Sustainability Science and Resource Economics Research Group, Natural Resources and the Environment, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa.
Waste Manag. 2012 Nov;32(11):2147-53. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2012.04.012. Epub 2012 May 17.
Food waste is problematic for a number of reasons, including the loss of a potentially valuable food source or resource for use in other processes (e.g. energy generation or composting), wasted resources and emissions in the food supply chain, and problems associated with the disposal of organic waste to landfill. This paper quantifies the household food waste stream in South Africa, in order to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem. In addition, it estimates the economic (monetary) value of the wasted food, as well as the costs associated with disposing putrescible food waste to landfill, in order to highlight the associated costs to society. Costs associated with the loss of a potentially valuable food source are valued using a weighted average market price of the wasted food. Costs associated with the disposal of food waste to landfill are quantified based on estimates of the financial and external costs associated with landfilling. For household food waste alone, the costs to society associated with these two food-waste related problems are estimated at approximately R21.7 billion (approximately US$2.7 billion) per annum, or 0.82% of South Africa's annual GDP. These costs are therefore significant, particularly considering that household food waste accounts for less than 4% of total food losses across the food supply chain.
食物浪费存在诸多问题，包括潜在有价值的食物来源或资源的损失（例如，用于能源生产或堆肥的资源）、食物供应链中的浪费资源和排放，以及与有机废物填埋相关的问题。本文量化了南非家庭食物浪费的情况，以引起人们对该问题的重视。此外，还估算了浪费食物的经济（货币）价值，以及将易腐食物废物进行填埋处理所涉及的成本，以突显其对社会的相关成本。使用浪费食物的加权平均市场价格来评估潜在有价值食物来源损失的相关成本。根据与填埋相关的财务和外部成本的估算，对食物废物进行填埋处理的相关成本进行量化。仅就家庭食物废物而言，与这两个与食物废物相关的问题相关的社会成本估计为每年约 217 亿兰特（约合 27 亿美元），占南非年 GDP 的 0.82%。这些成本非常巨大，尤其是考虑到家庭食物浪费仅占整个食物供应链中总食物损失的不到 4%。
