WASTE: Trashed groceries add up fast. With grocery prices up by nearly 30% since 2020, food waste poses an enormous cost for both your household and the environment.

“Nearly 40% of food waste happens in the home, so it’s important to be mindful,” says Adam Lowy, founder and executive director of Move For Hunger. “Use what’s in your fridge, embrace the ‘ugly’ produce, and get creative with leftovers.”

LawnStarter ranked the states that waste the least food, since food “trash” could be used for compost and not thrown away.

The least wasteful states are Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, North Dakota, New York, and Washington.

“We compared the 50 states based on their most recent food waste data by sector from ReFED (a national food waste nonprofit). We also considered rates of food waste recycling and mitigation efforts like food waste disposal bans, food sharing programs, and composting facilities among 37 total metrics.”

California generates nearly 6.7 million tons of farm waste — more than 21 times the national average across states with farm sector data. California also discards the highest volume of food in retail and manufacturing.

All six New England states rank among the top 20 least wasteful states. The four with organics recycling laws — Connecticut (No. 1), Rhode Island (No. 2), Massachusetts (No. 3), and Vermont (No. 4) — each showed food service waste improvements of -9% or more between 2023 and 2024.

North Dakota (No. 8) is the most counterintuitive result in the ranking, with no disposal ban, no statewide food sharing program, and minimal composting infrastructure. Yet it leads in food recycling, with 61.12% of its food surplus being recycled. Livestock feed diversions and composting account for this performance.