The kind that’s quietly buried behind beautifully edited ESG reports. Not the waste in your bin, the kind that never makes it to the plate.
Every year, the 8.1 billion people on this planet generate more than 1.3 billion tonnes of food that will never be eaten. Fruit that bruises before it’s shelved. Bread tossed before midnight. Vegetables rejected for looking a little too real. This is about value we’ve already lost.
Food waste costs us over $1 trillion a year (FAO, 2024) – including water, energy, logistics, and labor.
And yet: a homeless man sleeps outside the supermarket. Inside, the donation containers overflow – mostly with pet food. There are bins for carrot tops to feed the rabbits, which roam freely. But for humans? The food is discarded – even before the best-before date.
And I ask myself: why isn’t it normal to feed people first, too?
Who created this kind of logic? Who benefits from this kind of absurdity?
We love things that are measurable, linear, predictable. Finance thrives on them.
Food isn’t any of those things. It spoils. It surprises. It demands attention.
Behind every wasted tonne is a chain of human decisions:
A cancelled order. An overstocked shelf. A plastic-wrapped promise that never leaves the warehouse. Or simply: vegetables left to rot in the fridge, silently turning brown behind a door we don’t open.
We love talking about efficiency.
But ignoring food loss might be the most expensive inefficiency of all.
And that reality is catching up with us.
In the European Union, regulators have finally moved from intention to action: In early 2025, a provisional agreement was reached to amend the EU’s Waste Framework Directive. This includes the first legally binding food waste reduction targets:
All 27 EU member states will be required to transpose these measures into national law within 20 months of final adoption. The official deadline for achieving these targets is set for 2030 (European Commission, 2025 – Food Waste Reduction Targets).
Meanwhile, France has led by example since 2020. Under its Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law, it has been illegal to destroy unsold food, especially for large supermarkets. Instead, retailers are required to donate it to charities or food banks. In 2022, this law was extended to non-food items such as clothing, electronics, and hygiene products – putting further pressure on overproduction (European Parliamentary Research Service; France24, 2020).
The investment world has taken note. ESG frameworks such as CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) now require companies to disclose waste figures, including food waste where material. As a result, what was once invisible is now a line item, a liability, and a leadership signal (Great Forest, Sustainability Trends 2025).
There’s a new kind of capital forming – one that doesn’t see waste as the end, but as a beginning.
These projects are profitable. Because waste is untapped potential.
We talk a lot about saving the world with strategies.
But sometimes it starts simpler – with how we treat what we discard.
With how we trace the money behind what we waste.
With how we share. How we lead.
Food waste isn’t just a climate issue.
It is a question of care.
And ultimately, it is a leadership choice.
On September 29, the UN will mark the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (UNEP & Geneva Environment Network, 2025).
Another reminder. Another campaign. Another moment.
Let’s make it more than that.
Let’s make it a starting point.
Because when capital pays attention, culture shifts.
And what we waste becomes what we’re remembered for.
