How Much Extra Food and Trash is Thrown Away During the Holidays?

Thanksgiving marked a day of family, friends and giving thanks for all of the wonderful things we have in our lives. One of these things, unlike some other countries, is an overabundance of food.

“In 2016 nearly 88 percent of Americans surveyed by the National Turkey Federation eat turkey at Thanksgiving. 

The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 16 pounds, meaning that approximately 736 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the United States during the 2016 Thanksgiving holiday.”
An estimated 45 million turkeys were sold this year to again accommodate the demand from US households. “The production of these turkeys for consumption was valued at $6.18 billion in 2016, according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service.”

“Americans throw away roughly $165 billion in uneaten food every year, according to government data. And about $277 million of that waste will happen during Thanksgiving.

Although sales of whole turkeys for Thanksgiving have dipped a bit in recent years, consumers are still expected to throw away about 200 million pounds of turkey during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit organization based in New York.”

In the United States, we generate approximately 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, all of which goes straight into landfills across the nation.

This number could be drastically reduced if we all cut back even a little bit and don’t overbuy during the holidays….or any day for that matter.

In an atmosphere of overabundance in the United States, environmentally conscious heads should prevail so we can reduce the amount of wasted food.

For more information on waste and recycling visit www.wasteawaygroup.com

eatturkey.com
time.com
nypost.com