Category Archives: Household

Baste, Taste, then Don’t Waste

This Thanksgiving, America will throw away more than 400 Statue of Liberty’s worth of turkey (by weight).  Based on estimates, we’ll discard 203 million pounds of turkey, at a cost of $282 million. That’s fowl. — Thanksgiving is about being thankful for and celebrating abundance. Yet these days, we tend to do that by serving an […]

November 21, 2012 | Also posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

European Produce Pondering

On Friday, I was surprised to hear the finding that 50% of Europe’s fruits and vegetables aren’t eaten. Turns out I missed one small word–that close to 50% is wasted. Not a big deal, though, as nearly everyone uses tiny modifiers for impact. With or without modifiers, European produce waste is shocking. Yet even worse is North […]

October 9, 2012 | Also posted in Composting, International, Stats | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Wait, what?! According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 50% of Europe’s fruit and vegetables are wasted. I’ll have more on this staggering news on Monday. — — Lots of food waste discussion up in Canada. A recent report found that 51% of Canadian food waste comes from homes. I’m not sure I’d classify that as […]

October 5, 2012 | Also posted in Composting, Energy, Friday Buffet, International, Stats, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Unharvested fruit from backyard trees is certainly a waste. But we don’t often put uneaten mushrooms or nuts in that same category. But, this DIY.org page brimming with foraging resources does. — — Massachusetts will be banning commercial food waste from landfills in 2014. If you want to nerd out on the policy process, have […]

September 21, 2012 | Also posted in Alphabet Produce, Freegan, Friday Buffet, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Many of you will relate to Molly Watson’s determination to avoid melon waste through kitchen effort and ingenuity. — — Meanwhile, there’s a lot to like about making sandwiches out of leftovers. A great waste-avoiding strategy with a tasty byproduct! — — Wondering why we don’t feed much food waste to livestock? Here’s a succinct answer […]

September 7, 2012 | Also posted in Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Use That Food!

Here’s a neat one: UseTheFood is a free site that helps you find recipes to…use the food. Your food, that is. As of today, the startup goes from private beta to public beta. In other words, you can search the listings. I haven’t looked through it much, but I like the a feature that allows you […]

August 20, 2012 | Also posted in Personal | 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 Environment, Restaurant, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Feast Your Eyes on This!

I’m a big fan of infographics. That’s why I was excited to stumble upon this one. Not only is it eye-catching, but it’s an impressive venture for a catering company (Toronto’s Feast Your Eyes!). The part I appreciate the most is how the infographic blends awareness-raising stats with tips on how you can limit your […]

July 30, 2012 | Posted in Household | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

I’m all for a machine that helps determine avocado ripeness by tapping it and listening to acoustics. Coming soon to a UK supermarket near you… — — Great title: “Food, too, is wasted on the young.” (Think about it for a second.) And the article has some eye-opening stats on Australian food waste. — — Just […]

July 20, 2012 | Also posted in Composting, Energy, Friday Buffet, International, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Food Waste is Crappy

I’d never heard of the Parenting. With Crappy Pictures blog. Until today. And now I’m a big fan. In her recent post on kids and food waste, Amber Dusick illustrates (crappily) what seem to be mutually exclusive tasks: feeding kids and avoiding waste. Anyone who’s ever tried to feed a child (and even certain adults) will […]

July 11, 2012 | Posted in Household | Comments closed