Category Archives: Waste Stream

Fresh Brewed Waste?

You’re all probably familiar with the Keurig one-shot coffee machines. They’re pretty handy, I suppose. Well, one rationale for these machines that I can appreciate is that they prevent offices (and homes) from wasting pots of coffee. I usually focus on food waste–not beverages–but coffee dumping seems so egregious. Most cafes, restaurants and convenience stores […]

March 2, 2009 | Also posted in Energy, Environment | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The Ohio EPA is teaming up with grocers to try to get them to compost their food waste. As much as 70 percent of some stores’ trash is food waste! — — Meanwhile, students at Santa Clara found that 42 percent of their trash was food waste. And 70 percent could have been recycled in […]

February 27, 2009 | Also posted in College, Composting, School, Supermarket | Comments closed

When Waste Rots

Curious about food waste’s environmental impact after it’s been sent to a landfill? A report from the UK provides the dirt on London’s food waste carbon footprint. (If you’re curious, here’s the entire report.) The headline: Londoners produce food waste which emits 6.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, a new report reveals. Just […]

February 26, 2009 | Also posted in Environment, International | Comments closed

The Environmental Food Crisis: A Closer Look

Last week, the UN Environment Programme released a dramatic report (see the press release for condensed reading) on food and climate change. Among other things, The Environmental Food Crisis found that unless we make some dramatic changes, world food production will decrease by as much as 25 percent. If there’s less abundance, wasted food will […]

February 23, 2009 | Also posted in Hunger, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Nice to see the UN taking the issue of food waste seriously. Now how about the US? (More on this topic on Monday.) — — British chefs provide some insight on really using up all of your food. French-fried potato peels? Now that’s crafty. — — The ValuWaste system is popular at Seattle University. Despite […]

February 20, 2009 | Also posted in College, Composting, Friday Buffet, International | Comments closed

Turning Blue Skies Gray

San Diego’s landfill trash has decreased 12 percent in the last year, partly because of decreased food waste. They’re receiving 15-year waste lows. Great news, right? Not so fast, says NBC San Diego. In their take on the story, they find a way to make the sky fall. Instead of ‘reduced greenhouse gas emissions from […]

January 27, 2009 | Also posted in Restaurant | Comments closed

Austin City, No Limits

This makes my month: the Austin Farmer’s Market is now accepting compost from individuals partly because of this humble blog. Farmers selling at Texas’ largest growers-only market have long donated unsold edibles to soup kitchens and composted the remains. Since last Saturday, though, shoppers can bring their household food waste to the market. This makes […]

January 6, 2009 | Also posted in Composting, Farmers' Market | Comments closed

Avoiding That Sinking Feeling

Funky things are happening with the plumbing down under. While I’m still reeling from the clockwise/counter-clockwise toilet flush hoax, Southern hemisphere inventors have moved on. Two recent creations offer solutions to the inefficiency of washing food down the drain. First, a 9-year-old New Zealand boy invented a contraption that allows you to dump food waste […]

January 5, 2009 | Also posted in Composting, Garden, Household, International | Comments closed

Taking (Food) Out (of) The Trash

Here’s one more reason not to waste food: spare your garbageman the mess. The few days after Christmas, trash volume increases greatly, in some cases even doubling. Wrapping, packaging and cardboard make up a large portion of that mess. But just like those materials should be recycled, so should food. This means composting or feeding […]

December 29, 2008 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Who is feeding America? Not America’s Second Harvest, because they’re now called Feeding America. — — I recently interviewed Converted Organics’ CEO Ed Gildea on the company’s fancy pants composting process. They’ve just posted a video showing the first delivery of solid food waste to their New Jersey facility. — — While we’re watching videos, […]

October 31, 2008 | Also posted in Composting, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Household, International | Comments closed