No Result
View All Result
Sunday, June 1, 2025
MM News
اردو
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Showbiz
    Arshad Warsi

    Arshad Warsi and wife face 5-year ban: Will he also disappear from films?

    Deepika Padukone

    In pictures: What are the shocking controversies in Deepika Padukone’s past?

    Hania Amir

    Yashma Gill proposes to Hania Aamir: Her hilarious reply goes viral

    Image: AP

    In Pictures: Thailand’s Opal Suchata Chuangsri crowned Miss World

    Gigi and Bella Hadid

    The Hadid sisters have a stepsister? Here’s what we know

    Alizeh Shah

    Alizeh Shah’s heartfelt Eid al-Adha message captivates fans online

  • Thought Box
  • Business
  • Opinions
  • Technology
  • The Other Side
MM News
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Showbiz
    Arshad Warsi

    Arshad Warsi and wife face 5-year ban: Will he also disappear from films?

    Deepika Padukone

    In pictures: What are the shocking controversies in Deepika Padukone’s past?

    Hania Amir

    Yashma Gill proposes to Hania Aamir: Her hilarious reply goes viral

    Image: AP

    In Pictures: Thailand’s Opal Suchata Chuangsri crowned Miss World

    Gigi and Bella Hadid

    The Hadid sisters have a stepsister? Here’s what we know

    Alizeh Shah

    Alizeh Shah’s heartfelt Eid al-Adha message captivates fans online

  • Thought Box
  • Business
  • Opinions
  • Technology
  • The Other Side
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
MM News
اردو
  • Latest
  • Showbiz
  • Thought Box
  • Business & Stock
  • Opinions
  • Technology
  • The Other Side-Pakistan
Home World

Nearly a fifth of all food reaching consumers is wasted: UN

MM News Staff by MM News Staff
March 5, 2021

NEW YORK: Seventeen percent of the food available to consumers worldwide in 2019 – almost one billion tonnes – was thrown away by households, retailers, institutions and the hospitality industry, far more than previously suspected, the UN said.

“The scale of the problem is just huge,” said Richard Swannell, development director of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a non-profit that co-authored a special report. “This is costly environmentally, socially and economically.”

If all the wasted food were packed into 40-ton container trucks parked end-to-end, they would circle the Earth seven times, he said. Nearly 700 million people, meanwhile, go to bed hungry every night, according to UN estimates. Besides the sheer volume, the report challenges two widely held views on where food waste is concentrated, both across and within countries.

“Up to now, food waste was seen as a rich world problem,” said co-author Clementine O’Connor, an expert at the UN Environment Programme’s Sustainable Food Systems Programme. “Our report shows that for every country that has measured food waste, household food waste is a global problem.”

Of the 121 kilos of consumer-level food thrown away each year for every person on the planet, more than half – 74 kilos – is disposed of by households.

The report covers three-quarters of humanity and 54 countries – poor, middle-income and rich – to ensure robust findings. It is also the first to focus exclusively on what happens to food at the consumer level, rather than food lost during production, storage, or distribution.

The resulting Food Waste Index is designed to help countries take the measure of the problem within their borders, which could also help curb global warming.

“If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet,” Swannell said. “You have to fix the food system if you’re going to fix climate change, and one of the key priorities in the food system is tackling waste.”

Even as efforts to avoid food waste are scaled up, there remains the problem of what to do with whatever unused or unusable biowaste is left over. The one place it should not go is landfills where it emits the powerful greenhouse gas methane and serves no productive purpose, the authors said.

“It’s absurd that we haven’t been better at dealing with this,” said Martina Otto, head of Cities at the UN Environment Programme and a contributor to the report.

There are many alternatives to burying biowaste, including donating food that is still edible, processing it for animal feed, composting, and biogas production. One technology already operating on an industrial scale in South Africa and elsewhere is the use of black soldier fly larvae to produce protein-rich animal feed.

“There are a number of rich countries that have acted on food waste, and quite successfully,” said Otto, citing the Netherlands and Denmark. Britain saw a 31 percent drop in household food waste over 12 years, excluding inedible matter.

Food waste issues will be addressed at the first-ever UN World Food Systems Summit, set to take place in September or October. “The summit this year will provide an opportunity to launch bold new actions to tackle food waste globally,” said UNEP executive director Inter Andersen.

One of the UN Sustainable Development Goals aims to halve per-capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030.

Tags: FoodUNwastage
ShareTweetSendShare
Previous Post

Prince Philip undergoes ‘successful’ heart procedure

Next Post

Pakistan reports 1,579 new COVID-19 infections as cases rise

Related Stories

Gang-rape
Top News

Indian female Taekwondo player gang-raped in ashram

June 1, 2025
file photo
World

Saudi Arabia announces start date of new Umrah season

June 1, 2025
Railway Accident
Top News

Bridge collapses onto train in Russia, killing 7 including driver

June 1, 2025
file photo
World

Powerful earthquake jolts Japan’s Hokkaido

May 31, 2025
Operation Sindoor
Thought Box

Viral video: Did Ranbir Singh say the IAF was asleep during Operation Sindoor?

May 31, 2025
Donald Trump
Top News

Without US Intervention, Pakistan-India war could have been devastating: Donald Trump

May 31, 2025
File photo
Uncategorized

Saudi Arabia warns of severe heatwave during Hajj 2025

May 30, 2025
File photo
Top News

BJP leader admits Pakistan shot down five IAF jets including Rafale

May 30, 2025
Image: Reuters
World

Has Hamas rejected latest US ceasefire proposal?

May 30, 2025
Bitcoin Reserve
Business & Stock

Is Pakistan’s Bitcoin reserve a cause for concern in India?

May 30, 2025
Next Post

Pakistan reports 1,579 new COVID-19 infections as cases rise

Trending Stories

Sybil Sohail with her gold medal at the Asian Weightlifting Masters Championship in Doha on May 30. Photo Courtesy: TWINKLE SOHAIL
Sports

Sybil Sohail wins gold at Asian Weightlifting Championship

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025
Weather

Karachi sizzles at 39 degree Celsius

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025
Glaciers in Pakistan
Top News

Pakistan develops policy framework to protect glaciers, combat climate change

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025
file photo
Transport

Govt doubles public transport fares in Islamabad

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025
Darra Adam Khel
Crime

Explosion in Darra Adam Khel house kills two, injures several

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025

Opinion

munir ahmed oped
AIF 2025 – A Rallying Cry for Unity in a Fractured World
May 31, 2025
- Munir Ahmed
munir-ahmed-oped-2-1140x1140
Eurasian Economic Union at 10: Looking Beyond the Decade
May 29, 2025
- Munir Ahmed
munir-ahmed-oped-2-1140x1140
Crimea at the Crossroads: Development, Identity, and Geopolitics
May 29, 2025
- Munir Ahmed
No posts found
See all

Weather Updates

Weather

Karachi sizzles at 39 degree Celsius

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025

Temperatures in Karachi reached 39 degrees Celsius on Sunday as the southern port city...

Glaciers in Pakistan

Pakistan develops policy framework to protect glaciers, combat climate change

June 1, 2025
file photo

Weather updates for Islamabad, other parts of Pakistan

June 1, 2025
Heatwave

Karachi braces for more heat as temperature remains high

May 31, 2025
See all

Prices

representative image
Business & Stock

Gold prices in Pakistan today- Sunday, June 1, 2025

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025

The following are the current gold prices in Pakistan on Sunday, June 1, 2025....

File photo

Petrol price hiked by Re1 per litre in Pakistan

May 31, 2025
LGP prices have been slashed ahead of Ramadan. File photo

LPG prices announced for June 2025

May 31, 2025
representative image

Gold prices further drop in Pakistan

May 31, 2025
See all

Transport News

file photo
Transport

Govt doubles public transport fares in Islamabad

by MM News Staff
June 1, 2025

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has introduced a revised fare structure for the city's...

representative image

Everything you need to know about Lahore’s Yellow Line E-Train Project

June 1, 2025
Pakistan Express

Train derailment: Pakistan Express heading to Rawalpindi suffers major accident

June 1, 2025
(Image: Dawn)

Karachi residents protest load-shedding; National Highway blocked

May 31, 2025
See all

MM Digital (Pvt.) Ltd.

MM News is a subsidiary of the MM Group of Companies. It was established in 2019 with the aim of providing people of Pakistan access to unbiased information. Contact Details: 03200201537

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Advertise
  • MM News Urdu
  • The Other Side-Pakistan
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

Top Pages

  • Latest News
  • Showbiz
  • OP-ED
  • Technology
No Result
View All Result
  • Latest News
  • Showbiz
  • Thought Box
  • Business
  • Opinions
  • Technology

© Copyright 2024 MMNews - All Rights Reserved.