Food Waste Focus » regulation

Food Waste Lessons Learned in Egypt

Andrew Shakman — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:16:40 +0000

The New York Times recently wrote about a critical food waste sanitation problem that has developed in Egypt. The background is that the Egyptian government required all pigs in the country to be slaughtered this past spring in a (misguided) effort to reduce swine flu risk. What they failed to realize was that these pigs were playing a critical role as consumer’s of Cairo’s food waste.

Exit the pigs, enter large volumes of decomposing food waste strewn throughout the city.

Is there a lesson for foodservice operators in this story? I think so. We, as foodservice and hospitality operators, have become so reliant on municipal and commercial waste management solutions that we take them for granted. We assume there will always be someone there to accept the food waste we generate. This may not always be true.

Indeed, there are people and companies who believe food waste will be prevented by regulation from going to landfills in the U.S. within the next decade. Where will foodservice operators send their food waste then?

The answer is that we will have to be creative and develop source reduction programs (using proven practices such as food waste tracking), donation programs, and waste-to-energy or composting solutions. In fact, it’s likely our future waste management vendors and partners will look very different from the companies and services we are using today for food waste.

As the Egyptians have learned, discarding food waste in a sanitary manner is not a “right”. It’s the outcome of careful thought and design. There has to be a system in place to handle that waste or else you have nothing but a big mess.

As foodservice operators think about the future, we have a chance to carefully design and envision a world of “zero food waste.” This doesn’t mean we won’t generate any waste. However, it does mean that through a combination of source reduction and diversion (i.e. composting, donation), we can send zero food waste to the landfill at the end of the day. Simply stated, we will have to put all our food waste to its highest and best use.

Seattle Voters Defeat Plastic/Paper Bag Fee

Andrew Shakman — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:45:33 +0000

Voters in the City of Seattle appear to have rejected a proposal for a 20 cent fee on all plastic and paper carry out bags. While this doesn’t pertain directly to food waste, any foodservice operator offering take-out food products needs to pay attention to trends related to paper and plastic carry-out bags.

Given Seattle’s leadership role on most waste issues, this is an interesting outcome and raises questions about how citizens want to arrive at certain types of waste reduction goals. There are many options, ranging from voluntary source reduction to recycling and economic incentives or deterrents. It seems, at least in this economy and in Seattle, economic deterrents are not the way people want to go.

UK Food Security Plan Focuses on Food Waste

Andrew Shakman — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:55:32 +0000

The UK Government just released a series of reports called Food 2030 that were prepared by the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

They focus on a range of food security issues, but target food waste as a major problem, noting:

Reducing food waste has the potential to cut carbon emissions equal to taking a fifth of the country’s traffic off the roads.

Read more about the reports in the Guardian or go right to the source material.