A grocery price tag only covers what food costs at the register, and the EPA says the average family of four spends almost $3,000 per year on food that does not get eaten. What happens to that food afterward is a separate question, and the agency has an answer for it in a ranked list.
The EPA’s Wasted Food Scale places 12 ways of handling wasted food in order from most to least preferred. Keeping food from being wasted in the first place sits at the top, and the trash can, in the form of the landfill, sits near the bottom.
The Full Ranking, Top to Bottom
The Wasted Food Scale lists the pathways in this order, from most preferred to least: stopping waste before it starts, donating, upcycling, feeding animals, leaving crops unharvested, anaerobic digesters that put the leftover material to use, composting, anaerobic digesters that dispose of it, applying to land, landfilling, incinerating, and sending food down the drain.
The EPA arranges them in tiers, and pathways within one tier are ranked equally. The agency calls the first three, which are keeping food from being wasted, donating and upcycling, the most preferred, because they use food for its intended purpose, which is to feed people. Landfilling, incineration and the drain are the least preferred. On kitchen habits, craftingyourhome.com has a post titled People Who Clean the Kitchen Before Going to Bed Often Share These 11 Traits.
The scale comes from the agency’s 2023 report, “From Field to Bin,” which assessed 11 common pathways for managing wasted food in the U.S. on their environmental impacts.
Why the Top Three Win
Per the EPA, once food is wasted, all the resources that went into producing, processing, distributing and preparing it are wasted too. That is the reasoning behind putting the avoidance of waste first. On household spending, craftingyourhome.com has a post titled 8 Habits of People Who Never Seem to Run Out of Money.
Donation comes second. The EPA says wholesome food that goes unsold or uneaten can be rescued, donated or redistributed to feed people, whether it is produce gleaned from farm fields, shelf-stable goods at a grocery store or extra meals from a cafeteria. On saving money, Frenz Hub has a post titled How To Save Money Fast – 26 Easy Tips.
Upcycling is third, and the examples are specific. The EPA says orange peels can flavor beverages, broccoli stems can become slaw or be dried into powder, and spent grains from brewing can be turned into bread.
The Middle Tiers
Feeding animals comes next. The EPA says wasted food can displace the growing of traditional feed such as soy, corn or barley, though it often needs processing like cooking, rendering or drying first. On household budgets, Frenz Hub has a post titled 10 Clever Frugal Living Tips: Save Big on a Tiny Budget.
Leaving crops unharvested follows. The agency describes crops that stay in the field because of commodity prices, market specifications, labor shortages, pests or weather, and notes that gleaning groups can harvest surplus for donation. On food and other prices, Frenz Hub has a post titled Who Said Inflation Had to Ruin Everything? 12 Things That Are Actually Getting Cheaper!.
Anaerobic digesters appear twice on the scale, once above composting and once below it. They break down food without oxygen and generate biogas, which the EPA says can be a source of renewable energy. When the leftover digestate is put to use, for example as fertilizer or animal bedding, the pathway ranks higher than when it is disposed of.
Composting sits just below the first digester option and above the second. The EPA describes it as the managed decomposition of food with other organic material such as yard trim, producing a soil amendment that can improve water retention and reduce erosion. Wikipedia’s entry on compost adds that it is commonly made by decomposing plant and food waste and is used as plant fertilizer.
Where the Trash Can Lands
The last three spots are landfilling, incinerating and sending food down the drain. The EPA says landfilling is one of the least preferred pathways because wasted food in landfills generates methane, a powerful and short-lived greenhouse gas.
The agency puts numbers on it. EPA estimates that 24 percent of the material in U.S. municipal solid waste landfills is food, and wasted food is responsible for 58 percent of landfill methane emissions. Because food decays quickly, most of that methane escapes capture by landfill gas systems, per the EPA.
Incineration ranks low for a different reason. The EPA says wasted food is so wet that it produces little energy compared with other municipal solid waste, and the nutrients in it are not recovered. Sending food down the drain ranks low because wasted food decays rapidly in the sewer system and generates methane.
Wikipedia’s entry on food loss and waste puts the global figure at 931 million tonnes a year, with 61 percent coming from households. The EPA’s home-focused page puts the household picture in one sentence. It estimates that in 2019 about 96 percent of households’ wasted food ended up in landfills, combustion facilities or the sewer, and the remainder was composted.
What the Scale Means in a Home Kitchen
The agency’s advice for households targets the top of the scale. It suggests planning meals before shopping, checking the refrigerator, freezer and pantry first, and listing quantities, such as “salad greens – enough for two lunches.” It also says to freeze bread, sliced fruit, meat or leftovers that will not be eaten in time, and to label them with contents and dates.
For scraps and odds and ends, the EPA’s examples are stale bread for French toast or croutons, beet greens sautéed as a side dish, and vegetable scraps for soup stock. When food cannot be kept from going to waste, the agency’s fallbacks are donating untouched food to food banks and composting scraps rather than throwing them away.
The nonprofit ReFED, which tracks the problem, says the U.S. let 29 percent of the 240 million tons in its 2024 food supply go unsold or uneaten, and estimates that 25 percent of all food, about 60 million tons, goes to waste destinations such as landfill, incineration or the sewer. Its food waste data page points back to the EPA scale as the guide to the best use of surplus food.
The EPA adds two caveats. The ranking applies only to how wasted food is managed, not to other kinds of municipal waste, and the scale does not consider economic and social factors. For a kitchen, the plain reading is that the trash can sits among the last three of 12 options.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: MatthewHoobin – CC0/Wikimedia Commons
