Saving Water by Keeping Food Out of the Landfill

At We Don't Waste we increase food access and protect the planet by rescuing and repurposing food, while educating and advocating to increase food security and decrease food waste.

Why Food Waste?

In the United States, 40% of all food produced ends up in the landfill, wasting the labor and resources used to produce the food. Additionally, once in the landfill, food waste slowly decomposes (it can take a head of lettuce up to 25 years to decompose in a landfill!) where it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. While reducing food waste has become a popular topic in regards to mitigating climate change––we don't often hear about the water we save when we don't waste the food that we produce.

Our Impact

Since our founding in 2009, we have rescued more than 21,000 tons of food, preventing the waste of more than 3.64 billion gallons of agricultural water.

What Individuals Can Do

We rescue food from the food industry that is safe for consumption and donate it to food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and more...but we can't rescue food from homes (which is where the largest percentage of food waste is occurring)! We encourage everyone to look at their household-level food waste and make the necessary changes to waste less. We have a toolkit on our website for preforming an at-home food waste audit, full of tips and tricks.