Food Waste

2023 Food Waste Reduction Challenge Overview

Although the Saint Paul challenge has ended, residents can still view the many resources to learn more about food waste and how to prevent it!

The Saint Paul Food too Good to Waste program was an online food waste prevention challenge for Saint Paul residents. Every week, participants received tips, tools, and guidance to help reduce food waste, save time, money, and the environment!

It was a flexible course and happening at your own pace, activities took about take about 1-2 hours per week. To track progress, each household collected and weighed their food waste each week.

All materials are also available on this website.

• Takeaway 1: Smart Shopping Ways to reduce waste before and during shopping
• Takeaway 2: Smart Storage How to store fruits and veggies to extend their lifespan and quality 
• Takeaway 3: Smart Prep Ways to prep vegetables to minimize waste
• Takeaway 4: Smart Saving Eat what you buy to save money and resources 
• Takeaway 5: Smart Disposal Compost food scraps to reduce negative environmental impacts

Why Food Waste Matters

In the United States, it is estimated that about 30% of all food is wasted. This accounts for a whopping 21% of total garbage generated in the United States. Most of the food waste produced by families is preventable, meaning that we are throwing out food that still is or was edible. In 2014 the City of Saint Paul set an overall residential waste diversion goal of 50% by 2020; we are currently at 29% diversion. For Saint Paul to reach our waste diversion goals, there must be a significant reduction in food waste generation and an increase in the amount of organic waste we capture.

To address this issue, we developed tools and informational resource following the Environmental Protection Agency's Food Too Good to Waste toolkit to assist residents in reducing preventable food waste and learn more about recycling food scraps. 

 Want to dive a little deeper into Food Waste and Waste Reduction?

This food waste infographic provides stats on food waste: Impact of Food Waste

This seven minute video provides information on the impacts of food waste, and particularly focuses on expiration dates: Fighting Food Waste Video 

Our recycling team put together a ten minute video on shopping thoughtfully to reduce packaging waste: Shop Smart Video

This ten minute PowerPoint presentation provides more background on the environmental and economic impacts of food waste: Plan, Eat, Save Introduction Video