Canada's food waste problem? 캐나다 음식물 쓰레기 대란

How bad is Canada's food waste problem? Among the world's worst, report finds

소비자 음식물 낭비 가장 높아.. 대책마련 시급해

캐나다에서 버려지는 음식물 쓰레기의 양이 연간 약 1300만 톤에 이르는 것으로 나타나면서 캐나다가 음식물쓰레기 과다 배출국의 반열에 오를 것으로 전망되고 있다. 

캐나다 환경 협력위원회(Commission for Environmental Cooperation)가 최근 발표한 보고서에 따르면, 캐나다인들은 1인당 연간 396kg의 음식물을 낭비하고 있으며, 캐나다는 북미 지역에서 연간 35-6000만 톤의 음식물 쓰레기를 배출하는 미국 다음으로 음식물 쓰레기 배출량이 가장 높은 것으로 조사됐다. 

또한 산업, 상업 및 제도적 수준에서는 한해에 약 5200만 톤의 음식물이 낭비되고 있으며, 사전 수확 수준에서는 4900만 톤이 음식물쓰레기로 버려진 것으로 나타났다. 

특히 소비자의 음식물 쓰레기는 1인당 연간 170kg으로, 폐기물 중 가장 많은 양인 6700만 톤을 기록했으며, 이는 캐나다에서 낭비되는 음식물의 43%를 차지하는 것으로 드러났다. 

이에 따르면 음식물폐기물 발생으로 인한 온실 가스 배출량은 약 2천 1백만 톤에 달하며, 폐기물 처리 비용으로 연간 약 300억 달러의 예산이 투입되고 있는 것으로 분석됐다. 

이와 관련 환경 협력위원회 측은 음식물 쓰레기 배출량에서 가장 많은 부분을 차지한 6700만 톤이 소비자 수준에서 발생하고 있음을 지적하며 이러한 손실은 사회적, 경제적 및 천연 자원의 막대한 낭비를 초래할 수 있다고 경고했다. 

캐나다 제로 폐기물 협의회(National Zero Waste Council) 또한 “캐나다가 식량 손실과 폐기물의 영향에 대한 이해를 높이기 위해서는 식량 공급망의 모든 단계에서 근원 감소와 식량 구제 및 복구에 대한 조치를 취해야한다”고 강조하며 정부에 음식물 낭비 관련 개정 촉구를 요청하고 나섰다. 

이와 관련 이번 보고서를 통해 조사된 미국, 캐나다, 멕시코 등 NAFTA 3개국은 앞으로 온실가스 감축을 위한 조치로 UN(United Nations, 국제연합)의 환경보호 실천 서약에 서명한 것으로 전해졌다.

이에 따르면 NAFTA 3개국은 2030년까지 ‘음식물 쓰레기 제로’(zero waste)를 목표로 음식물 낭비와 손실을 절반으로 줄이기 위한 개정안을 마련할 계획이다. 

Canada wastes so much food that a researcher likens it to tossing a quarter of your groceries away when you leave the supermarket.

In fact, Canada is among the worst globally in wasting food, according to a recent report on the state of food loss and waste in Canada, U.S. and Mexico.

The report released by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation — an environmental agency set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement — found when including all stages of the food supply chain, 396 kilograms of food per capita is wasted in Canada every year. 

How Canada sucks at reducing food waste

That's compared with 415 kilograms in the United States and 249 kilograms in Mexico.

"That's not just what we throw out from the science experiments in the back of the fridge; that encompasses the food supply chain from the farm all the way through processing, distribution, and food service, retail — the whole food supply chain," Tamara Shulman, one of the authors involved in the report, told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

📷 Justin Sullivan/Getty

According to the report, the average Canadian consumer throws out an estimated 170 kilograms of food a year. 

The amount of food loss and waste in North America has a significant environmental and socio-economic impact on North America as well, Shulman told Tremonti.

"As it relates to greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the life cycle of wasted food, we're talking about 193 million tonnes of greenhouse gas — that's the equivalent of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by 41 million cars driven on the road continuously for a year."

Imperfect produce

Food gets automatically tossed, in part, due to overproduction and surplus as well as damaged products and grading specifications, Shulman said.

But there are ways to expand value-added processing by taking a blemished tomato that doesn't make it to market and having a restaurant use it for a sauce, for example, Shulman said.

Recycling food waste in this manner is one of the recommendations of the report where imperfect produce is offered at a discount.

Shulman suggested consumers can have influence by purchasing imperfect produce that is perfectly edible.

"We can support the businesses that have some of those best practices in place and vote with our dollar."

The Current: 4 ways we unconsciously contribute to Canada's food waste problem

Other suggestions in the report to prevent food waste are reducing portion sizes in restaurants and creating quick-fix items to add in buffets to avoid over producing, as well as standardized expiry labels.

"You can make a really strong business case for action," David Donaldson of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation told the Canadian Press.

Companies can improve how they do business by making changes in their practices, he said.

📷 Angela Gemmill/CBC

This food was made from surplus food that was donated to Food Rescue by several grocery stores in Sudbury, Ont. 

Many businesses already have ways to reduce surplus, including donating to food banks, but Shulman said there are always opportunities to find a secondary market. 

It's not just supermarkets and restaurants that are culprits to food waste, humans play a significant role too, Shulman said.

According to the report, the average Canadian consumer throws out an estimated 170 kilograms of food a year.

"When you walk out of a grocery store, if you've got four bags of groceries you may as well just drop one in the parking lot — consumers waste up to 40 per cent," Shulman said.

'Waste is Delicious'

Last month, a grocery store in the Netherlands started selling a range of products made out of food that would have otherwise been destined for the garbage.

The initiative — roughly translated as "Waste is Delicious" — helps startups and entrepreneurs make and sell products, like soup, soap and even beer, out of food waste.

Gone whole hog: Here's what happens to the rest of your Easter ham

The soap incorporates coffee grinds combined with citrus peels; apple cider is made with C-grade fruits and the stale bread makes the beer. 

A small Brussels-based brewery makes beer, the Babylone, from leftover bread. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

Pieter Goudswaard, one of the project's coordinators, told Tremonti about a grocery store experiment in which straight cucumbers were swapped with "wonky shaped ones."

"They sell as well as the straight ones, which kind of takes away one of the prejudices that you can't sell curved cucumbers — yes, you can," he said.

Testing people's tolerance for "unusual" food; food that isn't standard for consumers is just one of the awareness opportunities the project hopes to continue, Goudswaard said.

"We try to be the positive example on how things can be done different."

With files from The Canadian Press.

Listen to the full conversation at the top of this page, which includes research by Monica Labarge on how to reduce food waste from a consumer level.

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This segment was produced by The Current's Geoff Turner and Alison Masemann.

📚 Reference

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-april-5-2018-1.4605392/how-bad-is-canada-s-food-waste-problem-among-the-world-s-worst-report-finds-1.4606012

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/04/03/canadians-are-among-the-heaviest-wasters-of-food-on-the-planet-report-finds.html