Category Archives: Composting

New York City Composts!

The Bloomberg Administration announced plans on Sunday for an ambitious composting program for household and commercial food waste that would cover all of New York City by 2016. The move continues Mayor Bloomberg’s recent emphasis on food waste and will help reach the PlaNYC goal of diverting 75 percent of waste from landfills by 2030. The plans are […]

June 17, 2013 | Also posted in Legislation, Restaurant | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Tesco released a major report yesterday called What Matters Now: Using Our Scale For Good. One of the three ambitions was to lead in reducing food waste globally. The massive, UK-based retailer plans to use its industry standing to prompt suppliers and manufacturers to reduce food waste, while helping consumers do the same. For more […]

May 24, 2013 | Also posted in Restaurant, School, Supermarket | Comments closed

Iowa Action…and Inaction

With a nice ‘not only on Earth Day’ lead, Iowa City’s Press-Citizen praises the voluntary composting of many area restaurants and supermarkets. That’s encouraging. Less encouraging news from the article: a bill that would curb the amount of food waste sent to landfills remains stalled in the Iowa House Natural Resources Committee. The bill previously passed the Senate, […]

April 24, 2013 | Also posted in Environment, School | Comments closed

Infographic: Food Waste to Fuel

While there’s plenty of interest in composting, there’s less activity around creating fuel from food waste. That’s largely because food waste-to-energy operations require higher investment at first. Yet in the long term, creating energy from our excess may be more environmentally beneficial according to the EPA (under “industrial uses”). On that topic, RWL Water Group […]

April 3, 2013 | Also posted in Energy | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Love this idea: a Love Your Leftovers site from the UN Environmental Programme. Add your favorite leftovers recipe to the site and you might win a prize and/or become web-famous. — — The Iowa Senate passed an interesting bill on Wednesday that would require the state to promote food waste reduction and recovery. The Des […]

March 29, 2013 | Also posted in Friday Buffet, International, Leftovers | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

While there has long been composting activity in NYC, the Bloomberg Administration is launching a pilot program to try it on the municipal level. The pilot program will be on Staten Island, home to the massive (and closed) Fresh Kills Landfill. Let’s hope the program succeeds despite State Island Borough President’s pessimism: “I think most people […]

February 15, 2013 | Also posted in Environment, Farm, Food Recovery | Comments closed

Getting Grocery Rite

This week, while at the Sustainable Foods Summit in San Francisco, I learned more about what the largest supermarket chains and food manufacturers are doing to reduce food waste through the FMI/GMA Food Waste Reduction Alliance. As you can see from this page and their slides (download), the initiative is encouraging and ongoing. On the other […]

January 25, 2013 | Also posted in Repurposing, Supermarket | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

At last–a peer-reviewed analysis of trayless dining! Two American University researchers found that removing trays at their all-you-can-eat cafeteria cut food waste by 32%. What’s more, diners use 27% fewer dishes, leading to water and energy savings. — — As we learn here, cutting food waste would go a long way toward making our food […]

December 21, 2012 | Also posted in Anaerobic Digestion, College, Energy, Environment, Stats, Trayless | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The NRDC is at it again, this time publishing an issue brief on fruit and vegetable loss at the farm and packing level. Hot off the press! — — Here are a few Big Facts: 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted globally every year. That equates to 6-10% of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. — […]

December 14, 2012 | Also posted in College, Environment, International, Stats | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The burgeoning site Say No To Food Waste was kind enough to create this nice collection of food waste studies. — — I’d definitely sign up for a Waste Buster scheme, especially if it involves Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and the gang. — — The issue of wasted food received some nice exposure here, courtesy of Joy […]

November 16, 2012 | Also posted in Restaurant, Stats, Waste Stream | Comments closed