Food waste is a massive problem in the United States.  Currently, a large portion of food is wasted in the United States and this wasted food ends up in various places.  These charts document the pathways in where wasted food ends up after it goes unused in 2018.  The column chart on the left depicts the weight in US tons of wasted food and approximately how many tons of wasted food end up in each place.  As you can see, the largest number of wasted food ends up in landfills with 35,277,543 tons of wasted food managed by landfills.  This massive number dwarfs any other pathway for wasted food.  For instance, wasted food used on land application is only 259,448.  The amount of wasted food that ends up in landfills is 135.97 times greater than the amount of wasted food used for land application.  The pie chart on the left details the same numbers however this chart gives the percentages of where wasted food ends up. As you can see more clearly, all other pathways for wasted food combined are less than the percentage of wasted food that goes to landfills.  In 2018, 55.9% of all wasted food was sent to landfills and not used in any other constructive way.  Out of the 63,132,123 tons of food wasted in 2018, 35,277,543 tons of that food ended up in landfills.  Not only is it horribly unsustainable to waste  food, but the methods in which wasted food is used afterwards is even more unsustainable and is contributing to the problems that we are seeing today.

Works Cited:

https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/food-material-specific-data#:~:text=The%20estimated%2035.3%20million%20tons,percent%20of%20all%20MSW%20landfilled.