Wasted Food -- Jonathan Bloom on food waste and how it can be avoided | a look at how America squanders nearly half of its food

Friday Buffet

Uber-media-friendly app LeftoverSwap launches today! Hopefully its impact will match its ability to generate press.

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Next week is Zero Waste Week! Drop by, sign up and zero out waste…with many of the helpful tips that Rachelle and crew will be providing.

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Glad to hear that the Emirates Environmental Group in the UAE addressed food waste in a lecture under the banner Save Wasted Food for Zero Hunger

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US Congressman Ami Bera to India: ‘Let us help you help yourselves.’ Bera wants to export US technology to help reduce food waste and post harvest losses stemming from poor storage capabilities.

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Finally, there’s good news, Iowans: The Iowa Waste Reduction Center has plannedÂ five food waste reduction workshops for the fall. They’re only $10, which includes a lunch that you must finish (or take home).

August 30, 2013 | Posted in Composting, General, International, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Messaging on Food Waste Messaging

UK research group WRAP has released some incredibly useful researchÂ for cities and towns hoping to both reduce and recycle food waste, those that have implemented food waste collection already and those that plan to do so.Â You can see the full report hereÂ or view the easily-digested, data-heavy slides.

The study stemmed from this problem: implementing composting problems doesn’t usually lead to minimized food waste and in some ways it creates a barrier. To maximize that all-important food waste prevention, WRAP studied attitudes and made recommendations.

image courtesy of Materials Recycling World (MRW) The key message:Â citizens want the messages of reducing food waste and recycling it linked. In other words, trimming food waste is part of an overall approach that includes composting one’s minimized waste. Hence, this all-encompassing graphic fared better than ones focused on prevention:

Overall, the majority of those polled wanted tips on how to reduce food waste–88% said they’d find that info useful. And 96% of respondents agreed with this statement: “Recycling food waste is good, preventing it is better.”

Despite the increased focus on food waste in Britain, 40% of respondents said that food waste isn’t a problem because it breaks down in landfills. Â On the plus side, though, the majority of those polled have access to a food waste collection service (95% of Welsh respondentsÂ and 58% of Scottish respondents).

And this report can only help matters by empowering municipalities in the UK (and hopefully elsewhere) to trim their wasted food, whether they already have food waste collection or plan to offer it in due time.

August 28, 2013 | Posted in Composting, International, Stats, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Waste on the Mind

Newsflash: Britons are increasingly focused on food waste.

We’d long suspected that, but here’s further quantitative proof to that effect, courtesy of the Sustainable Restaurant Association study The Discerning DinerÂ (here’s the full report PDF). The SRA poll asked: ‘which of these 13 issues are most important for restaurants to focus on.’ The 1,000 poll respondents then had to choose their top three.

In 2009, when the SRA asked the same question, food waste was nowhere near the top. This year, food waste tied for first with customer health and nutrition. In other words, WRAP, Feeding the 5K and others in Britain are doing an awesome job communicating the food waste message.

Surprisingly, interest in the issue spans all age ranges. The age bracket most concerned about waste were the 18-24 year olds, not the 65+ group with their wartime memories.

And respondents want to hear more about food waste from restaurants–it was the fourth-leading item in that category. Hopefully restaurateurs will oblige by implementing waste reduction measures and communicating them to customers.

image courtesy of Eco Outsource One such strategy, smaller portions, seems popular. To reduce plate waste, 70 percent of respondents said they would consider ordering a smaller portion or already do so.

And there’s some positive news on the leftover front. While embarrassment over asking for a “doggy box” remains a bit of a barrier, the SRA’s awesomeÂ Too Good To Waste campaign, complete with branded take-home boxes, seems to be working. A slightly larger percentage of respondents said they’d consider taking leftovers home if restaurants provided a container.

August 23, 2013 | Posted in International, Leftovers, Restaurant | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Flamengo just became my favorite Brazilian soccer (football) team. The Brasilia-based team marched a Think.Eat.Save banner on the field recently, promoting the UNEP campaign to reduce food waste.

OK, so it was only a banner. But it’s an important step, given that the World Cup will be in Brazil next year. In the meantime, Viva o Flamengo!

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Love food and hate waste? Well, Love Food Hate Waste TV is for you. The UK channel will begin broadcasting 10 minute shows in September.

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Food waste is the theme for the 23rd International Children’s Painting Competition. While entries aren’t due until March 2014, it’s never to early to ~~start working on~~ getting your kids to begin their projects.

August 16, 2013 | Posted in Friday Buffet, International | Comments closed

Monday Roundup

The LeftoverSwap app that facilitates giving one’s leftovers to others launches August 30 (for iPhones). But…is it legal??

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You gonna use that pomace? Using the excess seeds, skin and stems from wine-making process is all the rage.Â

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All 30 National Hockey League teams will donate unsold concessions through old-school food rescuers Rock & Wrap It Up as part of the EPA Food Recovery Challenge. The New York-based group got its start in 1991 recovering food from–surprise!–rock concerts.

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Finally, Loving Spoonfuls founder/rock star Ashley Stanley reminds Massachusetts businesses to remember the role of food rescue in the upcoming food waste landfill ban: “We need a more sensible and balanced approach, where the hungry are fed and the landfills are spared.”

August 12, 2013 | Posted in Composting, Environment, Food Recovery, Leftovers, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Beginning next month, the University of North Texas will be launching an educational campaign to cut campus food waste. Let’s hope it has an impact on students there!

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The Chinese city of Wuhan will be using GPS to track food waste in the waste stream, a reflection of the increased attention being paid to food waste in China.

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The British House of Lords is scrutinizingÂ how the EU is faringÂ on its goal of halving European food waste by 2020. As one would hope, the European Commission is alsoÂ looking into the topic.

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Say it ain’t so, Saudi Arabia: A local charity has cautioned that a “culture of excess” in The Kingdom is prompting 4,500 tonnes of food waste daily. As with most developed nations, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

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A Mumbai restaurateur discusses several ways he has tried to combat food waste. Interesting stuff, including this gem: “We also started penalising our staff Rs 100 for wasting the food we serve them. I wish I could do the same to some guests!”

August 9, 2013 | Posted in Friday Buffet, International, Restaurant, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Senators: Permanent Tax Incentives for Food Donations

You would think tax benefits for donating food would be on firm ground. You would think.

Instead, they’ve been re-upped annually since coming into existence in 2006. Well, some Senators are trying to end that tenuous situation by making such hunger- and waste-alleviating tax incentives permanent.Â In addition, the law would also apply to farmers. At present, only incorporated farms are eligible for tax deductions for donating food.

A bi-partisan group 0f senators, led by Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Bob Casey, D-Pa., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.Â introduced the Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive ActÂ last week.

There’s already another good samaritan law, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects donors from liability. It seems a fitting name, then, for an act that would further food donations–this time through tax breaks. Plenty in the food industry already donate food, but we can’t have enough help in fighting against the inertia, apathy and cheap landfill rates that make many food businesses avoid donating excess edible food.

Let’s hope that a bill helping businesses, the hungry and avoiding waste garners bi-partisan support. If it doesn’t, I’m not sure such a thing exists. Write your senator to help make sure it does!

August 6, 2013 | Posted in Food Recovery, Restaurant | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Mayor Bloomberg recently announced some further details on New York’s plan to expand its composting program from the current thousand-odd households to 100,000 by 2014.

And it’s about time, given that a staggering 29% of New York City’s trash is compostable. Salon examines the potential revenue embedded in that waste stream. You know who thinks these upcoming changes stink, though? Supers.

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Some in Massachusetts feel that that ban is just government overstepping its bounds. Then again some of those same people put anaerobic digestions in quotations, as if it’s some imaginary, voodoo technology.

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Here’sÂ further insightÂ on the economics at play in Massachusetts’ upcoming ban on commercial food waste.

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Finally, on Massachusetts–this guy does not look too excited to be composting scraps from his restaurant’s kitchen. (He also doesn’t look like he’s ever been in a kitchen.)

August 2, 2013 | Posted in Anaerobic Digestion, Composting | Comments closed

You Gonna Eat That, Neighbor?

Eating other people’s leftovers isn’t for everyone, but it is for someone.Â LeftoverSwap app founder Dan Newman hopes that others aside from me (and foragers and freegans) are interested in the notion.

The app, due out by the end of this month, will facilitate leftover sharing or trading. You post a picture of your leftovers and offer them up or request trade offers. Nearby leftover lovers then swoop in to give your food a good home.

The idea has been newsworthy and polarizing–it’s either super cool or dumb as heck. My favorite comment on the idea can be paraphrased: ‘Why wouldn’t you just eat your own leftovers?’ And judging by the reaction in San Francisco, local boards of health won’t be downloading the app. Still, it could be a small part of the anti-food waste arsenal.

We risk exposure to germs in countless ways. And we eat the leftovers of our families and roommates. Doing so with the leftovers of strangers is the big leap here. Newman, the app’s creator,Â spoke about that issue with NPR:Â “People seem to have a huge lack of trust in their fellow man, thinking that leftovers would be diseased somehow. It goes back to the couch-surfing thing. You’re staying at a random person’s place and you have to trust they aren’t going to do something weird. It’s the same with leftovers.”

The major barrier for LeftoverSwap, other than that ‘ick’ sound many people are making and the raised eyebrows of every American board of health, is that paying for a hotel (instead of couch surfing) is way more costly than buying a fresh order of fried rice (instead of claiming your neighbors’). Still, there are plenty of us out there who trust their fellow man (and their moo shu).

August 1, 2013 | Posted in Household, Leftovers, Restaurant | Comments closed