Category Archives: International

Any ideas?

Yesterday we were talking about Indiana, today it’s Brazil. Earlier this week I got an e-mail from a friendly Sao Paulo industrial design student named Luiz Augusto Moreira. Luiz tells me that food waste is a serious problem in Brazil, as well. Banco de Alimentos, a non-govermental organization that recovers food for the hungry, says 39 million kilograms of […]

August 2, 2007 | Posted in International | Comments closed

U.K. A.D.

Anaerobic digestion getting a boost in Britain. The recycling advocate WRAP has pushed for the widespread adoption of the process that converts food waste (and anything organic) into energy. WRAP, or Waste & Resources Action Programme, has called for the installation of more digesters to process excess food. use of the process. It is now running […]

July 26, 2007 | Also posted in Energy, Waste Stream | Comments closed

British food waste awaits

London borough leaders seem to be considering food waste collection. At an event organized by London Remade, a non-profit recycling consulting firm, London officials heard from the recycling coordinator of Preston, where 7,500 homes take part in household composting scheme, urged London to “jump in.” Here, here. We all know there’s plenty of bad English food just […]

July 13, 2007 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed

Friday Digest

The Indian food digestion company that we talked about recently just won Britain’s Ashden Award for food security. The company, BIOTECH, has installed more than 12,000 biogas digesters that transform food waste to electricity. Best of all, the majority of these contraptions are at individual homes (closing that proverbial loop).  This technology, also called anaerobic digestion, […]

June 22, 2007 | Also posted in Energy, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Tale of the Tape II–Split Decision

Let’s look at another figure from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) study. The ESRC study counts 17 million tonnes of British food waste annually. Fareshare, the national charity that redistributes excess food, says almost one-fourth of that is perfectly edible when it’s thrown away. To subtract the ‘es’ from 17 million tonnes, we multiply a bit to arrive […]

June 20, 2007 | Also posted in Stats, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Tale of the Tape

Last week, Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) released a study called Consumption: Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. Because I’m slow at math, I’m just now pondering its import. My first instinct is to compare Britons’ food waste to ours. The ESRC study reports that the “Every year British consumers each waste £424 on food they do not […]

June 19, 2007 | Also posted in Stats, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Curry to Kilowatts

Food-to-energy schemes are fairly common around the globe. In the U.S., however, there are few anaerobic digesters that break down food waste and harness the gas released to power a generator.  The latest story to cross my desk is a company called Biotech, based in the South Indian state of Kerala. The company has made digesters for […]

June 11, 2007 | Also posted in Energy, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Food Falls to Non-Profits

Anyone who’s been to a casino can imagine the amount of food wasted at buffets and through the sheer volume of restaurant service. Two casinos on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls are minimizing that waste by donating heaps of prepared food to local charities. The United Way of Niagara Falls collects this high quality food and distributes it […]

June 7, 2007 | Also posted in Casino, Food Recovery | Comments closed

Britain Talks Trash II

I’ve been reading some of the fine print on the Waste Strategy for England 2007 and there’s more than meets the eye. In addition to incentives for businesses to compost, the waste plan includes annual increases of the per tonne landfill tax so that it doubles by 2011. We’re seeing both the carrot and the stick. As this […]

June 1, 2007 | Also posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

Britain Talks Trash

Britain’s Environment Secretary David Miliband published a waste plan for England last week. I’m just now getting around to writing about the strategy because I’ve been stunned by how much sense it makes. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) plan calls for a 45 percent reduction in waste produced and for 50 percent of all […]

May 31, 2007 | Also posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed