Category Archives: Energy

Mass Change: Massachusetts Food Waste Ban Begins

Last week, Massachusetts took a major step toward becoming a state where no food waste hits the landfill. As of October 1, any entity producing more than 1 ton of food waste per week isn’t allowed to simply throw it away. That applies to restaurants, universities, hospitals and a variety of other operations. If all [...]

October 6, 2014 | Also posted in Anaerobic Digestion, Composting, Legislation, Waste Ban | Comments closed

Webinar Questions Answered

I recently had the honor of giving the first ever webinar for Food Tank. At least that’s what I’m told happened. I just spoke into my computer and hoped that people were listening. And based on the array of questions, at least a few folks were! While we allotted 15 minutes for questions, that time just [...]

May 2, 2014 | Also posted in Composting, Environment, General | Comments closed

Expect Big Changes with US Food Waste

There’s MAJOR NEWS in the battle against food waste–President Obama plans to issue an Executive Order making it illegal to throw away food. The Executive Order, helped forward by First Lady Michelle Obama’s urging, will amount to a de facto national ban on food waste. An Obama administration official with knowledge of the plans said [...]

April 1, 2014 | Also posted in Environment, General | Comments closed

2014: The Year of Food Waste Recycling?

We’re just beginning this new year, but talk of diverting food from landfills–be it by composting or anaerobic digestion–abounds. And that’s a very good thing. In Connecticut, January 1st meant the start of a new law requiring some businesses within 20 miles of a composting facility to recycle their food waste. While the specifics still feel [...]

January 10, 2014 | Also posted in Anaerobic Digestion, Composting | Comments closed

TD for AD: Cleveland’s Gri(n)diron Stadium

The Cleveland Browns will unveil a food-waste-to-energy scheme at this Sunday’s game. The storied, snake-bitten NFL team has installed pulpers to grind food waste on site before hauling it to a nearby anaerobic digester. This exciting news is part of the USDA Dairy Power program pairing dairy biodigesters with commercial food scraps. According to USDA calculations, if all [...]

November 19, 2013 | Also posted in Anaerobic Digestion, Composting, Events | Comments closed

Monday Smorgasbord

With Vancouver set to ban food waste from landfills in 2015, local group FarmFolk CityFolk sponsored a 10-week Foodprint Challenge. The pilot program run in conjunction with local retailer Choices Markets sheds light on household food waste. — — Britain’s National Pig Association started a ‘pig push‘ to overturn the EU swill-feeding ban. Naturally, this initiative [...]

November 4, 2013 | Also posted in Composting, Household, Leftovers, Repurposing | Comments closed

Baby Steps: The Slow Spread of US AD

When it comes to anaerobic digestion in the US, any news is good news. Even noncommittal, vague comments like those from a spokesperson for Ralphs Grocery Co. Ralphs is one of the Kroger-owned supermarket chains involved with the anaerobic digestion system at a Los Angeles distribution center that process 55,000 tons of food waste per [...]

May 28, 2013 | Also posted in Anaerobic Digestion, Supermarket | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Much of the D.C. deer population have completed a quick journey from USDA sharpshooters scopes to soup kitchen plates. D.C. Central Kitchen recently received 600 pounds of ground venison from the National Park Service’s (necessary/unnecessary?) deer cull in Rock Creek Park. — — If supermarkets aren’t going to dramatically reduce their waste, the least they can do [...]

May 17, 2013 | Also posted in International, Supermarket | 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 | Also posted in Composting | Comments closed

Food Packaging: Lesser of Two Evils

With food packaging, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Too much, and you’re using unnecessary materials. Too little and you’re risking damaged food in transit and elsewhere. I suppose the ideal is going uber-local and bringing your own reusable containers like at Austin’s in.gredients (check out their incredible 6-month sustainability numbers). But until that sweeps [...]

March 13, 2013 | Also posted in Environment, International, Storage | Comments closed