The Environmental Cost of an Uneaten Meal

Households around the world wasted more than a billion meals a day in 2022. That finding, announced by the United Nations Environment Programme on 27 March 2024, puts ordinary kitchens near the centre of a global environmental problem. UNEP's Food Waste Index Report 2024, produced with WRAP, estimated that households accounted for 60 per cent of food waste at retail and consumer levels. Restaurants, other food services and shops accounted for the rest. These are estimates describing 2022, rather than a measurement of what households are throwing away today.

2022年，全球家庭每天浪费的食物超过十亿餐。联合国环境规划署于2024年3月27日公布的这一发现，将普通厨房置于一个全球环境问题的核心位置附近。UNEP与WRAP共同编写的《2024年食物浪费指数报告》估计，在零售和消费环节的食物浪费中，家庭占60%。餐馆、其他餐饮服务和商店占其余部分。这些估计描述的是2022年的情况，而不是对当下家庭丢弃食物情况的测量。

The report's overall estimate included inedible parts, such as bones and some peelings. That detail matters when interpreting a bin full of food scraps. A vegetable skin and an untouched meal may both enter a waste measurement, but they do not necessarily represent the same opportunity for prevention. The useful household question is more specific: which discarded items could reasonably have been eaten? Separating unavoidable scraps from edible food makes it easier to identify decisions that might change, without treating every part of every ingredient as a personal failure.

报告的总体估计包含不可食用部分，例如骨头和一些果蔬皮。在理解一桶食物残渣时，这个细节很重要。蔬菜皮和一份完全没动过的饭菜都可能被计入废弃物，但它们所代表的预防空间未必相同。对家庭而言，更有用的问题具体得多：哪些被丢弃的东西原本可以合理地被吃掉？将不可避免的残渣与可食用食物分开，更容易找出可以改变的决定，也不必把每一种食材的每一个部分都视为个人的过失。

An uneaten meal has an environmental footprint before it reaches a rubbish bin. As the US Environmental Protection Agency explains, food production and preparation use land, water, energy and other resources. Growing ingredients requires space and water; processing, transport and storage add further demands. When food is discarded, those resources have already been used without delivering their intended nutritional benefit. The footprint therefore cannot be understood simply by looking at the volume of rubbish. Behind a small portion of leftovers lies a much longer chain of activity.

一餐没吃完的饭，在进入垃圾桶之前就已经留下了环境足迹。美国环境保护署解释说，食物的生产和制备需要土地、水、能源以及其他资源。种植食材需要空间和水；加工、运输和储存又增加了进一步的资源需求。食物被丢弃时，这些资源已经被消耗，却没有实现原本预期的营养效益。因此，不能仅凭垃圾的体积来理解它的环境足迹。一小份剩饭背后，是一条长得多的活动链。

Disposal can add another environmental cost. In a PBS News Hour interview published on 6 April 2024, the programme explains that food in landfill produces methane, a greenhouse gas. UNEP attributes an estimated 8–10 per cent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions to food loss and waste together. That broader category includes losses along the supply chain as well as waste closer to consumers. It would be misleading to attribute the entire percentage to household leftovers. Nevertheless, prevention addresses both the resources used earlier and the waste requiring treatment later.

废弃处理还可能增加另一项环境成本。在2024年4月6日发布的PBS News Hour访谈中，节目解释了填埋场中的食物会产生甲烷，而甲烷是一种温室气体。UNEP估计，食物损失与浪费合计造成了全球每年温室气体排放的8%至10%。这一较宽泛的类别既包括供应链上的损失，也包括更接近消费者环节的浪费。将这一比例全部归因于家庭剩饭，会造成误导。不过，预防浪费既涉及前期使用的资源，也涉及后期需要处理的废弃物。

A household diary offers a practical way to investigate where prevention is possible. As an illustrative approach, someone could record each discarded food item, its approximate quantity and the reason it was not eaten. Useful descriptions might include “cooked too much”, “forgot it was there” or “plans changed”. The purpose would be to reveal recurring situations. A list containing several unfinished portions points towards a different response from one dominated by unopened vegetables. Recording reasons alongside amounts helps turn a general intention to waste less into a question that can actually be investigated.

家庭记录为调查哪些地方可以预防浪费提供了一种实用方法。举例来说，一个人可以记下每一种被丢弃的食物、大致数量，以及没有吃掉的原因。有用的描述可以包括“做多了”“忘记它还在那里”或“计划变了”。这样做的目的是发现反复出现的情况。清单上若有好几份没吃完的饭菜，所指向的应对办法，就会与主要列着未开封蔬菜的清单不同。将原因与数量一起记录，有助于把笼统的减少浪费意愿，转化为一个真正可以调查的问题。

Consider a hypothetical household whose diary repeatedly lists bread bought for breakfasts that never happened. Its problem may be a mismatch between shopping plans and the number of meals eaten at home. Buying a smaller loaf or freezing part of it could be worth trying. Another household might regularly discard a surplus of cooked pasta, suggesting that its usual portion needs adjusting. These examples are possibilities, not reported results. They illustrate how the same instruction, “reduce food waste”, can lead to different changes once the circumstances behind the waste become visible.

考虑一个假设家庭：其记录中反复出现为早餐购买、却因没有在家吃早餐而剩下的面包。它的问题可能在于采购计划与实际在家吃饭的次数不匹配。买小一点的面包，或者将一部分冷冻起来，可能值得尝试。另一个家庭可能经常丢掉煮多的意面，这表明其惯常分量需要调整。这些例子是可能的情形，并非已经报告的结果。它们说明，一旦浪费背后的具体情况变得清楚，同一句“减少食物浪费”，就可能引出不同的改变。

A diary also needs careful interpretation. One week with visitors or cancelled plans may not represent a household's normal pattern. Recording waste could itself make people more attentive, so a later reduction would not automatically prove that one particular change caused it. Even an imperfect record can still support a useful conversation: what was bought, what was used, and what repeatedly remained? The most informative entry may be the reason beside an item. It connects the environmental cost of uneaten food to a decision that can be reconsidered before the next purchase or meal.

对记录本身也需要谨慎解读。有客人来访或计划取消的一周，未必能代表一个家庭的通常情况。记录浪费这件事本身就可能让人更加留意，因此，之后浪费减少，并不能自动证明是某一项特定改变造成的。即便不完美的记录，仍然可以支持一次有用的讨论：买了什么，用掉了什么，又有哪些东西反复剩下？最有信息价值的条目，可能是某样食物旁边写下的原因。它将没吃完的食物所造成的环境成本，与下一次购物或做饭之前可以重新考虑的决定联系起来。