Wasted Food
2025 NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan
The Wasted Food brief lays out the challenges and opportunities of addressing wasted food, which includes all food that goes unsold or unused by a business or that goes uneaten, including food and inedible parts that are donated, fed to animals, repurposed to produce other products, or are composted, sent to an anaerobic digester, or a landfill. This Issue brief is one of 27 briefs created as part of the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan.
What's at Stake?
In 2022, 38% of the U.S. food supply went uneaten or unsold1; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that food waste accounts for approximately 24% of the municipal solid waste2 sent to landfills or incinerators. In New Hampshire, mitigating wasted food at the local and state level is imperative to strengthening local farms and businesses and addressing environmental justice concerns, including air pollution, limited landfill space, soil loss, and the food waste-food insecurity dichotomy. Composted organic matter (food) adds nutrients to the soil. Conversely, organic matter in an anaerobic environment, like a landfill, takes up space and emits methane gas (a harmful greenhouse gas) as it slowly breaks down over decades3. Wasted food reduction, redistribution, diversion, and composting saves economic and environmental resources.
Current Conditions
New Hampshire faces a significant wasted food problem. It affects every resident, visitor, and business, as waste occurs throughout the supply chain and contributes to local environmental and economic4 challenges. New Hampshire still lacks comprehensive policies5, infrastructure, capacity, and education to address the issue, despite significant progress in recent years6.
43% of wasted food comes from households, the largest single area contributor7. Simultaneously, 7.4% of New Hampshire households experience food insecurity, indicating a need for improved food access and distribution8. Municipalities request support for wasted food education and technical assistance from the NH Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) and the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA), but a lack of funding and capacity limit assistance. The high cost to transport and process wasted food9, coupled with the negative environmental impacts of landfills, disproportionately affects residents and businesses in environmental justice areas10, including the North Country and urban centers11.
NHDES is engaged in New Hampshire’s first statewide waste characterization study12 and is planning a waste generator study and infrastructure analysis. These studies will illustrate the magnitude of wasted food and prepare the state for the upcoming food waste ban for generators of 1 ton or more per week and food waste diversion grants from the NHDES Solid Waste Management Fund. The Food Waste Diversion and Composting Map by the NRRA highlights the disproportionate access to composting across the state13.
Challenges
> The lack of understanding about food waste reduction14 and date labels, the EPA’s Wasted Food Scale,15 and per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) concerns16.
> Food recovery and waste diversion programs and organizations are decentralized across the state, reducing efficacy. The burden of managing food waste is placed on individual municipalities, regardless of size or access to resources, and there is no statewide entity for the coordination of food recovery.
> There is a limited amount of low-barrier and accessible funding for education, food recovery, and waste diversion programs.
> There is a lack of infrastructure in the state, including no permitted anaerobic digesters, scattered on-site municipal composting facilities, and a lack of on-farm composting options.
> There is an absence of policies, like waste bans to guide wasted food handling for households or generators of less than 1 ton of wasted food per week
Opportunities
> The Solid Waste Working Group and the Zero Food Waste Coalition could serve as models for food recovery and diversion work at the state level. The Composting Association of Vermont17 can serve as a model for increasing on-farm composting.
> Residents and visitors have a strong desire to protect New Hampshire’s natural beauty, offering an opportunity for behavior shift around how residents handle their waste.
> Collaboration between farmers and communities could both address wasted food management and support local agriculture through composting.
> Wasted food initiatives can be aligned with the Solid Waste Management Plan’s goals18 to address environmental justice concerns.
Recommendations
Organizations working on this issue
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES)
Northeast Recycling Council (NERC)
Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA)
Northeast Waste Management Officials Association (NEWMOA)
Taproot Farm & Environmental Education Center
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission
Authors
Lead Author
Andrea Folsom, Communications Manager, Northeast Resource Recovery Association
Contributing Authors
Allison Bussiere, Food Systems Coordinator, Gather
J. Cherry Sullivan, Director of Programs, Willing Hands
Paige Wilson, Waste Reduction & Diversion Planner, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
Reagan Bissonnette, Executive Director, Northeast Resource Recovery Association
This brief was developed through a participatory process led by the NH Food Alliance, a program of the University of New Hampshire. The brief content is comprised of the opinions, perspectives, and information gathered by the authors and participants, and does not necessarily represent those of the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food or the NH Food Alliance.
Head to the NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan main page to read more briefs, browse recommendations and learn how the strategic plan was created.
References
1 ReFED. In the U.S., 38% of all food goes unsold or uneaten – and most of that goes to waste. Refed.org. Published November 2023. https://refed.org/food-waste/the-problem/#overview
2 United States Environmental Protection Agency. From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste. Epa.gov. Published November 17, 2021. https://www.epa.gov/land-research/farm-kitchen-environmental-impacts-us-food-waste
3 Aubrey A. Landfill Of Lettuce: Why Were These Greens Tossed Before Their Time? NPR. Published June 16, 2015. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/06/16/414667913/landfill-of-lettuce-what-happens-to-salad-past-its-prime
4 Fontanella F. Where Americans Lose the Most Money to Food Waste. Traceone.com. Published August 19, 2024. https://www.traceone.com/resources/plm-compliance-blog/where-americans-lost-most-money-food-waste
5 ReFED. New Hampshire Food Waste Policy. Refed.org. Published October 29, 2024. https://policyfinder.refed.org/new-hampshire/
6 New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. 2021-2022 Biennial Solid Waste Report. Des.nh.gov. Published December 2023. https://www.des.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt341/files/documents/r-wmd-23-05.pdf
7 ReFED. In the U.S., 38% of all food goes unsold or uneaten – and most of that goes to waste. Refed.org. Published November 2023. https://refed.org/food-waste/the-problem/#overview
8 New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. Food Insecurity Continues to Increase Among Granite Staters Since 2021. Nhfpi.org. Published September 6, 2024. https://nhfpi.org/blog/food-insecurity-continues-to-increase-among-granite-staters-since-2021/
9 Post Carbon Institute. So Much Wasted Energy- Rethinking food waste. Postcarbon.org. Published May 20, 2013. https://www.postcarbon.org/so-much-wasted-energy-rethinking-food-waste/
10 United States Environmental Protection Agency. EPA's Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (Version 2.3). Epa.gov. Published August 9, 2024. https://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/
11 Conservation Law Foundation. Building a Movement in Manchester and Nashua. Clf.org. Published July 23, 2024. https://www.clf.org/making-an-impact/manchester-environmental-justice/
12 New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. What’s in the bin? Statewide waste characterization study under way. Des.nh.gov. Published September 6, 2024. https://www.des.nh.gov/news-and-media/blog/whats-bin-statewide-waste-characterization-study-under-way
13 Northeast Resource Recovery Association. Composting & Food Waste Diversion in NH. Nrrarecycles.org. Published 2024. https://www.nrrarecycles.org/composting-food-waste-diversion-nh
14 United States Department of Agriculture. Food Waste Activities. Usda.gov. https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/activities
15 United States Environmental Protection Agency. Wasted Food Scale. Epa.gov. Published September 27, 2024. https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/wasted-food-scale
16 Duarte, Natasha. Composting Association of Vermont. Composting Conversations. Compostingvermont.org. Published September 8, 2022. https://www.compostingvermont.org/compost-conversations/pfas-and-how-these-forever-chemicals-impact-the-composting-industry
17 Composting Association of Vermont. Published 2014. https://www.compostingvermont.org/onfarm-food-scrap-composting
18 New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. New Hampshire: Solid Waste Management Plan. Des.nh.gov. Published September 30, 2022. https://www.des.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt341/files/documents/r-wmd-22-03.pdf
19 Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Commercial Food Material Disposal Ban. Mass.gov. Published October 2021. https://www.mass.gov/guides/commercial-food-material-disposal-ban
20 Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Department of Environmental Conservation, Waste Management & Prevention Division, Solid Waste Program. Universal Recycling: Food Scrap Ban Guidance. Dec.vermont.gov. Published June 2020. https://dec.vermont.gov/sites/dec/files/wmp/SolidWaste/Documents/Universal-Recycling/Food-Scrap-Ban-Guidance.pdf
