Category Archives: Waste Stream

Packaging Pros and Cons

I’ve been thinking a lot about packaging recently, as I’ve been writing something about Austin’s mostly packaging-free grocer, in.gredients. From a life-cycle assessment perspective, packaging is environmentally harmful. It’s just more stuff we’re using oil to create, often unnecessarily, that usually ends up in a landfill. Yet, it’s not that simple.  Smarter packaging could limit […]

May 16, 2013 | Posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

Monday Buffet

Wasted food = wasted water. This handy Ecocentric blog post reminds us of that truth. — — Mixed news from Massachusetts: The DEP confirmed its upcoming 2014 commercial food waste ban and pushed for a 30 percent waste reduction by 2020 (Hooray!). But it also announced that they would remove the moratorium on building new […]

May 13, 2013 | Also posted in International, School, Supermarket | Comments closed

Iowa Project Fights Food Waste

Not every state has its own Waste Reduction Center. Even fewer have a state-wide Food Waste Reduction Project. Actually, I can’t think of one. While Iowa has long had the former (a part of the University of Northern Iowa for 25 years), it just now has the latter with the launch of the Iowa Food […]

May 2, 2013 | Posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

Trashing the Earth

Earth Day is a good time to consider just how much we throw away–and not just food. We create 4.4 pounds of trash per day, which is pretty ridiculous. This infographic conveys just how wasteful we are. And food waste’s impact is even greater than pictured, as the numbers represent the percentage of waste created, not […]

April 22, 2013 | Also posted in Environment | Comments closed

(Almost) Zero Waste

As part of my visit to Bucknell University this week, I organized a Zero Waste Dinner for a group of interested students. The idea was to create a meal that would produce no waste of any kind–be it food, paper or plastic. In addition to enjoying what they cooked, teams of students were involved in […]

April 12, 2013 | Also posted in College, Personal | 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 Environment, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Thanks for the tips on avoiding food waste, Dr. Weil! — — There’s an appropriate mood to this fabulous European Union-made video on food waste. Lamenting? Melancholy? Also–awesome disclaimer at the end of the video: “All the food used during the shooting of this clip has been cooked and eaten by the crew.” — — […]

December 7, 2012 | Also posted in Friday Buffet, International | 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 Composting, Restaurant, Stats | Comments closed

Putting the Green in Green Mountain State

Vermont towns are starting to sift through a recent law enacted that will change how they interact with waste. Through a series of steps to begin in 2015, Act 148 (lawyerese full text) will revolutionize the state’s approach to trash. As explained in this simplified version on page 9-10, the bill will require residents to […]

November 13, 2012 | Posted in Waste Stream | 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 Environment, Food Safety | Comments closed