The Bloomberg Administration announced plans on Sunday for an ambitious composting program for household and commercial food waste that would cover all of New York City by 2016. The move continues Mayor Bloomberg’s recent emphasis on food waste and will help reach the PlaNYC goal of diverting 75 percent of waste from landfills by 2030. The plans are [...]
Tesco released a major report yesterday called What Matters Now: Using Our Scale For Good. One of the three ambitions was to lead in reducing food waste globally. The massive, UK-based retailer plans to use its industry standing to prompt suppliers and manufacturers to reduce food waste, while helping consumers do the same. For more [...]
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 [...]
A recent L.A. Times piece on the legality of restaurant donations made me wonder a bit about the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act–you know, that 1996 federal shield law that protects donors from liability when they donate food that they deem to be in good shape. In the article, Shirley Wei Sher, a [...]
In American Wasteland, I wrote about a buffet in London that charges a fee for food left uneaten and donates the proceeds to Oxfam. This editorial advocating that buffet restaurants fine patrons for uneaten food caught my eye. The idea stemmed from a seafood restaurant in Sapporo that is pretty particular about how customers eat [...]
It has been a busy few days for food waste on the National media Public Radio front. First, Marketplace had this look at the Economics of Wasted Leftovers. Then, Talk of the Nation ran an in-depth conversation about waste (which included my perspective). Next, Morning Edition examined why restaurants don’t prioritize food waste in a [...]
The burgeoning site Say No To Food Waste was kind enough to create this nice collection of food waste studies. — — I’d definitely sign up for a Waste Buster scheme, especially if it involves Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and the gang. — — The issue of wasted food received some nice exposure here, courtesy of Joy [...]
Exciting news: the National Restaurant Association announced a partnership with the US Composting Council. We shall see what comes from this collaboration, but at first glance it seems like a major step in the right direction. I like the second item the best: “We are pleased to join with the US Composting Council to better [...]
It’s nice to keep seeing food waste in the news, especially without much of a peg. That we waste 40% of our food is news enough! — — The Great Corn Rescue of 2012. Music to my ears. — — This passage from The UN Dispatch is in reference to the head of Darden Restaurants: …even though [...]
Good news, Americans feel more guilt about wasting food than any other environmental transgression. In other words–let’s use this “green guilt” to limit waste! — — Wait, don’t toss those coffee grounds! Slow Food provides some interesting uses for something you thought was useless. — — Here are five helpful tips to help restaurateurs to [...]
