France’s Law Against Food Waste Is Actually Working

The U.S. can learn something from France’s food waste ban.

The law bans grocery stores of a certain size from tossing unsold food. This basically forces them to donate it to charity — since the stores can be fined for not complying with the law.

The 2016 law was the first in the world and set an example about the importance of preventing food waste. 15% of France’s food waste comes from stores. This may seem small, but the policy change has convinced other countries to pass food waste laws, too.

France currently wastes about 234 pounds of food per person a year, but the U.S. wastes way more — about 610 pounds per person. The law is also helping feed the hungry, too. 5,000 charities depend on the food bank network in France. Now, half of the donations come from grocery stores.

The quality of these donations has also gotten better. There’s more fresh food available and the food lasts longer. The law also helped France take the #1 spot on the 2017 food sustainability index, but some people think more needs to be done in the country. For example, the law doesn’t give stores a benchmark number for how much food to donate. So if a supermarket only donates 1% of its food, it’s still following the law.