Quantifying and valuing post-consumer food waste in South Africa

Food waste is problematic on a number of levels; including the loss of a potentially valuable food source or resource for use in other processes; wasted resources and emissions in the food supply chain; and problems associated with the disposal of organic waste to landfill. We quantify the post-consumer food waste stream in South Africa, in order to bring attention to the magnitude of the problem. In addition, we estimate the economic value of the wasted food, as well as the costs associated with disposing putrescible food waste to landfill; in order to highlight the associated costs to society. Costs associated with the loss of a potentially valuable food source are valued using a weighted average market price of the wasted food. Costs associated with the disposal of food waste to landfill are estimated based on per-unit financial and external costs for landfilling estimated in previous work. In total, the costs to society associated with these two food-waste related problems are estimated at approximately R32.5 billion (approximately US$4 billion) per annum, or 1.22% of annual GDP. These costs are significant, particularly considering that food waste (as well as resource use and emissions) at pre-consumer stages of the food supply chain, which is where the majority of food waste occurs in developing countries, are ignored.