Every Fourth of July, America fires up the grill. Then, it throws away about 20 percent of the food meant for the occasion.¹ And while the scale of waste hasn’t changed much from previous years, it’s becoming an increasingly costly habit.

This year, nearly 68% of Americans are expected to gather around backyard barbecues, serving up the usual staples. But by the time the fireworks fade, an estimated 126 million pounds of food will go uneaten, according to new calculations from ReFED based on the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2024 July Fourth market basket survey. The water used to produce that uneaten food can supply roughly 14 days of residential water use across the entire state of California. The value of that discarded food is $398 million—enough to cover a month of groceries for 300,000 families.

And Americans are spending more on this food than ever before. The average cost of a July Fourth cookout has climbed over 4 percent in the past year, outpacing inflation. Familiar barbecue mainstays like chicken, ground beef, tomatoes, and ice cream have all risen in price, fueled by seasonal demand and persistent supply chain pressures.

Nowhere is this more striking than with beef. Though it falls behind ice cream, pork, and potato chips in sheer volume wasted on July Fourth, beef remains the most popular—and costly—item on the grill. Retail prices for ground beef have risen nearly 6 percent over the past year, due in part to a shrinking domestic cattle herd and new tariffs on Brazilian beef imports that have tightened supply during peak demand.

The cost of binned burgers, however, goes far beyond the grocery bill. Beef alone is expected to account for more than half of all methane emissions from what will get wasted on July Fourth—equivalent to the emissions generated by powering 50,000 American homes for a year.² Methane is over 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide in the short term, and few foods carry a heavier footprint than beef and dairy, which are responsible for at least 12% of methane attributed to food waste. These foods are also a major contributor to landfill emissions, which are the third-largest source of methane from human activity in the United States. Reducing food waste, then, isn’t just about thrift. It’s one of the most immediate and overlooked levers we have to curb climate change.

As ReFED’s research shows, more than 35 percent of food waste happens in the home—in fridges, at cookouts, and around picnic tables. It’s a problem that’s becoming harder to ignore.

This isn’t a case for skipping the celebration. But there are easy ways to reduce the food waste impact of how we celebrate. Planning realistically, serving appropriate portions, saving leftovers (or giving them to guests), and composting scraps are small adjustments that add up.

As food prices climb and climate impacts become increasingly tangible, taking action to reduce food waste is becoming more and more important.

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¹ReFED Calculation: Divided total wasted food from a 10-person cookout from total weight in food purchased

²When warming potential is considered over a 20-year time horizon