Reducing Household Food Waste

It happens. The blueberries are forgotten in the back of the fridge and start to grow fuzzy coats of mold. The “Best By” date quietly ticks by on a can of cranberry sauce before Thanksgiving comes around again. After dinner, the picked-over steamed veggies are scraped off plates and into the trash.

It happens, again and again, in households around the world. In the European Union alone, more than 59 million metric tons of food waste were produced in 2022, with 54% coming from households—that’s a big slice of the pie.¹ All this waste comes at a price: in the UK, it’s estimated that wasted food costs an average household of four £1,000 (approximately $1,200) per year.² Food wasted at the end of the supply chain has the highest environmental impact due to the accumulation of resources required as it progresses from farm to table, making it a major source of ecological harm.³

The amount of waste is monumental, and there is a dire need for more intervention on this front. A 2022 report from Swedish Waste Management found that of the “good” examples of interventions for reducing food waste in Sweden, few targeted households specifically.⁴ Many individuals struggle to recognize their contribution to the issue, with 59% of those in the UK claiming to waste “hardly any” food.⁵ Despite this dissonance, the waste is coming from somewhere: just about 72 kilograms per person per year.¹

Policymakers, food retailers, educators, and nonprofits that are invested in a sustainable future all have a role to play, but the road ahead is tough to navigate. Making food waste visible and manageable requires varied behavioral interventions that help consumers build awareness and form better routines. Households need targeted guidance to help them avoid excessive consumption patterns that lead to waste, learn how to adapt plans around food availability, and become better judges of what to keep and what to toss.