title: The costs of household food waste in South Africa.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Sustainability Science and Resource Economics Research Group, Natural Resources and the Environment, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa. anahman@csir.co.za
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nahman
authors.forename: Willem
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: de Lange
authors.forename: Suzan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oelofse
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Godfrey
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005502:Food / Q000191:economics*; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000191:economics*; D013019:South Africa