Sustainable Management of Food Graphics

On this page:

We encourage anyone to use our graphics. Please credit U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Contact [email protected] with any questions.

Wasted Food Scale

The Wasted Food Scale prioritizes actions that prevent and divert wasted food from disposal. Tiers of the scale highlight different pathways for preventing or managing wasted food, arranged in order from most preferred on the top left to least preferred on the top right. Within a given tier, pathways are ranked equally.
Click to enlarge.
This is a graphic showing the details of the Wasted Food Scale and how to reduce the environmental impact of wasted food. The words on the graphic are written out on this webpage: https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/wasted-food-scale#wastedfoodpath
Click to enlarge.

Access simplified and detailed versions of the Wasted Food Scale in Arabic, Chinese – Simplified, Chinese – Traditional, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese on the Wasted Food Scale webpage. 

National Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal

Learn about the national food loss and waste reduction goal and the "National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics."
 

graphic of vegetables and fruits on table with these words above them: "By 2030: Let's cut the amount of food we waste in half"

Environmental and Climate Impacts of Wasted Food Graphics

Learn about the impacts of wasted food through EPA’s food waste research. 

This graphic conveys how composting food scraps reduces emissions and can help adapt to climate change. On the left side of the graphic, wasted food is decomposing in the landfill, causing greenhouse gas emissions. On the right side of the image, wasted food is being composted and next to the compost is a field where crops are being grown.
Click to enlarge.
This graphic depicts the climate impacts of wasted food. The graphic shows the sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are embedded in the various parts of the food supply chain.
Click to enlarge.

Learn more about composting.

Photo of cars in a traffic jam with an illustration superimposed on the left hands side showing a hand holding a fork scraping food scraps into a garbage can. The EPA logo is in the bottom corner and a banner of text reads wasting food in the U.S. causes ghg emissions equivalent to those of more than 50M gas powered passenger vehicles.
Click to enlarge.
Illustration of a landfill with truck in foreground dumping food waste on the ground and superimposed in the corner a hand holding a plate with uneaten food being scraped into the food waste pile. Text at the bottom reads: In landfills, wasted food breaks down quickly, generating methane before landfill gas collection systems are in place. Wasted food causes 58% of methane emissions from landfills, but food waste only makes up about a quarter of the total waste in landfills. EPA logo
Click to enlarge.
This is an infographic showing what resources go into a year of food loss and waste in the U.S. These include greenhouse gas emissions of more than 42 coal-fired power plants; enough water and energy to supply more than 50 million homes; the amount of fertilizer used in the U.S. to grow all plant-based foods for U.S. human consumption; and an area of agriculture land equal to California to New York.
Click to enlarge.

Community Composting Graphics

Learn more about community composting.

This is a graphic showing a closed loop composting system where the food scraps are sorted at home, a small scale collection operation picks the food scraps up, they are taken to a composting site where compost is made, the compost is used locally in the community, and food is grown in the compost locally.
Click to enlarge.
This is a graphic of a plant with three leaves that have the words social, environmental, and economic on them. The roots of the plant are visible with the words The Benefits of Community Composting on them.
Click to enlarge.
Graphic of plant showing the local social benefits of community composting
Click to enlarge.
Graphic of plant showing the local environmental benefits of community composting
Click to enlarge.
Graphic of plant showing the local economic benefits of community composting
Click to enlarge.

Resources from Our Federal Partners

Sustainable Management of Food

Contact Us About Sustainable Management of Food
Contact Us to ask a question, provide feedback, or report a problem.
Last updated on October 10, 2024