Category Archives: International

Friday Buffet

What’s not to love about making beer from the otherwise-wasted abundance around us all? Fullsteam (brewery) makes me proud to live in Durham. — — Also in my city–there’s now a program that encourages people to leave food on their porch for raccoons volunteers to collect. Believe it or not, it works well! — — If […]

September 30, 2011 | Also posted in Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Hunger | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The BBC caught wind of the study profiled here on Wednesday and interviewed the researcher and a TV chef, posing the slightly sensationalistic question: Do Celebrity Chefs Cause More Waste? — — “Were you eating this apple” he asked a moment later. Yup, he was pointing to my apple. I nodded. “Come on down, pick […]

September 23, 2011 | Also posted in Friday Buffet, Household | Comments closed

Great Expectations

Everybody loves having their theories confirmed. This bit of qualitative research from the University of Manchester did that for yours truly. I’ve long believed this formula to be true: Heightened expectations for cooking homemade meals + Busy lifestyles = More waste. Now I have some sociological support for that theory, along with some interviews that […]

September 21, 2011 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed

Date Labels Dissected in the UK

Late last week, the UK Government scrapped “sell-by” dates. Food items will no longer be allowed to carry that date label that’s aimed at retailers but confusing for consumers. At the same time, the Government, in the guise of the Dept. of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), offered authoritative guidance to distinguish between “use-by” and “best-before” labels. In […]

September 19, 2011 | Also posted in Household, Supermarket | Comments closed

Germany to Waste: Halt!

On Friday, Germany’s Minister of Food Agriculture and Consumer Protection announced it will conduct a study on food waste. In other words, they aim to find out how much waste can be halted. The move came in conjunction with Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini’s visit to Germany. Slow Food is increasingly emphasizing waste reduction, in […]

September 12, 2011 | Also posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In a UK survey, 82 percent of those surveyed believed it was important to reduce restaurant food waste. And about that same amount said they’d even do something about it! 80 percent said they’d opt to not receive items they knew they wouldn’t eat. There are some other interesting findings in the report, which Unilever […]

September 9, 2011 | Also posted in College, Friday Buffet, Restaurant | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In a town near Vancouver, curbside compost collection is attracting bears, which, sadly, usually doesn’t end well for bears. Mixing newspaper in with the compost or keeping food scraps in the freezer before collection are two suggested solutions… — — The Stop Food Waste campaign run by the Irish EPA found that 30% of what Irish […]

August 26, 2011 | Also posted in Composting, Energy | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

A chocolate-powered Nestle plant? That delightful smell and scheme could be coming soon to Newcastle, England. — — The Chicago Sun-Times ran this great piece on whole-hog butchery as a way to avoid waste. The worst detail: some whole hams head straight to the trash because they’re not in as high demand as pork chops and bacon. — — […]

August 19, 2011 | Also posted in Restaurant | Comments closed

Unnecessary Hunger

Famine x Waste = Terrible Well worth a read: This thought-provoking piece on how famine in East Africa is made all the more absurd by the waste in that region. Shrinking prices lead to no market for some crops. And because there is so little irrigation in use, a draught worsens the situation. But, as […]

August 15, 2011 | Also posted in Hunger | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Portland City Council will vote next week on whether or not to make curbside composting a citywide program (and reduce regular trash collection to every other week). Come on Stumptown, both Salem and Keizer (Oregon) have such a program! — — Connecticut’s governor just signed a bill requiring composting for businesses producing more than 104 […]

August 12, 2011 | Also posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, Hunger | Comments closed