Wasted Food Scale

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About the Wasted Food Scale
Wasted Food Pathways
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About the Wasted Food Scale

EPA’s Wasted Food Scale is a curved spectrum showing options for reducing the environmental impacts of wasted food, from most preferred to least preferred. The options are to prevent wasted food, donate food, upcycle food, feed animals, leave food unharvested, use anaerobic digestion with beneficial use of digestate or biosolids, compost, use anaerobic digestion without beneficial use of digestate or biosolids, or apply food waste to the land. Sending food waste down the drain, landfilling, and incineration

The Wasted Food Scale prioritizes actions that prevent and divert wasted food from disposal. Tiers of the scale highlight different pathways for preventing or managing wasted food, arranged in order from most preferred on the top left to least preferred on the top right. Within a given tier, pathways are ranked equally.

The most preferred pathways – prevent wasted food, donate and upcycle food – offer the most benefits to the environment and to a circular economy. These “top” pathways prioritize using food for its intended purpose: to nourish people. The least preferred pathways – landfilling, incineration, and sending food down the drain – have the largest environmental impacts and have limited potential for circularity. Learn more about the wasted food pathways on the scale.

EPA developed the Wasted Food Scale based on the findings of its 2023 report From Field to Bin: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste Management Pathways. This report assesses 11 common pathways for managing wasted food in the U.S. based on their environmental impacts and potential contributions to a circular economy. The Wasted Food Scale is an update to the previous Food Recovery Hierarchy and reflects the latest science and changes in technologies and operational practices for wasted food management pathways.

Notes on the Wasted Food Scale:

The rankings in this scale apply only to the management of wasted food by these pathways and are not applicable to other categories of municipal solid waste that may be managed by the same pathways.
This scale does not consider economic and social factors.
“Landfill” and “incinerate” consider impacts with and without energy recovery.
“Send down the drain” refers to wasted food that travels via the sewer system to a water resource recovery facility with or without anaerobic digestion.
When food is delivered by truck directly to an anaerobic digester this is considered the anaerobic digestion pathway, even if the anaerobic digester is located at a water resource recovery facility.
The rankings for “leave unharvested” and “apply to the land” are based on limited data.

This is a graphic showing the details of the Wasted Food Scale and how to reduce the environmental impact of wasted food. The words on the graphic are written out on this webpage: https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/wasted-food-scale#wastedfoodpath

Wasted Food Pathways

Prevent Wasted Food

Preventing food from going to waste in the first place is the most environmentally beneficial option on the Wasted Food Scale. When food is wasted, all the resources that went into producing, processing, distributing, and preparing that food are wasted too. Learn more about preventing wasted food.

Donate

Wholesome food that goes unsold or uneaten can be rescued, donated, or redistributed to feed people. This pathway includes food from across the food supply chain, from produce gleaned from farm fields to shelf-stable goods at a grocery store to extra meals prepared at a cafeteria. Donating food is one of the most preferred pathways because it ensures that food and the resources used to produce it are not wasted. When food is donated, it is used for its intended purpose which is to nourish people. Learn more about donating food.

Upcycle

Upcycling food into new food products usually takes place at the production or manufacturing stage of the food supply chain. Edible parts of food as well as less desirable scraps can be upcycled into new food products. For example, orange peels can flavor beverages, broccoli stems can be turned into slaw or be dried into powder, and spent grains from the brewing process can be turned into bread. Upcycling food is one of the most preferred pathways because it keeps food in the human food supply chain and avoids the wasting of food and the resources used to produce it.

Feed Animals

Using wasted food as animal feed can displace the production of traditional animal feed (e.g., growing soy, corn or barley) and avoid the environmental impacts associated with the production of that feed. Turning wasted food into animal feed often requires some processing such as cooking or drying. Learn more about reducing wasted food by feeding animals.

Leave Unharvested

Food crops are ideally harvested and used to nourish people. Sometimes market forces or environmental factors cause crops to remain unharvested in the field. These factors are often beyond the control of farmers, and include commodity prices, market specifications, labor shortages, damage to crops by pests and disease, and weather events such as flooding or drought. Alternative and secondary markets can sell, process, or upcycle crops that do not meet primary market specifications. Gleaning organizations can harvest surplus crops for donation. But if crops will not be consumed even if harvested, leaving them in the field avoids the impacts of picking, processing, packaging, and distributing food that is ultimately wasted. Unharvested crops may be grazed by animals or plowed into the soil. The plant nutrients and carbon in unharvested crops enhance soil health and support the growth of future crops.

Anaerobic Digestion with Beneficial use of Digestate/Biosolids

Anaerobic digestion is the process by which microorganisms break down organic (carbon-based) materials, such as wasted food, in the absence of oxygen. The anaerobic digester may be a stand-alone digester that primarily processes wasted food, an on-farm digester that co-digests food waste with manures or a digester at a water resource recovery facility that co-digests food waste with wastewater solids. In the Wasted Food Scale, if the wasted food is delivered to a digester at a water resource recovery facility via the sewer system, then that is considered the “down the drain” pathway. Anaerobic digestion generates biogas, which can be a source of renewable energy. It also produces digestate or biosolids, nutrient-rich products that can be used beneficially, for example as fertilizer, soil amendment or animal bedding. When the digester is located at a water resource recovery facility, the final product is called biosolids. Digestate and biosolids can be treated in a variety of ways prior to being applied to land, for example by composting. The use of digestate and biosolids on soils can offset the need for synthetic fertilizers and enhance soil health. Learn more about anaerobic digestion.

Compost

Composting is the managed, aerobic (oxygen-required) biological decomposition of organic (carbon-based) materials by microorganisms. Composting wasted food with other organic materials like yard trim produces an end product called compost - a valuable, biologically-stable soil amendment. It can be used to build soil health, increase soil water retention, and reduce soil erosion. Producing and using compost recycles organic matter and nutrients that are important for long-term soil health and ecosystem resilience. Learn more about composting and using compost.

Anaerobic Digestion with Disposal of Digestate/Biosolids

Anaerobic digestion is the process by which microorganisms break down organic (carbon-based) materials, such as wasted food, in the absence of oxygen. The anaerobic digester may be a stand-alone digester that primarily processes wasted food, an on-farm digester that co-digests food waste with manures or a digester at a water resource recovery facility that co-digests food waste with wastewater solids. In the Wasted Food Scale, if the wasted food is delivered to a digester at a water resource recovery facility via the sewer system, then that is considered the “down the drain” pathway. Anaerobic digestion generates biogas, which can be a source of renewable energy. It also produces digestate or biosolids, nutrient-rich products that can be used beneficially, for example as fertilizer, soil amendment or animal bedding. When the digester is located at a water resource recovery facility, the final product is called biosolids. Digestate and biosolids are sometimes disposed of in a landfill. When the digestate or biosolids are disposed of, valuable nutrients are lost. Even if renewable energy (biogas) is generated, the environmental benefits are fewer than had the digestate or biosolids been beneficially used. Learn more about anaerobic digestion.

Apply to Land

Raw wasted food from the food manufacturing and processing sector is sometimes applied to fields as a soil amendment. Land application of raw wasted food may involve spreading, spraying, or injecting the wasted food on or below the surface of the soil. The benefits and impacts of land application of food processing waste streams can vary widely based on the composition of the wasted food.

Landfill

EPA estimates that in the U.S., 24 percent of material in municipal solid waste landfills is food. Landfilling is one of the least preferred pathways because wasted food in landfills generates methane, a powerful and short-lived greenhouse gas. Because wasted food decays relatively rapidly, most of the methane it emits avoids capture by landfill gas collection systems. Wasted food has an outsized impact on landfill methane emissions: it is responsible for 58 percent of landfill methane emissions to the atmosphere. Also, the valuable nutrients in wasted food are not recovered when landfilled. Read more about landfill methane emissions from wasted food.

Incinerate

Wasted food (when it is mixed with other municipal solid waste) may be incinerated (also referred to as combustion with energy recovery, or controlled combustion). Incineration is one of the least preferred pathways because valuable nutrients in wasted food are not recovered. Though incineration produces energy, wasted food makes for a poor feedstock because it is so wet and produces little energy compared to other municipal solid waste.

Send Down the Drain

When wasted food is sent down the drain, it combines with other wastes in the sewer system and ends up at a water resource recovery facility, or wastewater treatment plant. Sending wasted food down the drain is one of the least preferred pathways because wasted food decays rapidly in the sewer system and generates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Methane emissions from sewers are released directly into the atmosphere. Energy is required to treat wastewater that contains nutrient-rich wasted food. Depending on the operations at the water resource recovery facility, the valuable nutrients in wasted food may not be recovered for beneficial use. Even if the water resource recovery facility generates energy through anaerobic digestion, the recovered energy does not offset the methane emissions from wasted food in sewers and extra energy demand for wastewater treatment.

Downloads

Download detailed and simple versions of the Wasted Food Scale below: