Americans continue to be wasteful with their food, according to a new report from Recycle Track Systems. The report found that Americans waste 60 billion tons of food, which is the equivalent to 120 billion pounds. 

More than 40 percent of the entire U.S. food supply winds up unused. To put the numbers into perspective, this equals 325 pounds of food waste per person, per year. 

The RTS said this is like every American throwing away 975 average sized apples. This waste has put pressure on local municipal solid waste operations, making up 22 percent of all garbage received. 

This level of food waste means that there are 130 billion meals tossed in the garbage each year. 

More than 10 million children suffer from food insecurity in the U.S. and many are losing out on meals due to perceived food spoilage. There remains ambiguity on the definition of “sell by,” “best before” and “expires on” dates. This confusion has led to more than 80 percent of Americans tossing good food because they believed it was bad or inedible. 

Experts with the RTS said too many Americans are impulsive with food purchases or simply buy more than they are able to consume, unlike their global counterparts. They said that Americans also underutilize leftovers and food scraps, which can often be consumed. 

Recently, legislators in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont have passed laws that restrict the amount of food waste going to landfills. Vermont’s “Universal Recycling Law” banning food scrap waste entirely triggered an increase in food bank donations by 40 percent.