I realise this when I go home to visit my parents in Florida, or almost anywhere outside states, such as Vermont, that mandate it.

Curbside pickup is rare. Many view it as a chore. Even for people like me who enjoy transforming leftovers into rocket fuel for their garden, composting can turn into a foul, stinking, sulfurous mess.

So, I get it.

A food waste solution

But what if you could make food waste disappear by throwing it into a hole in the ground and walking away?

No more fouled trash. Less climate pollution.

While researching ways to compost, I discovered an easy method to turn virtually any organic waste from veggie scraps to chicken bones to pet waste back into nature: solar digesters.

They don't produce compost, the rich, fluffy organic matter that turns back into soil.

Instead, these biodigesters — typically little more than half-buried plastic cones within a small patch of dirt — harness microbial workhorses and the sun's heat to transform organic matter into its elemental components.

These components are mostly carbon, water, CO2 and micronutrients, says Yichao Rui, a soil scientist in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University.

"Nematodes, bacteria and fungi all work together to decompose all these organic materials," he says.

"Soil organisms large and small primarily digest and eat them," transforming plant and animal matter back into the building blocks for soil and air.

It's a simple, easy, no-mess solution to keep organic waste out of trash and landfills: 58 percent of all methane emissions from municipal landfills are emitted by rotting food.

So this January I ordered my own "Green Cone," buried it in the ground and began filling it with lots of food waste every week to put it to the test. Here's what happened.

The mounting food waste problem

Each year, the average household in the United States dumps 300 to 400 pounds (about 136-180 kg) of food waste into the trash, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

When this is buried in the airless depths of landfills, it turns into methane, a potent greenhouse gas fueling still more warming.

States and federal agencies are hoping to choke off this source of global warming fuel.

First, they hope to prevent food waste: encouraging less wasteful food shopping and storage, as well as donations and upcycling (such as reusing for animal feed).

But waste will always exist, and a rising share of states now treat food waste similar to recyclables: a valuable material that should never go into the trash.

On July 1, 2020, Vermont became the first U.S. state to ban the disposal of most food scraps in the trash or landfills.

Most trash haulers must offer food scrap collection or residents can use home composting (residents who compost at home are not required to compost meat and bones — although you can).

State officials estimate more than half of food scraps are now being diverted from landfills.

Eighty-five percent of Vermonters compost, mostly in their backyards, according to the University of Vermont. Only about a fifth characterize it as "hard or very hard."

States are following Vermont's lead by adopting food waste restrictions, says Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED, a food waste reduction group.

While most policies initially focus on large businesses, residential mandates become more feasible once compost and distribution facilities are in place.

Ten states including Massachusetts and New York, as well as Washington, D.C., now restrict organic waste disposal.

"I do think the emerging science demonstrating food in landfills is responsible for around 10 percent of U.S. methane is driving more attention to organic waste bans and diversion goals," says Gunders.

What are solar digesters?

Solar digesters remain little known.

For now, "soil savers" ($52), an insulated compost bin for cold climates, and "barrel composters" ($38), a compost bin or drum you can rotate to mix the contents inside, are the most popular, says Josh Kelly, a solid waste program manager at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.

But solar digesters are poised to play a much larger role as organic waste bans spread. Read more

• Michael J Coren is a British-Canadian journalist and clergyman. He writes the "Climate Coach" advice column for The Washington Post.

Biggest challenge

If we drill down, food waste in food service businesses (FSBs) and retail outlets is the main challenge, because many resources have already been invested in food that's then discarded at the end of the supply chain.

Food waste in hospitality has intensified post-pandemic due to the increasing rate of out-of-home food consumption and growth of tourism, according to international studies conducted in 2017, 2020 and 2021.

For example, the UK hospitality industry wastes about 920,000 tonnes of food in a single year, which makes the UK the largest food-waste country in Europe.

In the United States, the hospitality industry is responsible for 500 million tons of food waste annually.

The Australian hospitality industry generates 1.22 million tonnes of food waste per year. China has about 34 million tonnes of food waste in its cities annually.

Food waste in the Australian hospitality industry

We explored food waste in the Australian hospitality industry by interviewing managers, owners, customer service employees, kitchenhands and chefs.

Our aim was to identify a rich variety of perspectives from 20 FSBs, ranging from fast-food to high-end restaurants.

Our findings show:

• Conflicting perceptions among different stakeholders in the food industry about food waste and who is responsible.

For instance, despite expectations from policymakers and the community for the industry to take responsibility, the industry is actually hesitant.

It is reluctant to enforce too many restrictions to influence consumers and affect their eating-out experience.

Also, neither FSB employees nor consumers consider wasting food as unethical.

• Food waste is not considered a "discrete" activity, but is integrated into other routines and beliefs.

Food waste is an industry norm because consumer demand is unpredictable.

Hence, ordering in bulk from suppliers, preparing/cooking more to safeguard from uncertain demand, and wasting the leftovers is accepted.

• Food waste "hotspots" vary depending on different FSB domains.

In fast food, food waste hotspots were associated with consumption practices. Mid to high-range FSBs created more waste during food preparation and during cooking, primarily driven by chefs to achieve "perfection".

Wastage continues to increase

All food wastage in the hospitality industry has substantial negative implications for the economy.

These include losses on the costs of the food purchased and prepared but not consumed), for society (food insecurity), and the environment (climate change and biodiversity loss).

Despite the hospitality industry and FSBs being inundated with diverse action plans (and strategies) to combat food waste, studies show the volume of food waste continues to increase.

This is because food practices are deeply embedded in diverse daily practices, making it hard to change with just singular action plans.

Industry norm

During our research, we collected the following quote from a venue manager about the industry norm in food waste:

"There are two main areas with a big impact on your wastage.

In terms of the factors that we can't control - sales. For example, if it's a rainy day, you might not be as busy. You might not get so much waste.

"Accordingly, you have to look at a lot of different variables when you do your forecasting, and it comes down to a certain amount of luck, because you can forecast as close as possible, but something outside could have an effect.

"And that's the tricky part in this industry where wastage happens.

"A lot of places find it hard to manage wastage, and sometimes just outright give up, because it's too many variables to control."

And this from a customer service worker or server:

"In this industry, the food has always been wasted no matter what you do. Because when people do order food, especially on the table, they order more than what is supposed to be.

"Sometimes people do order a lot, more than what they can eat .... I think I always suggest to them it's already too much.

"But then, it is the customer's choice - you can't force them not to buy food.

"It hurts when we dump that food into the waste bin, which honestly could feed many other people if we could have saved those things".

The server said customers eat with their eyes.

"They want to see a big pile of food.

"From a review standpoint, people want to see a large plate of food in front of them. Whether or not they finish it, they believe that's entirely up to them.

"But if we [FSB staff] were to reduce the portion size, we would see huge feedback, such as, ‘It's not as large as what it used to be'.

"And they're not acknowledging from their point of view that, or maybe it was excessive because they weren't finishing it"

How to reduce food waste

We've drawn up two lists of recommendations to help food businesses and also consumers.

For food businesses

• Food waste can be avoided through collaboration with consumers without sacrificing the profit motive.
• Despite FSBs placing bulk orders to obtain discounts, technology-based forecasting and inventory management approaches can provide cost-effective solutions to managing food waste.
• Use the offcuts during preparation or the untouched prepared food at the end of the day to make other food items such as sauces, soups or juices.
• Make the sides - vegetables, potatoes or chips - optional.
• Provide training to staff on how to prepare and/or cook without wasting food, even if staff turnover is high.
• Invest in proper storage infrastructure to keep extra items fresh longer, especially cold storage for fresh produce.

For consumers

• Know about the ingredients in your dish before ordering or trying any new food to avoid throwing it away because the delivered food isn't what you expected.
• If you're hosting guests, shift your focus to quality of food, not quantity.
• If you're eating out, there's no shame in taking the leftovers home and eating these later.
• Switch from a large to a medium-sized portion and see if it can satisfy your appetite.
• If you don't like the sides, request them not to be served. Even though the sides could be cheaper than the main food, wasting them can be as bad as wasting the main food item.
• If your restaurant suggests ways to reduce food waste, follow their advice. By reducing food waste, restaurants can help you save money, support society through food banks, and protect the environment, too.

A challenge for all of us

Superficial action to change behaviour cannot solve a serious social challenge such as food waste.

But our findings provide a nuanced understanding about how repeated applications of deeply-rooted social practices make food waste a default phenomenon in FSBs.

It's therefore important to see food waste as a challenge for everyone, and use a holistic approach that can challenge and modify the entrenched beliefs regarding food and food waste.

This is extremely important due to the growing professional expectations in the hospitality industry to manage food waste efficiently and support sustainability.

• First published in Lens
• Alka Nand is a Lecturer, Department of Management, Monash Business School;
• Ananya Bhattacharya is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Management, Monash Business School;
• Amrik Sohal is a Professor in the Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics;
• Daniel Prajogo is a Professor, Department of Management, Faculty of business;
• Tharaka De Vass is a Research Fellow, Monash Business School

Residents of Beach Haven, on Auckland's North Shore, have become used to the daily social media updates from 64-year-old Peters (Ngatiwai, Ngapuhi) - and have taken him to their hearts.

Peters started the donations, daily leftovers from a commercial catering company, when he was approaching retirement age and on a benefit after spine surgery left him unable to work.

"I thought 'Yes! I've finally found something!'" he said, telling the Herald the donations gave his life purpose. Read more

Another fact emerging from the 2022 Rabobank-KiwiHarvest Food Waste Research survey is that household food waste is increasing. Markedly.

The survey questioned 1509 people about their food habits. Fifty-three percent said they had thrown away unopened food in the last year. The previous year 42 percent admitted this.

Overall, the average New Zealand household wastes 13.4 per cent of the food bought each week - well up from the 8.6 per cent recorded in the 2021 survey.

The estimated value of food waste per Kiwi household is now $1520 per year.

Top tip items are vegetables, bread and fruit.

It is estimated the $3.1 billion of food that goes straight to the landfill is enough to feed the entire population of Hamilton for a year.

The facts are "staggering", Rabobank chief executive Todd Charteris says. Over the past five years the surveys have shown a downward trend in the proportion of food being wasted.

"We were genuinely surprised to see food waste jump so significantly in the latest survey.

"As with last year, the survey found 'wasted money' was Kiwis' biggest deterrent to wasting food."

Rabobank had assumed the rising cost of living might make people even more careful. It found the opposite.

Raising awareness and education for households would help, says Charteris.

Besides wasting money, food waste has a negative impact on the environment.

Just why binned food is on the increase is a puzzle. Kiwis' attitude to food waste hasn't changed in 12 months.

It could be generational: the survey found younger New Zealanders waste significantly higher proportion of their household food spend than older generations.

Despite the negative effect binning food has on the environment, Gen Z and Gen Y were the most wasteful.

They wasted 28.2 percent of their weekly food spend. Last year they wasted 16 percent.

The survey found males were significantly more wasteful than females (16.5 percent versus 10.4 percent).

People in towns waste more than those in the country (14.7 percent versus 10.7 percent).

If we understand why we're throwing away food - not just in homes, but all through the supply chain ... and what we can do about it, then we can rise to that challenge as Kiwis."

Planning was imperative when it came to reducing food waste in the home, Deborah Manning says.

She should know. She founded food rescue service KiwiHarvest.

"The survey identified that those people who shop with a shopping list, those people who understand portion control - they actually waste less food and therefore save more money on their weekly budget."

Using leftovers, freezing food and knowing how to store it, were effective ways to reduce waste, she says.

Understanding how to read best-before dates was also important.

"[They] indicate that you can still eat the food after the best-before date - just use your common sense as to whether you think it is safe and suitable to eat."

Source

• 1News
• NewsTalkZB

The panel says the waste is morally, economically and environmentally unacceptable.

Giving the panel his endorsement, Pope Francis tweeted: "We must put an end to the culture of waste, we who pray to the Lord to give us our daily bread. Food waste contributes to hunger and to climate change."

The expert panel defines food waste as that which is discarded by the consumer, restaurants or supermarkets and in rich countries, households and restaurants prepare large portions, resulting in "plate waste", leftovers that often go uneaten.

British advocacy group WRAP says about one-third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted.

It estimates that by reducing consumer food waste could save between US$120 and 300 billion per year by 2030.

WRAP's chief executive Marcus Gover told the conference that about 10 million tonnes of food is lost or wasted in the UK each year.

He says this amount of food is enough to fill St Peter's Square to the top of the basilica 10 times over.

He illustrated a study showing that, of 100 potatoes ordered by a London restaurant, only 25 were actually eaten.

WRAP maintains that strategies to achieve economic and environmental gains by reducing food waste will also improve economic performance and tackle climate change by reducing the amount of food that is wasted in agriculture, transport, storage and consumption.

The appeal to address food waste came at the end of a two-day conference at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences attended by more than 50 scientists, academics, economists, corporate leaders and United Nations officials from 24 countries.

"We call on our leaders, and on all of us, for deepened commitment to action toward halving food loss and waste by 2030 — an achievable goal based on existing knowledge and technology," a statement said.

Sources

• WRAP
• Reuters

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, ‘Preventing nutrient loss and waste across the food system: Policy actions for high-quality diets,' finds regularly eating poor-quality food has become a greater public health threat than malaria, tuberculosis or measles.

Poor-quality diets are defined as those including poor-quality food as well as those where there is insufficient food.

Three billion people worldwide are affected by poor-quality diets and one-in-five deaths worldwide are associated with poor-quality diets.

The FAO report is is urging policymakers to find ways to reduce food loss and waste and to improve access to nutritious and healthy food.

The report notes that although there is neither a lack of food, nor a lack in food quality when it's produced, food quality and quantity reduces after its production.

In low-income countries, the report finds "food is mostly lost during harvesting, storage, processing and transportation," whereas in high-income countries "the problem is one of waste at retail and consumer levels."

This is because low-income countries lack the necessary infrastructure, while in high-income countries, carelessness and "waste at the end of the food chain" prevail.

The report's authors say implementing the changes the report proposes would "contribute to the efficiencies needed to address climate change" and "unlock savings in water and energy consumption, land use, and resources used in industrial food fortification".

Source

• KFF
• Vatican News
• Image: World Economic Forum

Last year KCA rescued in excess of 107,000kg of food from across New Zealand - a figure that is set to increase thanks to partnerships with three Countdown stores in the Tawa, Porirua and Johnsonville area. Continue reading