Resource Recycling Magazine: Survey finds green guilt worst on food waste

## Survey finds green guilt worst on food waste

_By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling_

Of all the non-green activities that Americans engage in, the one they feel the guiltiest about is also a huge contributor to the nation's waste stream, according to a recent survey.

"This is an issue that gets right to the core of who we are as Americans. We were all taught to waste not, want not and trained that wasting food equals being a bad person," said Suzanne Shelton, founder and CEO of Shelton Group, which conducted the survey, in a prepared statement. "Yet the average household throws out 470 pounds of food every year, making it the [second] largest component in our nation's landfills. So, I'm afraid we have plenty to feel guilty about."

The survey, called "Eco Pulse," found that more Americans expressed angst about wasting food than any other environmentally-harmful activity. Thirty-nine percent said they felt guilty about "wasting food." Leaving the lights on and wasting water were the runners up, with 27 percent of respondents expressing guilt about those activities. Americans expressed the least guilt about watering and using chemicals on the lawn at 6 percent.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans discarded 34 million tons of food waste in 2010, more than any other category of waste except for paper. Food waste accounted for almost 14 percent of the total municipal solid waste stream in 2010, with less than 3 percent being recovered for composting.

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