Five Trends Shaping How the Waste and Recycling Industry is Managing Food Waste

With awareness of food waste spreading like wildfire, it's no surprise that the waste and recycling industry has developed a number of different ways to keep both edible and inedible wasted food out of landfill.

Each year, $218 billion worth of food is thrown away, 72 billion pounds of food is lost each year, 21 percent of landfill volume is comprised of food waste and 21 percent of fresh water is used to produce food that is discarded, according to nonprofit Feeding America.

In an effort to reduce those numbers, the industry has launched organics collection services, various technologies and facilities for handling food waste and some municipalities have taken the step to launch legislation and regulations around food waste. Here, Waste360 has identified five key trends that are shaping how the industry is managing food waste. While some of these trends aren't new, they are important, and they are expanding at a quick pace.