The world is facing a food-waste crisis. It is estimated that 931 million tonnes of food were wasted by households, retailers, restaurants and other food services in 2019. Around 61% of this waste occurs within households.
A UNEP DTU Partnership and United Nations Environment Programme report - Build Back Better: Using Green and Digital Technologies to Reduce Food Waste at Consumer Level - analyses the causes of consumer food waste and the opportunities for reducing it through different means: behavioural change, technological solutions, and public and private initiatives to mitigate the problem. It also gives a thorough presentation of how green and digital technologies could be used to reduce consumer food waste and what could be done to further unlock this potential. By combining global research cutting across multiple disciplines with city case studies, it aims to provide a comprehensive and integrated approach to support countries and cities in combating food waste and in building back better a more sustainable economy.
This fact sheet summarizes the main lessons from the report in terms of the state of food waste, its implications for SDGs and the key messages.