Category Archives: Composting

Friday Buffet

In case you were wondering, here’s what Almeda County, i.e. Oakland, thinks about food scrap recycling — — According to this piece from Australia, one-third of Queensland bananas are graded out because they don’t meet supermarkets’ specifications. Crikey! Words of wisdom, from Australia’s head banana man: “I think perhaps years ago when most Australians had […]

January 8, 2010 | Also posted in Friday Buffet, General, International, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Wrapping Up 2009

Lost in my post-Christmas haze was National Leftovers Day in Australia. It makes plenty of sense, given the usual Christmas dinner abundance. And rest assured the Kiwis are onto the idea, too (in a Dec. 30 article I’m writing about on Dec. 29–a clear example of my soothsaying prowess). In the U.S., we have the Friday after Thanksgiving for the same […]

December 29, 2009 | Also posted in International, Repurposing | Comments closed

A Message for December 25…and after

First off, Merry Christmas! Many of us will enjoy a nice family dinner on Christmas–and I hope you do enjoy it! I also hope you make good use of your leftovers. As does my man Hilary Benn, UK Environment Secretary, who hit out at the practice of binning Christmas leftovers. Meanwhile, in a related topic, the […]

December 25, 2009 | Also posted in History and Culture, International | Comments closed

Thanksgiving Wrap

Washington’s King County (home of Seattle) is pushing the envelope on food waste collection. Why should Thanksgiving be any different? Monday, a neighborhood in Renton, Wash., dumped turkey carcasses and other Thanksgiving leftovers in a public location as part of a composting demo organized by the County recycling team. I’m guessing the county carted away […]

December 2, 2009 | Also posted in History and Culture, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

A new study by a team of National Institute of Health researchers has some fascinating findings. After analyzing USDA and FAO data, the team of researchers found that US per capita food waste has increased by 50 percent since 1974. More interesting, they found that we now waste 40 percent of our available food supply. […]

November 27, 2009 | Also posted in Friday Buffet, Household, International, Stats | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In addition to being my brother’s birthday, Saturday is (the) International Climate Day of Action. 350.org, has issued this call to action to get our atmospheric CO2 below 350 parts per million. It’s imperative stuff. You can find local events on the site, and don’t forget that reducing food waste helps the environment, too. — […]

October 23, 2009 | Also posted in Friday Buffet, History and Culture, Restaurant, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Thou Shalt Compost

Happy Mandatory Composting Day! Wednesday marks the much anticipated (at least on this blog) debut of San Francisco’s non-elective composting program. All households and businesses must participate in the 3-bin system, one of which is a green cart for food scraps and other organics. The preparations for this day have been rather feverish, recently, and […]

October 21, 2009 | Also posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Sky Vegetables–where do I invest? While they don’t have a roof-top garden operating yet, part of their plan is to compost and use food scraps from the building on which the garden sits.  — — Some folks in Vermont are hoping to show why it’s called the Green Mountain State, as they’re looking into creating energy from food waste, via anaerobic digestion […]

October 9, 2009 | Also posted in College, Energy, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet | Comments closed

Another Kind of Waste

I had such high hopes for the Chicago Tribune piece “Schools Promote Waste-Free Lunches.” When I read that headline, I thought of food waste, not packaging. As you can guess, the article is almost solely about the latter. Yes, keeping food packaging from the landfill is a noble cause. But, I would argue, not as […]

September 29, 2009 | Also posted in School, Vermiculture | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s a little drilling down on the cultural barriers to asking for doggy bags in the UK. — — Green Seal restaurant standards just received a nice boost in the form of national recognition (from ANSI). Not that I have a clue about design, but I’m still not wild about the Green Seal logo–it seems more blue […]

September 11, 2009 | Also posted in Household, International, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed