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!
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Meanwhile, students at Santa Clara found that 42 percent of their trash was food waste. And 70 percent could have been recycled in some manner.
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The Times has an interesting piece on garbage disposals. Sounds like the newer models may avoid some potential pitfalls of sending food waste down the drain.
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Orange composting? Oh…the Orange are composting.
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Finally, here’s tales of implementing the Berekley School Lunch Initiative at John Muir Elementary. The enlightened program reduces waste by, among other things, getting students to value their food.
Comments
7 responses to “Friday Buffet”
What is your opinion on garbage disposals? Are they a better alternative to throwing food in the trash?
Garbage disposals or throwing food in the trash? My answer is ‘no.’ You should compost!
But if I’m forced to decide between the two, I’d say disposals are the better choice. They might mess up your pipes or clog the city’s, but they might not. And food sent to the landfill will definitely emit methane. Plus, it sounds like the newer disposals are much improved.
Check out this previous post on the topic, too.
Another thing to think about with garbage disposals is that they waste significant amounts of water. I’d rather send food to the landfill where it can at least potentially turn into useful, harvested methane, than down the drain along with a couple gallons of clean drinking water. Plus, I assume that once sent down the drain the food scraps are filtered back out of the wastewater at the treatment plant and then dumped somewhere…
A sound point about wasting water, Dan. But keep in mind that methane capture at landfills does to catch all the methane. It’s a pretty inexact process. And that’s if your landfill has such technology.
We all should try to find out where our garbage goes and whether that landfill has methane capture system in place. Of course, with so much of our trash being shipped to a galaxy far, far away, that’s not easy.
There are flaws with both trashing and disposing your food, that’s why composting is the best option.
Oh yes…I do compost, fear not! lol I’ve actually never lived in a home with a garbage disposal, not even when I was a kid. I was just curious because some people have asked me whether garbage disposals are a green option.
Between cutting back on food waste and composting, I throw very little food away…the only things I throw away are meat items, like shrimp shells and chicken bones. As far as I know, the only way to compost those without attracting animals is to buy one of those really expensive composters(a bokashi bin, I think?).
This is a great blog. I’m very new to it but have been motivated to waste even less food. I even wrote a post today inspired by it. We hardly throw out any food, but my question is: if you don’t garden, what would you do with a compost pile? I’ve always thought they were just for flower beds and vegetable gardens, etc. Sorry for my naive question, but as I said, I’m new to a lot of this.
Oh also, I meant to say…
While it’s great for an individual to compost, what can be done about the supermarkets? I used to buy brownish bananas for baking and the other day I went to three different markets and realized they don’t sell them anymore. They used to sell them in a separate area to keep them away from the perfect and beautiful looking produce, and they were cheaper. So I asked the men working in the produce department and they told me they throw them away! That made me sick. Like you said, at least for bananas, they’re perfectly good for baking or freezing for a smoothie. What a waste.