Sustainable Management of Food

EPA Posts New Version of the Excess Food Opportunities Map

Check out Version 3.1, which now shows over 960,000 potential excess food generators and just under 15,000 potential recipients of excess food in the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors.
New Infographics on Food Waste, Composting, and Climate Change

Check out EPA’s two new infographics and learn about the climate change impacts of wasted food from the farm to your fork and why you should compost instead of landfilling your food scraps.

Then read about Preventing Wasted Food at Home – you can make a difference!
Final National Strategy

EPA, USDA, and FDA are pleased to announce the “National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics.”
- Read the press release.
Wasted Food Scale

EPA released new recommendations on how to manage wasted food. Preventing food from going to waste in the first place is the best option for reducing environmental impacts. Check out the graphic, available in eight languages.

The Wasted Food Scale is based on research on the environmental impacts of food waste management pathways. Check out EPA's report on methane emissions from landfilled food waste.

Understanding the Issues

What Businesses and Organizations Can Do

What Individuals and Communities Can Do

someone peeling a cucumber and putting the peels in the compost bin right next to the cutting board that has eggshells and other fruit and vegetable scraps in it.

To learn more about the Wasted Food Scale click on the image below.

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

Our Newsletter

Sign up today! Our "In the Loop with EPA: Circular Economy Updates" newsletter shares announcements and funding opportunities from EPA and our partners on the topics of food waste, recycling, municipal solid waste, and the built environment. You can also read our previous newsletters.

Sustainable Management of Food

EPA Posts New Version of the Excess Food Opportunities Map

New Infographics on Food Waste, Composting, and Climate Change

Final National Strategy

Wasted Food Scale

Understanding the Issues

What Businesses and Organizations Can Do

What Individuals and Communities Can Do