Category Archives: Environment

Food Packaging: Lesser of Two Evils

With food packaging, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Too much, and you’re using unnecessary materials. Too little and you’re risking damaged food in transit and elsewhere. I suppose the ideal is going uber-local and bringing your own reusable containers like at Austin’s in.gredients (check out their incredible 6-month sustainability numbers). But until that sweeps […]

March 13, 2013 | Also posted in Energy, International, Storage | 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 Composting, Farm, Food Recovery | Comments closed

Estonia Brainstorm: Just Did It

I spent a few days last week with about 50 other sustainability thinkers and doers on snowy, secluded Muhu Island in Estonia. We were there as part of the Clean World Brainstorm, an offshoot of the Let’s Do It! organization. Why Estonia? Because that’s the home of Let’s Do It!, which got its start by […]

February 4, 2013 | Also posted in Personal, Waste Stream | 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, Composting, Energy, 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, Composting, International, Stats | Comments closed

Sandy Summary

There’s a difference between waste and loss. But no matter what we call it, East Coasters have discarded a whole lot of food in the last week as a result of Sandy. There’s the in-home loss caused by not having power or a back-up generator. Restaurants also experience the that problem, but one Manhattan eatery […]

November 5, 2012 | Also posted in Food Safety, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Wasting Water

With World Water Week having just concluded, there’s been plenty of talk about the scarcity of water. And I was interested to hear the latest on the link between water and food waste. Still, I was stunned by this statement: “More than one-fourth of all the water we use worldwide is taken to grow over […]

September 4, 2012 | Posted in Environment | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Good news, Americans feel more guilt about wasting food than any other environmental transgression. In other words–let’s use this “green guilt” to limit waste! — — Wait, don’t toss those coffee grounds! Slow Food provides some interesting uses for something you thought was useless. — — Here are five helpful tips to help restaurateurs to […]

August 17, 2012 | Also posted in Household, Restaurant, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Big-time Bycatch

When it comes to food waste in the seafood industry, the key buzzword is bycatch. That term represents the creatures caught as a byproduct when fishing for another type of seafood. And the numbers are shocking–as much as half of fish caught in the Europe are being thrown back into the ocean, dead. This bycatch occurs […]

May 18, 2012 | Posted in Environment | Comments closed

AntarctiCan You Believe How Far They Ship Waste?

What’s Antarctican food waste doing in Spokane? Why, it’s being burned, of course. Apparently, life on Antarctica is like camping–pack it in, pack it out. Not being able to dig a hole (to build a landfill) and having to follow the Arctic Treaty, Antarctic researchers have to send all of their refuse elsewhere. Most everything […]

May 14, 2012 | Also posted in Composting, Energy, Waste Stream | Comments closed