How’s this for an astonishing statistic: 40 percent of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted. At first glance, it’s easy to interpret this to mean that we’re talking about food that consumers and restaurants throw away. Upon further investigation, though, I found that the number represents all food produced in the U.S. that is wasted somewhere between farm and table. That’s billions of dollars of food never consumed, not to mention 40 trillion liters of water used in food processing that goes down the drain, according to a Stockholm International Water Institute study. Let’s not forget the methane created when perishables just sit in landfills, either. In order to figure out if you’re part of the problem, think about your own practices.

這項驚人的統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)感覺如何：美國生產(chǎn)的所有食品有40%被浪費了。乍一看，很容易將其理解為我們在談?wù)撓M者和餐館扔掉的食物。但經(jīng)過進一步調(diào)查研究，我發(fā)現(xiàn)該數(shù)字代表著所有美國生產(chǎn)的食品在農(nóng)場和餐桌的某處被浪費掉了。這是從未消耗的數(shù)十億美元食物，更不用說40萬億公升用于食品加工的水進入下水道，據(jù)斯德哥爾摩國際水資源研究所的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)。我們也別忘了易腐物品僅在垃圾填埋場就能產(chǎn)生的甲烷。為了找出你是否是該問題的一部分，思考一下自己的行為。

Here’s how to not only reduce waste, but save thousands of household dollars

這不僅關(guān)乎如何減少浪費，也是節(jié)約成千上萬的美元開支。