Facts and Statistics

The outrage of wasted resources is compounded when we consider the need of the hundreds of millions of hungry people in our world. Rather than ensuring that the fundamental needs of all people are served, our throw-away, profit-driven society continues to pollute the Earth with massive waste.

LINKS ABOUT OVER-CONSUMPTION
Story of Stuff – Materials Economy Explanation Movie

FOOD WASTE FACTS
See the great compilation of facts on the website of Tristram Stuart, author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal.
Almost half of the world’s food thrown away, Guardian, 1/10/2013
How America is Losing Up to 40 percent of its Food, NRDC (PDF)
Food Waste and Environmental Impact  a hard-science article with mathematical methods for estimating food waste. Among the facts here: US per capita food waste has progressively increased by 50% since 1974, reaching more than 1400 calories per person per day.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF WASTE
Garbage: How Can my Community Reduce Waste?
Rotten Truth About Garbage
Waste Production Must Peak This Century

We Have A Garbage Crisis
New York City’s Garbage Crisis
Food Waste is Water Waste — Food waste now accounts for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and 300 million barrels of oil per year.
(see: “Food Waste and Environmental Impact“, cited above)

HUNGER FACTS
New York City Hunger Facts
from City Harvest
Global & Domestic Hunger Statistics (PDF) [Source: bread.org]