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.

photo courtesy of D'Arcy Norman (via Creative Commons)Just how bad is that? I’m not quite sure, since my last name isn’t Gore and the press release doesn’t provide any context. Still, I know it’s millions of tons more than there has to be.

The report uses the estimate that 25 percent of landfill waste is food, which is a bit high for the U.S. (it’s 18 percent here, according to the EPA). While our rate is slightly lower than Britain’s, I’d guess that we have a few more landfills than the U.K.

One final note: the City of London studied this topic. Can you imagine Washington or New York City having that kind of interest in the effects of food waste? Me neither.

February 26, 2009 | Posted in Environment, International, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Sausages Sizzle Again

On the repurposing food front, I recently heard from an Australian reader named Angela. I’ll let her tell the story:

We, too, are constantly looking for ways that we can use leftovers and avoid wasting food. I thought I’d share something that we did for the first time this week. We had a BBQ on Friday night and I was left with a tray of cooked sausages that no one ate and also leftover cooked onion.

Angela's sausage rollsWe wrapped the sausages up with the onion in some puff pastry and made an enormous amount of sausage rolls. We ate them all weekend and put some in the freezer for snacks. I’m constantly amazed at the ways we can use up food that previously we would have thrown away.

Well done, Angela! High marks for creativity and for thinking ahead, with the freezer.

The sausage roll, as anyone who’s ever visited the UK or another Commonwealth country will remember, is like a more common, slightly-less-unhealthy version of a corn dog. All that to say, the next time I have leftover hot dogs, I’m bathing them in batter and deep frying.

February 24, 2009 | Posted in Household, International, Repurposing | 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 willcourtesy of UNEP become an even more serious problem.

On the topic of food waste, the report basically says if we’re going to squander so much food, we may as well use it to feed animals or create energy (see page 31). Also included is a useful digest (see page 32) on world food loss, featuring these sad stats:

In many African countries, the post-harvest losses of food cereals are estimated at 25% of the total crop harvested. For some crops such as fruits, vegetables and root crops, being less hardy than cereals, post-harvest losses can reach 50%.

The report also suggests changes in the way we grow, manage and discard food to be more environmentally sensitive. One particularly wasteful instance happens at sea: 30 million tons of fish are discarded at sea.

The study’s authors wisely recommend using these discards and other food waste (post-harvest losses/waste) in animal feed, reducing the amount of fresh cereal crop we feed to livestock.

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to find my name in the references (page 96) for this Culinate piece. I suppose if the Food Waste Czar position doesn’t materialize, I can fall back on a UN post…

February 23, 2009 | Posted in Hunger, International, Waste Stream | 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.)

— —photo by andreanilsson1976 via Creative Commons

British chefs provide some insight on really using up all of your food. French-fried potato peels? Now that’s crafty.

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The ValuWaste system is popular at Seattle University. Despite how the article has it, that’s the correct spelling for the LeanPath product. Speaking of LeanPath, the company’s CEO had an interesting piece on trimming food waste in a food service industry magazine. It’s a good read, and it’s fun to turn pages online.

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Downtown Atlanta is making plans to have a waste-free zone downtown. Food waste collection and composting will begin within the next year. Exciting stuff.

February 20, 2009 | Posted in College, Composting, Friday Buffet, International, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Trays a la carte

Loyal WF reader Dan Livingston recently e-mailed in with this question: Is there any rationale for going trayless in a non-all-you-can eat setting? If diners pay for each item, do trays encourage waste?

As far as I know, traylessness isn’t useful for reducing waste in an a la carte setting. But maybe some of you have experiences that support other conclusions. 

I guess you’d still have the reduced water and energy use from not having to wash trays…But not so sure it would reduce waste. What do you all think?

February 19, 2009 | Posted in General, Trayless | Comments closed

Making Meat Last Longer

Monday, I wrote about the turning excess buns from barbecue takeout into garlic bread. Well, what about the meat?

We had two rather large containers of chopped beef and barbecue chicken and had consumed more than our fill of both. Yet, plenty more remained! My idea: meatloaf!

the finished productI was really glad to have my mom around, because I’ve never actually made a loaf of meat. Not only did she improvise a top layer of leftover potatoes, she made the whole thing, allowing me to focus on ogling my week-old son.

We topped the whole thing with some of the sauce from the barbecue takeout and used bread crumbs salvaged from the end of a loaf. But fear not–the egg was no leftover.

The results were like some sort of culinary alchemy–turning leftovers into a magical, improved dish.

February 18, 2009 | Posted in Household, Personal, Repurposing | Comments closed

Parents of Wasted Food

No, I’m not writing to confess how much food waste family life creates. That’ll come in a year or so. (Joking, hopefully).

More to the point, my parents are in town helping out while we get used to life with a son (a cute guy, in my humble opinion). Fortunately for us, my mom has been doing a lot of cooking. In watching some of her practices, I’ve been reminded how I became drawn to the issue of food waste.

garlic-bread-to-beNo leftover is too small to throw out. All scribbles can enhance another meal or snack. In particular, I got a kick out of one tactic:

A generous takeout-barbecue-lunch provided by my sister-in-law left us with a slew of leftover buns. My mom sized them up and saw garlic bread. Totally!

And they were great. Yes, this was just a small thing, but it provided hope that parenthood isn’t synonymous with food waste. Now I’m doubly confident we’ll be OK on that front.

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Thanks to everyone for passing along your kind wishes and to my brother Seth for pitching in with a very cool post.

February 16, 2009 | Posted in Household, Personal, Repurposing | Comments closed

Three Things Twitter Can Tell Us About Food Waste

As loyal WastedFood.com readers are no doubt aware, Jonathan is taking a brief hiatus from blogging as he and his wife have welcomed a baby boy into their previously waste-free lives. I told Jonathan that the least a new uncle could do was throw up a guest post or two. Here goes:

Let’s begin by agreeing for the moment that Twitter conversation is a blunt but decent stand-in for national sentiment on the issues of the day. With that premise as a backdrop, I took an informal look at how the Twitterati prioritize food waste by comparing the volume of tweets that used various keywords. I can summarize my research in three points:

Lesson 1: A sizeable chunk of the Tweeters who discuss food waste are not Americans. A few casual Twitter search queries show that a lot of the conversation around reducing food waste from outside of America – with a pretty noticeable concentration in Great Britain.

Lesson 2: Comparing the volume of tweets on food waste to some other hot-button environmental issues, it would appear that we have our work cut out for us. This should be a call to action for WastedFood.com readers (and my bro when he starts sleeping again):

Graph 1

Lesson 3: Holy cow:

Graph 1

Stats courtesy TweetVolume.

February 13, 2009 | Posted in General, Guest Posts, Stats | Comments closed

A Pause for Life

If you’re reading this right now, I’m in the hospital. My lovely wife is now in labor. Well, probably. Unless you’re reading this a day or two later, in which case our son might have hatched.

Wow, this feels like a movie. Only if that were the case you’d be hearing these words in a soothing voiceover. Maybe done by Morgan Freeman.

Anyway…the upshot for you, dear reader, is that I won’t be posting (or sleeping) for a couple of days. Bear with me and know I’m doing my best not to notice the abundant hospital food waste. After all, there are more important things to think about right now.

February 9, 2009 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Santa Barbara has had a commercial composting pilot program for the last two years. Now they’ve hired a consultant to ascertain whether or not people think it’s ‘yucky.’ My guess: yes. My hope: no.
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The idea of going fridgeless is interesting. While I fear it could mean more food waste, which could undo the environmental benefits of unplugging, it ultimately depends on your living situation. Still, not being able to save leftovers would be a bummer.
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photo by mfajardo via Creative CommonsI don’t pay much attention to beverages (I do see that the URL WastedDrink.com is available…), but here’s a great use for a byproduct of beer brewing: ethanol.

If this were fifth grade, I’d put a Sierra Nevada sticker on my Trapper Keeper. The Chico, Calif., company’s idea is a tad better than growing corn expressly for that purpose, I’d say.

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I’ve heard of weather harming crops, but had never considered a storm’s impact on school food.

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For those of you interested in an alternative to traditional composting and not too pscyhed about worms (i.e. vermiculture), here’s a blog on all things Bokashi.

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Bread for the City plans to glean farm excess that would otherwise get plowed under. It’s great to see a food bank aspiring to give fresh, nutritious food to its recipients. Individuals and groups in the DC-area looking for a pleasant, meaningful day of volunteering this summer/fall farm outing.

February 6, 2009 | Posted in Composting, Energy, Farm, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Household, School | Comments closed