Waste Not, Want Not: Addressing Food Security, Save Food and Safe Food

By Stefano Paolo Buñag

“Food waste is a global tragedy. Millions will go hungry today as food is wasted across the world. Not only is this a major development issue, but the impacts of such unnecessary waste are causing substantial costs to the climate and nature”. – Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

When I am asked to speak about packaging and sustainability, I usually start by asking the attendees to rank what the world wastes most based on these categories: Plastics, Paper and Cardboard, Glass, Rubber and Leather, Food and Greens, Wood, Metal,

Others (may be textile, electronic waste, etc.). Plastic always tops the list based on the answers. But based on the 2024 Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 report by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), food waste makes up about 53% of the global average of municipal solid waste composition. Paper and cardboard takes the 2nd spot with 17.5% of the global average. Plastic, on the other hand, is in 3rd place and makes up about 12% of the global average of municipal solid waste composition.

To put this into perspective, in 2022, according to the 2024 Food Waste Index Report of the United Nations Environment Programme, the world wasted an estimated 1.05 billion tonnes of food in the retail, food service and household sectors combined. This amounts to 132 kilograms per capita per year, of which 79 kilograms per capita was wasted in households. This means that every person in the world wastes 132 kilos of food waste per year or 360 grams per day. A can of Sardines here in the Philippines is at 155 grams. A can of Spam is at 340 grams.

ASEAN Perspective

In the Asean region, the numbers are pretty similar. Food waste ranks first in municipal solid waste composition in nine out of ten Asean Member Countries. The outlier is Singapore where food waste is fourth on the list.

Myanmar has the highest percentage of food waste at 74%, followed by Laos and

Thailand at 64%, Cambodia and Indonesia is at 60%, Vietnam at 55%, Philippines at 52%, then Malaysia at 45%, Brunei with 36%. Singapore, as mentioned earlier, is the lowest at 10.5%.

In the Philippines, the UNEP report puts household waste at 2.95 million tonnes a year or 26 kilos per Filipino per year. To put into perspective, that’s about 1 sack of rice per person per year. And that just covers the household waste. It does not cover the food we waste from fast food restaurants, eat all you can buffets and other restaurants and food stalls (mall kiosks and street vendors). It also does not take into account the food we waste in groceries and supermarkets and other retail establishments and the food wasted during transport or improper warehousing or storage.

We need to start now.

Its about time the ASEAN tackles this issue. It is, after all, one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Aside from this, food waste on its way to land fills are still edible. And when they do get to landfills, it then creates high methane and greenhouse gas emissions which harm the environment..

Currently, there is an ASEAN initiative to address the issue of marine plastics. It should take effect in 2025 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the schedule, plans and goals have been pushed back.

Can a multi-sectoral approach jumpstart the discussions? Can the members of the World Packaging Organization – specially those located in the ASEAN take the lead? The answer to both questions is a resounding YES.

It’s about time that WE do something. We can start simple. At home, we can prepare enough that our households can finish each meal or make sure we properly store and consume our leftovers. Do not overstock on fresh items if we can’t consume them  immediately. Store our food items properly.

In restaurants, take home the food we cannot finish. In a buffet, make sure we get only what we can consume and avoid leftovers.

The Packaging Institute of the Philippines and the Australian Institute of Packaging are always in discussions about the SAVE food program of the World Packaging

Organization and how packaging can SAVE food and keep food SAFE. These programs and training courses have been and are being regularly held in multiple countries in various packaging conferences and exhibits.

Food Waste is a Market Failure*

Earlier, we were able to visualize the amount of food we waste yearly and daily. The cost equivalent of the amount of food we waste in a year hits a whopping US$1 trillion or PhP57 trillion. The Philippine Government’s budget for 2024 is at PhP5.7 trillion.

The global average cost of a healthy diet, based on the study of the World Bank Group (www.worldbank.org), is about USD3.96 (PhP225.72) per person per day.

Imagine if we can repurpose the cost of food waste to alleviate hunger? We can boost the issue of food security by keeping our consumption to what is necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle and redirecting the food production surplus to areas or countries with the highest amounts of undernourishment and hunger.

Food Waste is an Environmental Failure*

An estimated 8-10% of global greenhouse gasses are generated by food waste – both from food loss and food waste. The UNEP Food Waste Index report defines food loss as all crop and livestock products that are discarded, incinerated, or otherwise disposed of, and are not used for other commodities like animal feeds, industrial usage, etc. The same report defines food waste as the food and the inedible parts that are removed from the human food supply chain.

Food Waste is Failing Humanity*

In 2022, 2.8 billion people or 35% of the global population, could not afford a healthy diet.

In the Philippines, based on the World Bank Group study, 55.6 million or 48.1% of Filipinos are unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2.5 billion adults were overweight including 890 million who are living with obesity while 390 million were underweight.

149 million children under 5 years old were estimated to be too short for their age(stunted), 45 million were too thin for their height (wasted) and 37 million children were living with obesity.

In the same study, the WHO cites undernutrition as the main cause of stunted and wasted children.

Looking at the Philippine setting, undernutrition has been a serious issue for the past 30 years.

Why does this matter and what does this have to do with food waste and food security?

At COP28 (28th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), “735 million around the world face hunger”. By saving food and keeping food safe, we can help improve distribution of excess food to those that face hunger. By reducing food loss and waste, we can bring down global greenhouse gas emissions, currently at 8-10% – about four times the emissions of the aviation industry.

Most of the methane produced by food loss and waste are emitted from landfills where they cannot decompose properly. This causes the food to degrade slowly which then releases methane gas. In terms of global warming potential, methane gas has 86 times more potential harm than carbon dioxide, according to the Global FoodBanking Network.

One initiative by the Global FoodBanking Network, is to establish global food banks to help decrease the food loss and waste by trying to recover the edible food waste, repackaging them for redistribution.

South Korea, on the other hand, has set up a nationwide food waste management system. This system requires households and businesses to separate food waste for other trash in designated bins or biodegradable bags. These bags costs about $6 a month for a family of four. This fee encourages home composting. By charging for the use of the bags, the fee covers 60% of the operational costs of the program. Since the implementation of the program in 1995, the amount of food waste recycled went from 2% to 98% in 2024.

There are also bins in apartment buildings and on the street that automatically weigh and charge for the discarded food waste. The food waste is then sent out to be used mainly for waste to energy programs and use in animal feed and fertilizers.

Although there are still a lot of challenges, it may be a possibility to look into these types of programs that can help reduce food loss and waste and help encourage citizens waste less and help boost food security.

*I intentionally used these headers that I borrowed from the UNEP report as it captures and encapsulates the effects of food waste and the need for an urgent response.