Oprah’s Wednesday show examined dumpster diving, so I guess freeganism has officially arrived. The episode featured freegans in New York and Nashville, before down-shifting to interview a soccer mom by day, stripper by night. Ah, television.
The best segment was when reporter Lisa Ling spent time with nice couple from Nashville, both professionals, who happen to […]

Ireland’s EPA just weighed in with this discussion paper on how to reduce food and yard waste in landfills. Here’s a decent summary of the study, which suggested ten potential changes to keep food from rotting in landfills.
Conspicuously absent was the suggestion: ‘Stop wasting so much food!’
The Irish study stems from the European Union’s […]

Not surprisingly, there’s been some fallout from the largest beef recall in U.S. history. You know, the one that didn’t really need to happen. Many retailers are frustrated at having to toss perfectly good food.
Recently, Seattle-area landfills have started burying cases of meat that were at school cafeterias. A King County landfill received 230 20-to-30-pound […]

The verdict is in on the NatureMill indoor composting system–not so hot. This review echoes the sentiment of Wasted Food reader Sandy who expressed her disappointment via comment.
It’s a shame that the NatureMill doesn’t smell so hot, because I was hoping it’d be an answer for urban dwellers without composting space. The contraption has real […]

The Academy Awards, in keeping with the de rigeur environmentalism, put out this laundry list of green achievements. While I didn’t see any stretched Prius limos lining up the red carpet…
Transportation offered by the Academy to presenters and staff included zero-emission hydrogen (25% of vehicles) and hybrid (60%) vehicles
Of the food-related bullet-points, most detailed how […]

Perhaps common sense isn’t dead in Washington. The USDA may curtail its record-setting beef recall to reduce some of the needless waste discussed here Tuesday.
— —
Last week, I linked to a British report entitled Green, Healthy and Fair. Here’s a shorter piece (by 109 pages) on food waste in Britain. Most interesting: a poll found […]

I recently received this comment from Brett, a student at Allegheny College, on his school’s dining practices:
the reasoning I get for the overpreparation is so they don’t run out of any item. The rationale is you are supposed to be able to come at the last minute of the meal (9:59 for breakfast, 1:29 for lunch, […]

As you may have noticed, there’s a new tab on the site: Trayless.
I consider the page my repository for keeping track of which colleges and universities are shunning trays to avoid food waste. Please let me know if I’ve missed your school–it’s very much a work in progress.
Also, the traylessness doesn’t have to be in […]

Yesterday, Westland/Hallmark Meatpacking Company recalled the most beef in US history. The 143 million pounds of meat was more than four times greater than the next highest amount. In fact, the recalled beef is enough to serve two burgers to roughly every American. Now imagine every man, woman and child throwing away two hamburgers (minus […]

This article in Idaho’s Twin Falls Times-News provides insight into why restaurants think waste is “inevitable.”
Unfortunately, the piece’s author allowed two common myths to go unchallenged. First, that food recovery groups won’t keep donated food at the right temperature, allowing it to dip into the bacteria danger zone. Most food recovery groups employ refrigerated trucks […]