Thailand discards 12 billion kg of food annually—40% of which remains edible—with per-capita waste (86 kg/year) exceeding the global average. A key insight from SOS Thailand's ESGNIVERSE 2026 address: reframing "food waste" as "surplus food" shifts business incentives toward redistribution rather than disposal. The true costs are substantial: landfill management is funded at only 20–30% of actual cost; methane emissions linger for decades; and supply-chain resources (water, transport, labour) are squandered long before waste occurs. Practical solutions exist—AI-driven demand forecasting, tiered hierarchy (donation → animal feed → compost → landfill)—but institutional and retailer shelf-life policies remain barriers to implementation.