How much food does your household actually throw away?

How this is worked out

There is one source and one piece of arithmetic, both stated here so you can disagree with either. The source is American, so the figures below describe US households and are in US dollars. ReFED estimates that about $762 of food per person a year goes uneaten in American homes — roughly $3,048 for a household of four.

Measured against household food spending, that works out at about 22% of the grocery bill. The calculator does not simply apply that percentage to whatever you spend, though, because the percentage itself comes from average spending — apply it to a household spending double the average and it claims they waste double, which is not what happens. Buying pricier versions of the same list wastes more money per item, not proportionally more items.

So the estimate sits between the two: the ReFED figure for a household your size, and the share applied to your actual spend, weighted a little towards the former. That keeps both ends sensible — a frugal household is not told it wastes almost nothing, and a big spender is not told it wastes twice the national average. It is a judgement rather than a measurement, which is why every figure here says “about” and why the national average is shown next to your result.

The “dinners” figure divides the yearly waste by $12 a head, which is a deliberately conservative cost for a home-cooked dinner. If you cook more cheaply than that, the number of wasted meals is higher, not lower.

Background reading on household food waste from the USDA and the EPA.

Why so much of it goes in the bin

Household waste is mostly a packaging problem wearing a discipline problem’s clothes. Shops sell a bunch of parsley, a tub of sour cream, a 400g bag of spinach. A recipe wants two tablespoons, a spoonful, a handful. The gap between those two quantities is where the waste lives, and no amount of willpower closes it if every meal in the week needs a different ingredient nothing else uses.

Which is why the fix is not “buy less” but plan meals that share ingredients. One bunch of coriander across two dinners is one bunch finished. The same bunch across one dinner is most of a bunch composted.

Common questions

How much food does the average US family waste?

ReFED estimates about $762 of food per person a year goes uneaten in US homes. For a household of four that is roughly $3,048 a year, or about $59 a week. Households that spend less than average on groceries waste less than that, and households that spend more waste more — though not in direct proportion, because buying pricier versions of the same shopping list costs more per item thrown away rather than causing more items to be thrown away.

What percentage of groceries do US households throw away?

Around 22% of US household food spending ends up uneaten. That share is measured against AVERAGE spending, so this calculator does not apply it flatly to every budget: it sits the estimate between the national figure for your household size and that share of what you actually spend. Otherwise a household spending double the average would be told it wastes double, which is not what happens.

Do these figures apply outside the United States?

No. Every number on this page comes from ReFED, which measures US households and reports in US dollars, so the totals shown are American ones. The underlying cause — shops selling ingredients in larger quantities than a single recipe uses — is not specific to the US, so the pattern holds in the UK, Australia, Greece and elsewhere. The amount does not, and we have not published a converted figure for those countries because converting an American average into local currency would look like a local measurement without being one.

What food gets wasted the most?

Fresh produce, bread and dairy — the things bought for one meal and sold in quantities larger than one meal needs. A bunch of herbs bought for a single recipe is the clearest example: most of it is thrown away, and the waste is caused by the package size rather than by the cook.

How do you actually reduce food waste at home?

The single highest-leverage change is planning meals that share ingredients, so a package bought for one dinner gets finished across several. Storing produce correctly and shopping from a list help too, but they do not fix the underlying problem, which is buying an ingredient for one use.