Ban Edible Food Waste from Grocery Stores

Written by: Dakota Cherry, Ward 5 Candidate

Cities spend a surprising amount of money managing waste, and a big portion of that is food. Guelph’s budget doesn’t spell it out clearly, but if you compare it to Toronto where about $425 million is spent each year on garbage and compost you land somewhere around $20 million annually for a city of Guelph's size.

That’s a lot of taxpayer money going toward managing waste, especially when much of that food never needed to be thrown out in the first place. Alongside this avoidable waste, one in five people in our community are struggling to access enough food. This reality is difficult to ignore, especially when it's something that cities have the power to fix.

Other places have started making it illegal for grocery stores to throw away edible food. Once that option is off the table, stores start to find alternatives: lowering prices, donating food, or redistributing it in other ways that can improve access to affordable, healthy foods.

There’s also a bigger question of responsibility. Right now, taxpayers are covering a large portion of the cost of dealing with waste created by companies, which doesn't fully reflect where that waste is coming from. That's why, we’ve already started shifting this in other areas, like recycling, through a practice called producer responsibility that's saving municipalities millions of dollars. There’s a clear opportunity to do the same here.

Composting still has an important role to play. It turns food waste into soil and supports local agriculture. But edible food shouldn’t be going there, especially while some folks are going hungry.

It’s not a radical idea. It’s a practical one, and one that's long overdue.

Edible Food and Drink Waste by Food Group, provided by WRAP