Monthly Archives: April 2013

Politicizing Waste Reduction Advice?

Well that’s unfortunate. British politicians and/or the British media have politicized advice on reducing food waste. The Independent reported Environment Minister Richard Benyon’s remarks about families losing £50 per month through waste and follows it with objections from the opposition. As an American, I’m not aware of all the subtle class machinations and tax policy at […]

April 29, 2013 | Posted in Household, International, Leftovers | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

More than 100 New York City restaurants–including ones owned by Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and Danny Meyer–have pledged to cut their waste in half. One thing conspicuously absent in the writeup was any kind of timeline. Still, great news! — — The GRACE Communications Foundation (the folks behind The Meatrix) just launched a new site on food waste, and […]

April 26, 2013 | Posted in College, Environment, Food Safety, Restaurant | Comments closed

Iowa Action…and Inaction

With a nice ‘not only on Earth Day’ lead, Iowa City’s Press-Citizen praises the voluntary composting of many area restaurants and supermarkets. That’s encouraging. Less encouraging news from the article: a bill that would curb the amount of food waste sent to landfills remains stalled in the Iowa House Natural Resources Committee. The bill previously passed the Senate, […]

April 24, 2013 | Posted in Composting, Environment, School | Comments closed

Trashing the Earth

Earth Day is a good time to consider just how much we throw away–and not just food. We create 4.4 pounds of trash per day, which is pretty ridiculous. This infographic conveys just how wasteful we are. And food waste’s impact is even greater than pictured, as the numbers represent the percentage of waste created, not […]

April 22, 2013 | Posted in Environment, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Wow, Reno must be the anti-Vegas! The Atlantis Casino there not only had a food waste diversion goal for 2012, the exceeded it by 56 percent! — — Don’t Judge a Fruit By Its Color, writes the Food Politic blog on HuffPost. The piece looks at government standards and our attitudes to get at this superficial […]

April 19, 2013 | Posted in Casino, College, Farmers' Market, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet | Comments closed

Waste Weigh Friday

Last Friday, I helped oversee a cafeteria waste audit at Bucknell. It was my last day at the school and it was a nice culmination to a week of food waste awareness. It felt like a final exam–to gauge the impact of the week’s conversations, the posters in the cafeteria and a previous waste weigh. […]

April 15, 2013 | Posted in College, General, Personal, Worth a Thousand Words | Comments closed

(Almost) Zero Waste

As part of my visit to Bucknell University this week, I organized a Zero Waste Dinner for a group of interested students. The idea was to create a meal that would produce no waste of any kind–be it food, paper or plastic. In addition to enjoying what they cooked, teams of students were involved in […]

April 12, 2013 | Posted in College, Personal, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Encouraging Signs

I’m back at Bucknell University for the third of four week-long stints as an expert-in-residence. I’ll be guest lecturing in a variety of classes, leading a zero waste dinner and facilitating a waste weigh. I always relish the chance to discuss food waste with young folks–be it through giving talks, teaching or other. But perhaps […]

April 8, 2013 | Posted in College, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The NRDC’s Switchboard blog provides a thought-provoking view on the latest thinking from British businesses on how to reduce food waste. And it all starts with a different mindset: that reducing food waste can yield increased revenue. — — On the topic of helping with the bottom line, free food waste reduction seminars would certainly […]

April 5, 2013 | Posted in College, Friday Buffet, International | Comments closed

Infographic: Food Waste to Fuel

While there’s plenty of interest in composting, there’s less activity around creating fuel from food waste. That’s largely because food waste-to-energy operations require higher investment at first. Yet in the long term, creating energy from our excess may be more environmentally beneficial according to the EPA (under “industrial uses”). On that topic, RWL Water Group […]

April 3, 2013 | Posted in Composting, Energy | Comments closed