Food Recovery

Jul 1, 2016

A Call to Action to Reduce Food Loss and Waste

food loss, Food Recovery, sustainability, wasted food 8 Comments

By Mathy Stanislaus

Last November I co-hosted the Food Recovery Summit, bringing businesses, non-profits, governments, and community groups together in Charleston, South Carolina to reduce the problem of wasted food. There are successful efforts underway across the country that tackle wasted food – saving money, feeding the hungry, and acting on climate change.

EPA and the US Department of Agriculture announced an ambitious national goal of reducing food loss and waste by 50 percent by 2030. To reach our goal, we will need to harness and amplify these best practices and creative thinking. This effort is a triple win for the environment, economy, and social well-being of those who are the least fortunate among us.

We worked with numerous stakeholders to gather some of the best thinking into a resulting summary we are releasing today: U.S. 2030 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal: A Call to Action by Stakeholders. This Call to Action records the demonstrated practices of leaders throughout the food industry, divided into the categories of production, manufacturing, retail, consumers, recovery and regulators. As its name suggests, this summary is a call to action, calling the leaders of these sectors to take the best practices, innovative ideas, and key strategies within it and, not only put them to use locally, but to scale up their efforts nationwide.

This Call to Action contains key focus areas, opportunities, demonstrated practices and suggested actions identified by experts in the private and public sector. Just a few of the innovative practices inside A Call to Action include:

farmers starting ugly produce markets and offering gleaning opportunities
manufacturers using technology to make food storage easier and reduce spoilage
retailers establishing new networks to bring excess catered or unsold food to those who need it most
communities setting up composting programs to keep food out of landfills
advocacy groups and faith-based organizations creating recipe books, volunteer opportunities, tips and apps for consumers
universities educating students through strategies like starting tray-less dining, offering taste tests and sharing the results of their waste audits.

Everyone has a part to play to help us reach our goal, from families to the largest food producers. The Call to Action is a first step towards creating a pathway to get us there.

To check out the U.S. 2030 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal: A Call to Action by Stakeholders, visit: http://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/call-action-stakeholders-united-states-food-loss-waste-2030-reduction

For more on food recovery visit: www.epa.gov/foodrecovery

To learn how your organization can track food inventories and set food waste prevention goals, visit https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-challenge-frc

Editor's Note: The views expressed here are intended to explain EPA policy. They do not change anyone's rights or obligations. You may share this post. However, please do not change the title or the content, or remove EPA’s identity as the author. If you do make substantive changes, please do not attribute the edited title or content to EPA or the author.

EPA's official web site is www.epa.gov. Some links on this page may redirect users from the EPA website to specific content on a non-EPA, third-party site. In doing so, EPA is directing you only to the specific content referenced at the time of publication, not to any other content that may appear on the same webpage or elsewhere on the third-party site, or be added at a later date.

EPA is providing this link for informational purposes only. EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of non-EPA information provided by any third-party sites or any other linked site. EPA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies, internet applications or any policies or information expressed therein.

Apr 22, 2016

This Week in EPA Science

climate change, earth day, Food Recovery, National Coastal Conditions, National Sustainable Design Expo, Pharmaceuticals in Water, research recap 0 Comments

By Kacey Fitzpatrick

Happy Earth Day! What better day than today to read about environmental science? Here’s the latest from EPA.

This Earth Day, Learn About Food Recovery
Coming on the heels of the announcement of the first ever national food waste reduction goal—cutting food waste in half by 2030—EPA is celebrating Food Recovery for Earth Day. EPA is involved in numerous efforts to reduce food waste. One of these efforts is taking place in Columbia, South Carolina, through EPA’s Net Zero Initiative. Read about the initiative in the Science Matters story America’s Food Waste Problem.

National Coastal Condition Assessment
EPA recently published the Agency’s 5^th National Coastal Condition Assessment which provides data on the condition of U.S. coastal waters. Our coastal waters are essential to all kinds of activities, such as industry, tourism, and recreation, and provide habitat to an incredible diversity of species. Those are the reasons why EPA researchers regularly collect and analyze a host of data and put together the periodic report. Read about that effort in the EPA Science Matters article, National Coastal Condition Assessment.

Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater
Research by EPA Research Biologist Mitch Kostich was featured in the Burlington Free Press. The article Pharmaceuticals present in Burlington wastewater discussed a study that found that water released from Burlington’s wastewater treatment plant contained concentrations of pharmaceuticals that reflected some trends in Burlington at the time. The article cited EPA research on Pharmaceutical Residues in Municipal Wastewater.

Reducing Risk by Acting on Climate
Dr. Tom Burke, the Deputy Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Research and Development as well as the Agency’s Science Advisor, co-authored a commentary in a special edition of the journal Health Security. Read Reducing Risk by Acting on Climate.

EPA Researcher Highlighted in her Hometown Paper
EPA’s Dr. Rebecca Dodder is a recent winner of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Dr. Dodder grew up in Colorado and was recently featured in her hometown paper the Parker Chronical. Read the story Ponderosa grad wins presidential award for water work.

National Sustainable Design Expo
Did you miss us at the USA Science & Engineering Festival last weekend? Well you can check out these photos from our National Sustainable Design Expo and see what you missed.

Upcoming Events at EPA
Interested in attending some of EPA’s public meetings or webinars? Read about a few that we are hosting at the end of April here.

Group of hikers with a National Park Service Ranger looked out over a mountain range

Happy Earth Day and National Park Week! Image courtesy of NPS

That’s all for this week. Enjoy Earth Day and now that you’re done catching up on the latest EPA research, get outside—it’s also National Park Week, so every national park will give you free admission!

About the Author: Kacey Fitzpatrick is a student contractor and writer working with the science communication team in EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone. EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog, nor does EPA endorse the opinions or positions expressed. You may share this post. However, please do not change the title or the content. If you do make changes, please do not attribute the edited title or content to EPA or the author.

EPA's official web site is www.epa.gov. Some links on this page may redirect users from the EPA website to a non-EPA, third-party site. In doing so, EPA is directing you only to the specific content referenced at the time of publication, not to any other content that may appear on the same webpage or elsewhere on the third-party site, or be added at a later date.

EPA is providing this link for informational purposes only. EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of non-EPA information provided by any third-party sites or any other linked site. EPA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies, internet applications or any policies or information expressed therein.

Apr 22, 2016

This Earth Day, Learn About Food Recovery

earth day, Food Recovery, food waste 2 Comments

By Michaela Burns

EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy

Coming on the heels of the announcement of the first ever national food waste reduction goal—cutting food waste in half by 2030—EPA is celebrating Food Recovery for Earth Day. Let’s look at the history. Every year, 113 billion pounds of food is wasted, which adds up to 161 billion dollars of wasted food! And if we were to reduce food waste by just 15 % then we could feed more than 25 million Americans.

EPA is involved in numerous efforts to reduce food waste. One of these efforts is taking place in Columbia, South Carolina, through EPA’s Net Zero Initiative, which I wrote about for Science Matters! Click through to read my Science Matters story about how EPA is helping Columbia, South Carolina reduce food waste.

You can also visit EPA’s Sustainable Management of Food website to learn more about food recovery and what you can do to reduce food waste.

About the Author: Michaela Burns is an Oak Ridge Associated Universities contractor and writer for the science communication team in EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

Nov 23, 2015

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Goes Green Every Day

American Recycles Day, Composting, Food Recovery, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, recycling, sustainability, WasteWise 1 Comment

Dana Eckstein shows off her dress made of recyclable CDs for an America Recycles Day fashion show.

By Rachel Chaput

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is focused on sustainability every day with everything from a composting program in the cafeteria to awarding prizes for employees caught “green handed” to celebrate America Recycles Day.

PPPL is a national laboratory that is funded by the Department of Energy and managed by Princeton University. The campus sits on an 88-acre parcel with woods and wetlands. There, since the 1950s, researchers have been experimenting with ways to produce clean, renewable, and abundant electric energy from nuclear FUSION. Yes that’s right, fusion, not fission. It’s the same energy that powers the sun and the stars. PPPL’s main experiment, the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) is going to reopen this year after completing a $94 million upgrade.

Compostable service ware used at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

There is an open collaborative relationship with researchers in other countries to get this done, and the beneficial payoff to the world if it could be achieved would be huge. We wish them the best of luck!

PPPL shows its commitment to the environment in other ways as well. They are a long time, committed partner within EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge and WasteWise programs, and also participate in the Federal Green Challenge. These are sustainability partnership programs run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which strive to conserve natural resources and promote sustainability. PPPL has been recognized by EPA for good performance in these programs repeatedly, notably with the 2012 EPA WasteWise Program’s Federal Partner of the Year award.

Margaret Kevin-King and Leanna Meyer, PPPL employees who manage the sustainability efforts at PPPL, try to cover all the bases. While PPPL participates in all of the routine recycling of cardboard, paper, plastic and metal, they also do a lot of extras. They compost their food waste and recycle cooking oil to produce biodiesel. They purchase compostable service ware. The Lab also collects razor blades (a safety issue) and universal waste, including lithium batteries.

These ladies bring real commitment to their jobs. Ms. Kevin-King says that on Earth Day, her family and friends text her holiday greetings, because they know it’s the most important holiday of the year to her! Ms. Meyer has made a careful project out of color-coding the recycling bins and trash disposal areas within the lab facility.

They try to bring a creative flair to many of the sustainability efforts at the PPPL. For example, they and members of PPPL’s Green Team offered prizes this year for America Recycles Day to employees who were caught ‘green-handed’ with a reusable cup or reusable lunch bag. They also collect electronics for America Recycles Day and Earth Day. This year, PPPL is recycling everything from office supplies to goggles and hardhats. Check out the pictures of the fashion show they held in years past to celebrate American Recycles Day! These outfits were put together using materials that would otherwise be discarded. It’s good to make work fun!

An example of PPPL’s advanced recycling guidelines. How does your office measure up?