Kristine Major, Solid Waste Education Coordinator, 509.625.6521
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 2:49 p.m.
There are some categories you don’t want to be ahead of the pack in. Food waste is one of them. Eastern Washington, including Spokane, leads the state in per capita amount of food waste thrown away annually.
What kind of food are we throwing away?
Residential Food Waste Disposed by Generation Area (per capita)
Waste Characterization results from WA State Dept of Ecology study that took place at Spokane’s Waste to Energy facility in 2020-2021.
As a community, we are leading the state in throwing away uneaten and spoiled food in the trash. Consider ways to cut down on the amount of wasted food in your home. In Spokane, about a third of everything that ends up in the trash is organic material that could have been composted. Much of that is food, which is a shame when so many in our community are facing food insecurity and don’t know when or where their next meal is going to come from.
What else are we throwing away?
Waste Characterization results from WA State Dept of Ecology study that took place at Spokane’s Waste to Energy facility in 2020-2021.
How can we do better?
Here are just a few ideas and resources for you to reduce food waste in Spokane:
Learn more tips at TalkTrashSpokane.com.
When food does need to be disposed, there are better places for it to go. Want to learn even more about how food waste is impacting our environment? You can enroll in a free waste education class on the city’s digital learning platform at Solid Waste Courses (learnworlds.com). Check out the “Take a Bite Out of Food Waste” class. It is free and self-paced with lots of good information and suggestions.