A new study from the Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA) seeks to benchmark food waste in the US manufacturing, retail and wholesale sectors based on primary data collected directly from companies.  The results show that while the manufacturing sector created more waste, it is also able to divert a larger proportion of it from landfills than is the case in the retail and wholesale sectors.

FWRA grades food waste based on the US EPA’s food waste recovery hierarchy, an upside-down pyramid showing proper prioritization of food waste disposal options. Most preferable, of course, is source reduction—that is, reduce the volume of food waste generated.