Do we know
what we are throwing away?

Among all the topics that we, as inhabitants of the Western throwaway society, could tie ourselves to, one topic stands out in particular. Because we could really just do without it. It is also fascinating that we are all of the same opinion on this topic. What topic are we talking about? It gets down to the nitty gritty. We are focusing on the issue of food waste.

Have you ever had to face an idle discussion in which someone expressed the opinion: "But a third of our food should really end up in the bin!". Probably not. And yet that's exactly what happens [1] . A third of the world's food does not end up at its destination, in our stomachs, but is wasted in one way or another.

This is a prime example of a feat that only our human brain is capable of: we don't want to waste food, but we do it anyway. On a grand scale. Psychologists call this phenomenon cognitive dissonance.

Food waste is common across all social classes. More or less spoiled candidates are regularly retrieved from pretty much every Austrian fridge - possibly with the greatest regret and horror - and disposed of in the garbage can.

There are many reasons for this: our hectic everyday life often obscures our view of perishables or haphazard purchases. Or we succumb to the siren-like charm of special offers and bulk packs.

As is so often the case, we need a little nudge to free us from this dilemma between "knowing what we want to do" and "doing something else anyway". I hereby invite you to a gentle 'nudge' of memorable images, numbers and comparisons.

To do this, we will travel briefly to a fictitious country. Let's call it "Wasteistan". In this country, all those foods are grown that are produced but never eaten. Because they are too big, too small, not pretty enough, etc. Or because they spoil on their transportation odyssey halfway around the world. Or because they go bad in stores. Or - and more than half of all food waste in this country shares this fate [1] - because it ends up in the garbage can in our care.

This country is almost as big as Russia [2]. If we wanted to walk through 'Verschwendistan', we would have to take a year to do so. But the amount of water consumed annually in 'Verschwendistan' is also beyond our imagination: 250 km³ [2]. Four times higher than the water consumption of the USA.

And at the annual climate negotiations, too, all eyes would be on the delegates from 'Verschwendistan': after all, this country has the third-highest emissions in the world, after the USA and China [2].

Around 2 billion people could be fed with the food that is produced for free in 'Wasteistan' every year. In view of the fact that almost a billion people worldwide still do not have enough to eat, this probably makes us all shake our heads involuntarily.

If we were to succeed in weaving a global food rescue network as tightly as possible, the issue of hunger could finally be banished from the headlines and consigned to the history books. Which is the goal the United Nations has set itself by 2030 anyway. There is no question that this country should disappear from the map as quickly as possible.

Let's take a brief look back at our everyday reality to see where our contribution could lie. After all, around 500,000 tons of food waste could be avoided every year in Austria alone [3].

The lion's share of this is definitely attributable to private households: 206,000 tons of avoidable food waste per year [3]. On average, every Austrian throws away a quarter of the food they buy [2]. However, there is an urban-rural divide: urban households throw away far more than rural households [4]. Younger people are also much more wasteful with food than older generations.

What is primarily thrown away? Bread and baked goods top the negative hit list of food thrown away, followed by vegetables and fruit. Dairy products and eggs take third place. They are followed by meat and fish [4].

However, out-of-home catering also has a considerable impact, for example through leftover buffets and plates in restaurants or food not served in canteen kitchens, with 175,000 tons of avoidable food waste per year.

Food waste in retail is in the order of 110,000 tons per year. There is room for improvement when it comes to passing on food to social institutions: currently, 6% of food that is no longer saleable is passed on across Austria [3].

But there are also severe losses at the beginning of the value chain. In Central European fields, one in three carrots is left lying around because it is not aesthetically pleasing. A Swiss study also shows how incomplete the chain of complete utilization is, with the result that only 34 (!) out of 100 harvested potatoes are eaten.

And to add one more thing: let's imagine a herd of 230,000 cattle for a moment. This gigantic herd is slaughtered for nothing (every year!) in Germany, only to ultimately become food waste.

We cannot be indifferent to food waste, neither ethically, ecologically nor socially. Last but not least, it also harms us economically. Imagine meeting your neighbor in the yard in front of the garbage cans with his wallet out. Stunned, you watch him sink one banknote after another into the residual waste garbage can. You would probably try to stop him from this madness. Putting €300 in the garbage can just like that.

But in fact, that's exactly what it comes down to. Every Austrian household simply throws €300 into the garbage can every year - in the form of food that is bought but not eaten.

Conclusion: as a human race, we simply can no longer afford to waste food. The good news: much of it is avoidable if we put a mixture of legal, aesthetic and practical adjustments in motion. The bad news? And that's the really special thing about food rescue: there isn't any. We can probably all agree on that.