Comments on: Gallery

By: my url

my url — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:23:07 +0000

JOKMSFX2 JOKMSFX2 JOKMSFX2 433069 JOKMSFX2

By: Ginger Freebird

Ginger Freebird — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:17:56 +0000

I read in Elizabeth Royte’s book, Garbage Land, that 35% of household waste in the U.S. by weight is packaging, and food scraps and yard waste make up another 25%.
I’m still finding enough food thrown out in grocery store bins to feed every hungry person in Phoenix by my calculations!
Ginger, “Secret Freegan”

By: Roy Ferguson

Roy Ferguson — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:49:37 +0000

There have been many comments made over the last 30 odd years of my working career about excessive food packaging and its impact on the environment. The vast majority of the comments are made by well meaning people who have genuine concerns about the pollution of our planet; these concerns are based on emotions, not facts, where in lies the credibility gap. There is no food processor or packager of food who intentionally spends more money on the packaging of food than is necessary. WHY? The food retailers will not pay a premium for over packaged foods. Cutting costs is their major goal, just look at their flyers every Thursday. As for reducing the amount of packaging used to keep our food fresh and protect it during shipping, as well in the consumers fridge: the waste would be even more horrific than the current 50%; and sickness due to food poisoning would become out of control. If anything the way to reduce food waste is to package our food to obtain longer shelf life, maintain the nutrition and cut down on food poisoning. What to do with the packaging? Recycle it! Use it over and over again. Here is an example of how recycling works; in Canada 96.4% of the beer bottles are returned for recycling. In the US, which has 10 times the population of Canada, to my knowledge there are no facility for the recycling beer bottles.

By: Colton D'Agostino

Colton D'Agostino — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:58:55 +0000

If only there was a movement to cut down on eating food all together. The U.S. in a whole is eating way to much food and are not exercising enough. If the bigger companies could make smaller portions and somehow we embed the thought of only eating these small but filling portions we could cut back on food waste and packaging waste at the same time.

On a side note, I also the what Sun chips is doing with there packaging as well with there
bio-degratable packaging.

Jon you are doing something good and we need more people like you to make a difference. If i can do anything to help give me an email im very interested.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:36:59 +0000

Doesnt most food compost?
Doesnt food compost help landfills?

I am heartened to see that Secret Freegan is doing such great work with salvagable food, but I guess im ignorant about the harm that food waste has on the envirnoment, i thought organic decay was a good thing.

I live in Abbotsford BC. (Canada)
as for the packaging, i know it isnt widespread yet, but in my city, we have a methane recovery system, where layers of trash are buried with perforated pipes that gather methane, and direct it to an energy generator that contributes to our grid; some of it gets flared to avoid methane release. my neighboring city, Burnaby, BC is building a facility that recovers energy from burning styrofoam. I recognise that these aren’t complete, clean-cut solutions, but they are steps in a good direction…

I believe leaders want to be responsive. My discussions with leaders tends to make me hopeful…Im going to investigate policies about wasted food here in Abbotsford, and find out if we need ot pay more attention to the issue here, thanks for the eye-opener!

By: ken carpenter

ken carpenter — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:01:06 +0000

A friend of mine at a large on site restaurant service company did a study on styrofoam contatiners vs. plate service. the labor and soap and machine from ecolab is so expensive that it was an cost efficient to buy the styrofoam for meals.

By: Yvonne

Yvonne — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:58:58 +0000

I didn’t realize the enormity of food waste and how grocery stores are simply throwing out perfectly good food in the trash! Plastic waste is a big concern to me too. Do you realize there is a large patch of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean, called the North Pacific Gyre? Much of the plastic simply gets washed up to ocean shores, end up in rivers and out to the ocean. Marine mammals mistaken them for food, causing hundreds of thousands of marine mammals and birds to die each year from suffocation. Many other fish ingest this plastic – the toxins that are released from the plastic accumulate in their bodies which would find its way into the foods we eat.

It’s sad that we are polluting the earth in this way. I now avoid ordering take-out as much as possible, avoid using plastic utensils & cups, avoid buying water bottles, and am more cautious of product packaging and try to avoid purchasing plastic-wrapped packaging, which is very hard to do though! I use minimal saran plastic wrap and zip lock bags by using Tupperware or glass bottles for storage. In the event I do use saran plastic wrap and zip lock bags, I rewash and reuse them!

Your website is great! It’s so informative and I look forward to learning more!

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:27:31 +0000

Think of all the fossil fuel that is used to produce and transport all that packaging as well!

By: Dan Livingston

Dan Livingston — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:03:36 +0000

Secret Freegan’s artwork reminds me a lot of what comes into the warehouse through our food recovery program. I wish, though, that we got more fresh cut flowers in. Those eggs are particularly jarring to me, because we don’t frequently get eggs in. Even though the produce flows like water in the mountains here, eggs, meat and dairy come in episodes, because most supermarkets are too squeamish to kick it down to us.
Peace and Love,
Dan

By: Michael Karelis

Michael Karelis — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:03:12 +0000

I like the gallery. Good work!