The specific Problem and Community of Focus:
The specific problem is how restaurants are throwing out most of their unused food. Most of the food waste from restaurants is not used and just thrown away instead of being composted of donated. Our community of focus is first the restaurants because they are the ones who are This affects the environment because all of the unused food rots and produces bad toxins like methane.
- 1. All of the unused food restaurants throw out, are rotting so quickly that it generates methane at a fast pace. Methane is a greenhouse gas that’s 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Meaning it is bad for the environment and a big factor in climate change.
- 2. The amount of food wasted in restaurant is equivalent to about 940 billion dollars a year. Not to mention that ⅓ of it is from non consumption of food.
- 3. According to The Good Stuff, 15% of the food the store receives is wasted just because it is unused.
- 4. In US restaurants alone, we create anywhere from 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste a year. 4-10% is wasted before getting to restaurants. 17% of food given to the consumer is wasted.
5. The American restaurant industry has a big food waste problem. A 2014 study by the Food Waste Reduction Alliance found that 84.3% of unused food in American restaurants ends up being disposed of, while 14.3% is recycled, and only 1.4% is donated.
6. According to Ingrid Hung, who works in fine dining, said that 70% of food that comes into fine dining is thrown away just because they can only serve the best of the best food to the customers. |