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The ValuWaste system helped Iowa hospitals save some serious cash from avoided waste. As in hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

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Rolling Stone(!) had a brief, not-so-timely news blurb about the finding that one-third of world’s food is wasted. Better late than never…

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Here are 5 tips for reducing home food waste written by a former TV meteorologist. I guarantee that I couldn’t predict the weather half as well as she writes about food waste…

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Nice to see public funds going toward a Love Food, Hate Waste Campaign…in Australia.

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It’s interesting to get a waste hauler’s perspective on greening events and composting.

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Finally, I gotta give my pal Ashley (of Lovin’ Spoonfuls) her props because she’s a one-woman food recovering machine:

The event featured two other speakers, both EPA employees who work on food waste reduction. One of them brought up the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, an encouraging idea that I haven’t written about here. Essentially, the program:

…encourages participants to reduce, donate, and recycle as much of their food waste as possible — saving money and helping protect the environment. Participants will conduct a food waste assessment, undertake three specific waste reduction activities, create a food waste recovery plan, and report progress using WasteWise ReTRAC.

Scrolling down on the site, you can find a bunch of useful tools to help facilitate the various steps. You’ll also find a list of participating schools, organizations and businesses.

And you may even notice that there are only 23 participants thus far. That seems like a miniscule small number to me. So…if you’re affiliated with a business, school or other organization and have been wondering how you can get that group to start reducing waste–here’s your chance!

Hospitals must provide patients with the required amount of food, even when they have little or no appetite. That ingrained plate waste is a major disadvantage for hospitals. But that doesn’t mean they can’t reduce their waste.

Two hospitals in La Crosse, Wis., have dramatically trimmed their food waste. Gundersen Lutheran (paging Dr. Keillor) has halved its waste in just six months.

How have they done so? A few ways. The hospital kitchen produces smaller batches of each item, so there’s less to discard at the end of each meal. And then there’s the food tracking system (by LeanPath, I’m guessing) that helps a hospital or any commercial kitchen learn how much it’s wasting and why. And then there’s the donation of edible food, which has found a home for two-thirds of the food Gundersen used to trash.

Finally, there’s the introduction of choice. That simple concept is a huge waste avoider in homes, supermarkets and restaurants, and hospitals are no different. Franciscan Skemp, the other hospital mentioned in the article, has begun letting patients order the food they want, when they want it.

It has slashed waste, which makes perfect sense:

“We have decreased plate waste, patients order what they want, so therefore they eat it, so we have minimum waste,” said Walter Shillinger, nutrition services director at Franciscan Skemp.

And here’s the kicker: Franciscan will save $200,000 from reduced waste in 2011.

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So you’re saying porridge isn’t popular? In response to hefty wasting of the breakfast gruel, a UK hospital will stop serving porridge unless it’s specifically requested.

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Lunchroom changes at The Lawrenceville School in N.J. have led to 80% less food waste. Wow.

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Last year there were no commercial composters near St. Louis. Today, there are two.

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Pretty good April Fool’s joke about Lady Gaga’s new fashion line making use of discarded meat….

While it’s not quite as grandiose as our Declaration of Independence, the joint declaration has grand ambitions. Most notably, it pushes for:

• A global reduction of food waste by 50% at all steps of the food chain
• The UN to add reducing food waste to Goal #7 (ensure environmental sustainability) of its Millennium Development Goals
• International aid agencies to push food efficiency alongside improvements in agriculture and development
• The European Commission to take a stance on food waste

The document provides a nice model of what could be. Of how we can assert important goals for reducing waste, which will likely prompt action. Next up, hopefully, will be a declaration signed by representatives from all corners of the globe.

It’s a mouthful, for sure. So what does it mean/contain? In short, the publication updates the USDA’s loss estimates for just about every food item you can imagine. It’s the study that I alluded to earlier that found that fresh pumpkin was the most wasted food in our homes (not a shocker).

FYI, by “consumer level,” the study refers to food both in our homes and away from our homes (at restaurants, schools, cafeterias, hospitals, etc.).  The reasons for this waste, which doesn’t include inedible stuff like peels, cores or bones, include:

• Losses during cooking and preparation
• Discards due to preparation of too much food
• Expired use-by dates
• Spoilage
• Plate waste

It’s fun to take a stroll through the 123 pages (OK, ‘fun’ may not be the right word) to see how much of each food we waste and how much the estimates have changed. So have a look. And keep in mind that the authors are looking for feedback on the estimates–don’t be shy about giving it!

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While you were enjoying Easter, Australia’s Do Something launched the FoodWise campaign. They’ve set some reasonable goals and even have a manifesto!

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More and more hungry people  + excess food = huh?

I thought this was a thought-provoking piece.

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Here are some handy composting tips, courtesy of my local CBS station.

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Finally…Boooooooooooo.

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At U.S. bases in Iraq, food waste in Iraq is tossed and burned along with everything else. We can do better, says Army infantry captain Timothy Hsia in a Times op-ed.

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In addition to recovering a heckuva lotta food, D.C. Central Kitchen is getting greener. FYI, that link comes courtesy of the DCCK offshoot and college food recovery initiative, The Campus Kitchen Project.

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Having kids make their own bento boxes means less waste? Domo arigato.
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According to this article, Little Debbie creates a lot of food waste! The snack-maker currently gives it to a farmer, but they’re . looking at turning it into ethanol and biodiesel.
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Finally, Quaker is giving away bowls of oatmeal this Monday in Times Square from 7 to 10:30 am. There will be a simulataneous food drive happening and Quaker has teamed up with Share Our Strength to chip away at child hunger.
I wonder what will become of the excess oatmeal? Will there be any? I’d be there to find out except for the whole living in another state thing…

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Interesting discussion of when biodegradable bags don’t live up to their adjective. 

Keep in mind that “compostable” trumps “biodegreadable.” And King County, Washington (Seattle) recommends three brands of compostable bags for food waste.

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This post on avoiding food waste is an oldie but a goodie. It’s filled with useful info on stretching your food dollar.

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And now for something completely different: Any time Will Ferrell comes back to SNL, I’ll link to it.