports: Mexico: Residues & Waste From the Food Industries, Prepared Animal Feed data was reported at 14.203 USD mn in Dec 2024. This records a decrease from the previous number of 14.268 USD mn for Nov 2024. United States Imports: Mexico: Residues & Waste From the Food Industries, Prepared Animal Feed data is updated monthly, averaging 1.921 USD mn from Jan 2002 (Median) to Dec 2024, with 276 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 17.154 USD mn in Oct 2024 and a record low of 0.172 USD mn in Oct 2004. United States Imports: Mexico: Residues & Waste From the Food Industries, Prepared Animal Feed data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by U.S. Census Bureau. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.JA159: Imports: HS: Mexico.

United States Exports: France: Residues & Waste From the Food Industries, Prepared Animal Feed data was reported at 1.974 USD mn in Jan 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 2.140 USD mn for Dec 2024. United States Exports: France: Residues & Waste From the Food Industries, Prepared Animal Feed data is updated monthly, averaging 0.474 USD mn from Jan 2002 (Median) to Jan 2025, with 277 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 35.610 USD mn in Jan 2023 and a record low of 0.027 USD mn in Feb 2019. United States Exports: France: Residues & Waste From the Food Industries, Prepared Animal Feed data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by U.S. Census Bureau. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.JA042: Exports: HS: France.