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What Food Waste has to do with Load Shedding

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According to the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa; “An estimated 10.3 million tonnes of food and beverages is wasted per year in South Africa (about a third of the food available), yet 9.34 million people in South African suffer from acute food insecurity and almost 20% of South African households have inadequate access to food.”

Various estimates abound for the amount of energy required from farm to table to make a hamburger. These estimates range from 17 to 45 Kilowatt-Hours of electricity required to make one hamburger with onions, lettuce, cucumber, cheese and a dressing.

McDonalds Food Waste
McDonalds Food Waste: NOT covered in this article is the electricity and water wastage from packaging.

Estimates for McDonald’s Burgers food waste say that McDonald’s produces seventy-five burgers a second around the world. That is 6.5 million per day. Yet 5% of waste is made each day from thrown out food. Two-hundred thousand burgers are thrown in the trash each and every day around the world.

Our throw away society fails to count the cost of wasted electricity in our food waste so lets take the weight of a standard McDonalds Burger of 110 grams and do some assumptions around the 10.3 million tons of food waste per year in South Africa:

  • Total Food Waste in Kilograms: 10 300 000 000 kg
  • For ease of calculation we will assume a burger size of 100 grams
  • The above food wastage then is the equivalent of 103 000 000 Hamburgers

This then (at 17 Kilowatt-Hours per hamburger) represents a total WASTAGE of electricity of 17 510 000 Kilowatt Hours (17 510 Megawatt Hours or 17.51 Gigawatt Hours) per YEAR.

According to the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, South Africa’s total domestic electricity generation capacity is 58 095 megawatts (or 21 219 198.75 MW per year) from all sources.

It MAY be reasonable to say then that South Africa loses 8% of generated electricity per year to FOOD WASTAGE.

WHAT ABOUT WATER WASTAGE?

Turning to another scarce South African (and Gqeberha) resource – WATER – reveals some more damning numbers.

Not only do we lose water to leaks and irresponsible use thereof our Food Wastage is another way that we throw water away.

This time we quote figures from the World Economic Forum who say that the following ingredients use these amounts of water per hamburger:

  • 83 litres – 2 slices of bun
  • 408 litres – 3 slices of bacon
  • 151 litres – 1 slice of cheese
  • 2 500 litres – beef patty
  • 4 litres – 2 slices of tomato
  • 0.7 litres – 1 leaf of lettuce

Total Water required for ONE HAMBURGER: 3 146.7 litres of water.

It follows then that based on a 100 gram McDonalds Burger, our 10.3 Million tonnes of food waste per year that, represented by the equivalent of103 000 000 Hamburgers, we waste 324 110 100 000 lites (324 110.1 Megalitres) of water per year.

Consider this: If we stop JUST the water wastage from Food in South Africa we would save enough water to fill all of Nelson Mandala Bay’s Dams which have a combined capacity of 281 571 Megalitres!

As an aside – Plant Based Burgers offer the following benefits:

  • 75-95% LESS water
  • 93-95% LESS land
  • 87-90% FEWER emmissions.

BONUS BENEFIT:

Arresting food wastage will result in less land being required for food production and free up valuable land for the likes of Julius Malema et al to claim!

SUPER BONUS BENEFIT:

If we all had to become vegan we could free up nearly 95% of our land for Julius et al. Time for Julius to put his mouth and stomach on the line, improve his health and Go Vegan so as to free up more land for all of us.

Go On – Share the Gqeberha Love!

Views Since 15 July 2022: 152

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.