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Photos show a huge part of the plane stuck in one of the hostel buildings, and a dusty, deserted mess hall with plates of uneaten food still on the tables.

The average four-person U.S. household throws away nearly a third of the food it buys, which means it also throws away about $1,500 a year on uneaten groceries.

In 2021, the EPA updated its definition of food waste to include composting and anaerobic digestion — both of which can take inputs like uneaten food and turn them into fertilizer or biogas, respectively.

In April 2023, ReFed, an organization dedicated to combating food waste, reported that the amount of uneaten food in the U.S. has grown 4.8% since 2016.

Indeed, even as Americans have grown increasingly aware of the problem and the government has made commitments to reduce the 40% of food that goes uneaten, recent studies show that food waste in the United States is actually increasing.