Do you have a lot of recycling every week?  Here is a great website to help you reduce the amount of recycling and maybe earn some cash:  http://www.terracycle.net/.

The company, Terracycle takes different items like empty juice pouches, Clif Bar wrappers, soda bottles and turns them into fun, usable products like backpacks, kites and gift wrap bows.  This site is great for larger foodservice operations that already have a recycling program in place.  Check out the website to see if any of your recyclables can be used.  You might be able reduce the amount of trash you send to be recycled.  Reduce-Reuse-Recycle…

Fun Fact: You are a responsible operator and recycle your beer bottles.  But what if your customers enjoy adding a wedge of lime to the bottle.  Does that mean you can’t recycle it?  Does the lime ‘contaminate’ the glass recycling process?

Here’s the answer from our friends at Recyclebank:  http://www.recyclebank.com/recycling/recycling-101/396

We are passionate about food waste reduction!  We like to share our experiences, hints and tips with all of you.  Hopefully you can use these tools to reduce food waste in your operation.  We would like to share a new tool with you.  It’s a calculator that can help you learn about the different types of food waste that are created in your operation.  Be sure to select the type of operation from the drop down box (grocery, hospital, restaurant, college, etc.)  The EPA has created this food waste calculator and it looks great!

The calculator estimates the cost competitiveness of alternatives to food waste disposal, including source reduction, donation, composting, and recycling of yellow grease. Specifically, the calculator: Develops an alternative food waste management scenario based on: Your waste profile; Availability of diversion methods; and Preferences, and Compares cost estimates for a disposal versus an alternative scenario. The Calculator demonstrates that environmentally and socially responsible food waste management is cost-effective for many facilities and waste streams.

The calculator is based on a simple excel file and is VERY easy to use.  You type in a few numbers based on your food purchases, disposal costs, etc. and the calculated results show up on a separate tab.  I especially like two tabs – Cost Graphs (visuals are always helpful) and Composting Environmental Benefits (which shows a breakdown of various impacts from your composting).

After you have the results – you can determine which disposal/diversion/reduction method will save you the most money and have the biggest helpful impact on the environment.

To access the calculator click on the direct link:  http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/organics/food/fd-tool.htm Or go to the EPA main website:  www.epa.gov and search for ]]> http://blog.leanpath.com/2009/10/new-food-waste-calculator/feed/ 0 http://blog.leanpath.com/2009/09/sept-12th-international-plastic-bag-free-day/ http://blog.leanpath.com/2009/09/sept-12th-international-plastic-bag-free-day/#comments Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:36:43 +0000 Jennifer Hancox http://blog.leanpath.com/?p=584 Hey Everyone!

Lets do this!  Our friends at Waste Aware Scotland are spending the news about the first International Plastic Bag Free Day on Saturday, September 12th: http://tinyurl.com/mgor6s

This is a great way to ‘source reduce‘ all those nasty plastic bags we get from the store.  Take a reusable cloth bag, use your backpack, messenger bag or just your pockets.  (Do you really need a bag for a pack of gum and a Snapple?)

Mark your calendars. Forward this e-mail to all your friends and colleagues!

PS:  Those plastic bags are made out OIL.  If you want your fuel prices to stay the same (or go down) – reduce your dependence on other oil-based products…like disposable plastic bags.

http://news.cnet.com/2300-11128_3-10001426.html?part=rss&tag=rsspr.6250028&subj=news

Does your community do this?  If not, recommend it.  Every little bit helps.

This article gives an insider view on starting and running a composting plan at special events and festivals.  It mentions a few mistakes and pitfalls to avoid when planning a ‘green’ event.  The “Hints and Tips” section at the bottom of the article are really great.  You can use these ideas even if you aren’t planning something as massive as a State Fair or National Earth Day celebration.  Try them out for your company picnic or next Farmer’s Market.

It’s almost September (just 1 day away!) and the summer festival season is winding to a close.  Keep these “Hints and Tips” nearby when planning next year’s event.

Insider’s Guide To Compostables Collection At Events  http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/001918.html

Just attended a good training webinar for the NEW Re-Trac program from WasteWise.  Re-Trac is a great program that can be used by any type of operation to “collect, organize, analyze and report” all recycling and waste.  Re-Trac is a web-based system that allows an operator to track many different types of waste:  Municipal/Solid Waste, Buy/Manufactured recycled product and several others.  Everything type of waste is tracked from wood, paper products, computers, batteries, to just about anything else.  (They also include “food” as a category – but it is meant for “food” as a general group.  To get very detailed food waste information – you will need a dedicated tracking system, either manual tracking or automated tracking like LeanPath’s systems.)

First you have to join WasteWise and they will give you access to the Re-Trac website.  Throughout the year simply log on to the site and type in the type of waste, measured in pounds or tonnes and what happened to the waste – source reduced, recycled, incinerated, or landfill.  The data gets saved – you get great reports – the EPA/WasteWise team gets real data to use in their studies.

By the way – one of the reports is just amazing!  The report equates the amount of product recycled/reduced/composted to number of trees saved (or pounds of Carbon reduced, or…).  Just a really super idea.  It’s something you can print and share with your staff to validate all their hard work at recycling and source reduction.

Check it out:  Waste Wise http://www.epa.gov/waste/partnerships/wastewise/index.htm

I just received an e-mail from our favorite contact at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  She told me that they are almost finished with the newest version of the Food Waste Calculator.  It should be done later this month (August) and ready for posting on the EPA website at the beginning of September.  Hopefully in time for “Feeding America’s Hungry Action Month” which is the entire month of September.

Just a little info to get you interested…

The first version of the Food Waste Calculator was such a big hit, and received so many requests for additional categories that the EPA decided to create a ‘new and improved’ version.  The new version of the Food Waste Calculator will be a free download directly from the EPA website.  Any type of operator will be able to use it: grocery store, restaurant, hospital, university, etc.  It’s based on Excel and is very easy to use.  Andrew, Dave and Jennifer (that’s me!) from LeanPath were part of the group that tested the updated version of the calculator and submitted comments.

I have to say, it’s very easy to use.  And it’s FREE.  Any type of foodservice operation will be able to see the savings they can achieve just by plugging in a few numbers that they already have, like garbage fees or recycling costs.  There are also a few “yes/no” questions.  The calculator does the math for you and creates a savings analysis on a separate tab.  It gives you several different savings options for reducing food waste or diverting waste to other less exspensive areas.

I can’t say anything further – but keep on the look out for another blog post in a few weeks with the link to the new EPA Food Waste Calculator.

Silverbrook Farms: Your Waste is our Treasure!
Food waste (excluding poultry products) can be used to feed our hens – providing eggs, meat and fertilizer!   It’s a simple, elegant solution to reduce petroleum usage (grain), reduce landfill usage, and recycle food calories back into the growing cycle.  We desire to partner with a few visionary restaurants interested in separating food waste from non-organic material.  We sell at farmers’ markets in Boston and would drop off clean, closed containers and pick up containers of  food waste for our journey back to the farm.  We currently operate this system with UMass Dartmouth and Dartmouth High School. Please email Andy Pollock at farmsilverbrook@aol.com for information on how you can get involved.

That is a great idea! If you are in the Boston area and want to work with them, give them a shout.  If you are a farm located elsewhere and currently provide the same service, please let us know.  We are always interested to pass along helpful information.

This post was taken from the website and newsletter for Chefs Collaborative:  chefscollaborative@chefscollaborative.org It is a great resource for those in the restaurant business.

These are two great articles from “Food Management” magazine, April 2009.  Andrew recently blogged about these, but here are the links to the full articles.

Green Space: Scaling Back Overproduction: http://food-management.com/segments/healthcare/scaling-back-overproduction-0409/

Strategic Thinking: Always Evaluate the Cost of Doing Nothing:  http://food-management.com/business_topics/equipment/always-evaluate-cost-0409/

One of our favorite sites is the EPA website (United States Environmental Protection Agency).  http://www.epa.gov/.  To say there is a volume of information is an understatement – although it is sometimes hard to navigate.

But the page that caught our attention today, focuses on managing your garbage hauling costs.  We know that waste is a lightly managed part of most operations.  People just don’t think about it.  You put the garbage out, they pick it up.  Done.  But what about reducing your bill?  Everybody likes to save money.  How do you do that?  Where do you start?

The link below goes to a 2 page document that discuss several different ways to work with your garbage hauler to reduce costs.

Reduce costs by implementing an innovative waste contracting strategy called Resource Management (RM). Unlike traditional disposal contracting, which compensates contractor services based on volume of waste disposed, RM contracts cap disposal costs to encourage a single contractor to work with you to improve resource efficiency through enhanced source reduction, recycling, and materials recovery.

Resource Management: http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/rogo/documents/amrguide/chapter3.pdf

I encourage you to look at this document and then look at your garbage bill.  Ask yourself these questions:

How many tons of trash do you pay for in a week/month?

How many pick-ups per week/month? Can you reduce the number of pickups?

What is the size of the containers? Are they too large/small for your operation?

Are you still paying the same price for garbage, even though you started composting?  Is composting on your bill, or is there a separate contractor?

If you have a food waste tracking system in place, and have reduced the volume of food waste, has your garbage bill also been reduced?