{"id":34999,"date":"2025-04-21T20:08:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T18:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/?p=34999"},"modified":"2025-04-21T20:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T18:09:20","slug":"food-waste-has-a-surprising-impact-on-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/2025\/04\/21\/food-waste-has-a-surprising-impact-on-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Food waste: The surprising impact on climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Food waste is not only an ethical and economic problem, but also a significant contributor to climate change. According to the United Nations, approximately one-third of all food produced is wasted each year, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udf0d Greenhouse gas emissions from food waste<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Food waste is responsible for an estimated 8\u201310 % of global greenhouse gas emissions \ue200cite\ue202turn0search0\ue201\ue204\ue203When food ends up in landfills, it decomposes and releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 25 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Interestingly, if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world, after China and the US.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udca7 Waste of resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Food production requires a huge amount of resources, including water, energy and land. When we throw away food, we also waste these resources. For example, agriculture uses approximately 70 % of the world\u2019s freshwater reserves. In addition, food waste also represents an economic loss. It is estimated that global food waste causes economic losses of approximately $1 trillion per year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udfe0 Households as the main contributors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to a 2021 UNEP report, households generate up to 60 % of food waste. This means that each of us has the opportunity to contribute to solving this problem.<\/p>\n<p>Much food is thrown away due to misunderstandings about best-by dates. For example, California passed a law banning the use of &quot;sell-by&quot; dates on food packaging to reduce waste.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udf31 Solutions and precautions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are several ways we can reduce food waste and thus its impact on the environment:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Responsible shopping<\/em><\/strong>: Planning meals and shopping can help prevent over-shopping and subsequent food waste.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Proper storage<\/em>:<\/strong> Storing food at the right temperature and humidity can extend its shelf life.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Composting<\/em>:<\/strong> Instead of throwing food waste into landfills, we can compost it, reducing methane emissions.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Education and awareness campaigns<\/em>:<\/strong> Raising awareness about the problem of food waste can motivate people to change their behavior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Food waste has a significant impact on climate change. Each of us can contribute to solving this problem by shopping more consciously, storing food properly and minimizing waste. Reducing food waste is not only a matter of ethics and economics, but also a necessary step in the fight against climate change. <em><strong>Spring<\/strong><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Food waste is not only an ethical and economic problem, but also a significant contributor to climate change. According to the United Nations, approximately one third of all food produced is thrown away every year, representing about 1.3 billion tonnes. \ud83c\udf0d Greenhouse gas emissions from food waste Food waste is responsible for approximately 8\u201310 % of global greenhouse gas emissions [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-znizovanie_co2_cdr_ccs_ccu_dac"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}