My family too often makes a disturbing confession: at the start of each week, my mother walks into the grocery store to find a galore of irresistible deals. “$5 off for every $50 spent,” one sign reads, as she fills her cart with a bag of spinach and a block of cheese to reach the $50 mark. A few weeks later, when she goes to clean out the fridge, she finds that the spinach has turned slimy, and green clumps of mold have formed on the cheese. Both end up in the trash can, untouched.

This wasteful tendency is common to too many American households. Each American wastes approximately one pound of food every day, amounting to about 133 billion pounds of waste every year or about 31 percent of the U.S. food supply, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Privilege and impulsivity are the reasons behind Americans’ astronomical production of food waste. Because food is cheap and plentiful in the United States compared to other countries, the average American spends less than 10 percent of their income on food, while many poor nations spend over 40 percent of their income on food, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Thus, Americans often fail to value or appreciate their food in the same ways that poorer people do. Furthermore, Americans are often impulsive in their food purchases, overestimating the amount of food that they can consume.

Food waste becomes a toxic problem when it reaches a landfill. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, food waste is the number one material in American landfills, accounting for 24.1 percent of all municipal solid waste, or about 35 million pounds. Consumers throw out over 40 percent of this food waste, or 14 million pounds. All these expired crackers and half-eaten takeout that are left to rot in landfills produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas with 28 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. 

The problem gets worse. When we produce food waste, we also waste all the resources used to grow this food. According to the National Resources Defense Council, growing the food that goes to waste in the U.S. ends up wasting 21 percent of our agricultural water usage, 18 percent of our fertilizer, and 19 percent of our cropland. In total, the carbon footprint of food waste in the U.S. is equal to that of 37 million passenger vehicles, or 2.6 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, food waste accounts for about 8 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and its costs amount to about $2.6 trillion in resource, environmental, and social losses, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

As a major reason behind our environmental problems, the entire global food system needs to undergo substantial changes. On the agricultural front, governments should remove environmentally-harmful energy subsidies to encourage less input-intensive techniques, and innovative production techniques will need to be more widespread. A large amount of food waste should also be reduced on the supply side through initiatives like closer monitoring of the temperature at which produce is transported.

As consumers, however, our demand controls the global food system, so changing our wasteful habits has the potential to reform the global food system. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends planning meals in advance, being more aware of food already at home, and creating a shopping list. Americans can buy local produce, which is fresher and won’t spoil as fast, and they can be more mindful of perishable items by using their freezers. As a final resort, if food waste cannot be reduced, it can be diverted from landfills through composting or donations to food banks. 

A sustainable food system is just as essential as our environment, and it deserves far more attention, especially from consumers. Reducing food waste may save you $1,500, which is the average amount that American households spend each year on food that goes to waste, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. That $1,500 could save you far more than taking advantage of that grocery store deal and buying too much.