Food Waste is School Waste
by Iggy Roque
9th Grade
What is food waste
Food waste is a major pollution issue. The food waste issue consists of discarded natural material that rots and pollute the earth. This kind of waste is mainly made of food scraps, along with other organic materials like egg shells and parts of other fruits, like peels and pits.
The reason that food waste is such a big problem is because it releases gases into the air like methane, and rotting organic material can also pollute water systems or kill natural habitats.
The Issue
Approximately a third of the world's food is wasted every year, according to wikipedia. Nearly 5 million dollars of food is wasted within the US school system DAILY. Food waste can have many harmful effects on our planet.
When food is thrown into a trash bin, food scraps will go to a landfill. Without anything to eat the food or repurpose it, the food can become a substantial producer of methane gas into our atmosphere. Food waste also pollutes waterways causing wildlife to die and infect safe drinking water. If humans lose the vital resources and keep unfairly polluting the planet it could have catastrophic effects on humanity.
What Is Food Waste Doing
The Grist article “Waste not, want not schools waste $5 million a day in uneaten food. Here's how Oakland is reinventing the cafeteria” by Jonathan Bloom, the school system wastes a lot of food because students don't want to eat it, and often throw it away, even if it's perfectly good. In the article Bloom states, “Researchers estimate that 40 percent of the American food supply isn’t eaten.” because of this uneaten food a lot of it ends up in a landfill. Bloom also says, “schools often waste food for the simple reason that fixing the problem is nobody’s priority” if people are unwilling to work towards the issue then how will we fix it, as the earth's population grows so does its demand for food.
Bloom also gives one more good reason to stop food waste in his article, “when 12 percent of U.S. households don’t know where their next meal is coming from” if people as close as a few miles away are unable to find a suitable food source then why should the people who have one waste there's. If we want to make a change then people have to act on the issue.
What can we do Even the students play a role. If you get school lunch or lunch from outside, bring back your things and throw them in the right bin. Our school, like many others has installed different bins to help with our pollution issue. Whether it is composted, recycled, or trashed, our need for better waste management is an issue we all face.