Monthly Archives: August 2008

Numbers

Often, when I read an article on food waste, I see something like this: ‘Food waste makes up 12 percent of our landfills.’ That makes a lot of sense when you see this EPA info. Digging deeper, however, we learn that it’s actually more grim: Food waste makes up 18 percent of landfill contents. Here’s […]

August 18, 2008 | Posted in Composting, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Gotta love this well-executed leftovers humor, courtesy of The Onion. — Welcome news: Due to rising food prices, 62 percent of shoppers at the British chain Sainsbury’s are concerned about wasted food. Even more heartening, about 1/3 of those polled report that they’re doing something about it–by making food stretch over a couple of meals. […]

August 15, 2008 | Posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, Household, International | Comments closed

Vermont Compost Clash

I think you should know about this: The Vermont Composting Co. (VCC) is facing large fines and a ‘cease and desist order‘ from the state Natural Resources Board for not having a permit. The composter says he operates a farm and is, thus, exempt from compost permits. The state says he is a manufacturer subject […]

August 14, 2008 | Posted in Composting, Farm | Comments closed

Will L.A. Love Composting?

Exciting News! In September, Los Angeles will begin a trial run of household food scrap collection. The city will give 2-gallon kitchen pails to residents in three areas of the city. It will encourage folks in about 5,000 households to dump their kitchen food scraps into these pails and, ultimately, their yard waste bin that’s […]

August 13, 2008 | Posted in Composting, Stats | Comments closed

Vac to Work?

After seeing me on the Today Show, the friendly folks at Reynolds sent me a Handi-Vac vacuum sealer to test. Never one to shun freebies, especially those that might prevent food waste, I set out to do some experimenting. This weekend, I began testing a Handi-Vac against a Ziploc bag. I stored green beans in […]

August 12, 2008 | Posted in Household, Technology | Comments closed

Israeli Irrigation Issues

The topic of food waste doesn’t usually arise at my breakfast table, as I finish my cereal and my dog slurps the remaining milk. Yesterday, that changed. It wasn’t that my Grape Nuts went uneaten, rather that I came across this massive food waste photo in a NY Times story about the effects of drought […]

August 11, 2008 | Posted in Farm, International | Comments closed

Food Waste Whodunnit

Who caught more than 200 fish–some of them a protected species–and then left them to rot in a park along the Columbia River? The Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife Division wants to know… The person(s) who did it laid the fish out along the beach, began gutting some of the steelhead and then left. […]

August 11, 2008 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Friday Buffet: Lucky 8-8-08 Edition

I agree in spirit, but this might be taking things a tad too far: Don’t Play with Your Food. — — Then again, cleaning your grill with an onion seems a bit silly. Why not a wire brush or rag (as some commenters on the Lifehacks post wondered)? — — A new zero-waste initiative at […]

August 8, 2008 | Posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, Household | Comments closed

California Bill

If you happen to be in Los Angeles today around lunchtime, there’s a press conference at a Venice soup kitchen to promote a pending California bill that would enable increased food donation. Senate Bill 1443 would allow catering customers to decide what to do with their leftovers–donate it to those in need or take it […]

August 8, 2008 | Posted in Events, Legislation, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Whole Changes

Here’s a really interesting article on how Whole Foods is attempting to shed its “Whole Paycheck” image. Read through waste-hued glasses, I found two instances of waste in the making. Whole Foods, through its in-store thrift tours, is steering shoppers towards bulk buying: Value packages of fresh cod and salmon were a dollar a pound […]

August 7, 2008 | Posted in Household, Supermarket | Comments closed