The other day I had a huge brainstorm where I wrote down a bunch of questions surrounding food waste and sources to hopefully answer the questions:
Will food waste reduction work towards the solution of our global challenge?
- Compost facilities
- Portion of compost goes to community gardens and greenhouses
- Maybe certain amount of compost goes back to household? (Give and Get)
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- Calgary home to biggest-of-its-kind composting facility in Canada
- Construction of the 521,000-square-foot Calgary composting facility started in fall 2015 at a cost of $143 million and now it’s ready to take on all of Calgary’s food and yard waste from single-family homes.
- “There has been 89 per cent support from those residents and we’ve been able to reduce the waste to landfill by about half.”
- On Monday, Wagner led a tour of the facility, which is the size of about eight football fields. It takes about 60 days to turn food and yard waste from the green cart program into compost.
- Process:
- First, trucks drop off material where it is shredded to a proper size. Then the material is loaded inside one of the 18 massive composting vessels, where it cycles through a warm-up, pasteurization, active composting and cool-down.
- The material must maintain a temperature of at least 55 C for three days to kill any harmful bacteria found in meat and pet waste.
- After that, the compost is ready to be sold to local farms and landscapers to help offset some of the cost of running the program. But most of the price of composting will come from the $6.50 green cart monthly fee
- “We also will have a portion, about five per cent, of that compost returned to the city and that compost will be donated to community gardens,” Wagner said. “And it will also be given away to residents for free starting in 2018.”
- “Like recycling: everybody recycles and so people will learn to change their habits in their kitchen and collect the food and yard waste separately.”
- Calgary home to biggest-of-its-kind composting facility in Canada
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- Recycling plant
- Covanta / Garbage to Energy Facility
What does compost do? How helpful is the fertilizer?
- http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html
- http://www.greencalgary.org/files/8214/2467/6531/GreenCal_Composting_Guide_FINAL.pdf
Output of gas and possible toxins emissions, does this hinder progression on climate change?
How can we implement German tactics?
Compostable vs Decomposable? Where does each go?
How to inspire change? (profit or law… )
- “Why should I be involved?”
Will this reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
What kind of footprint is it leaving?
Are there already laws in place?
What are the short term and long term effects?
What is the green output? What is the toxic output?
Canadian food waste
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-food-waste-1.3813965
- http://tfpc.to/food-waste-landing/food-waste-theissue
- https://oafb.ca/how-do-we-solve-canadas-31-billion-food-waste-problem/
- https://globalnews.ca/news/2952243/food-waste-5-graphics-that-show-just-how-much-food-we-throw-away/
United States food waste
- https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm
- https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/united-states-2030-food-loss-and-waste-reduction-goal
- https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/american-food-waste/491513/
Profit needed to inspire change…
Rich benefit from poor…
Universal benefit
Economy:
- Cost of infrastructure
- How much is already taxed
- Where is the tax money going already?
- How much does it cost to build compost plant?
- What jobs are created?
- What does the transportation cost for the in between house and facility
- What kind of people are needed? ( engineers… )
- Degree level jobs vs. Non-degree level jobs
- Cost (?):
- Community garden
- Greenhouse
- Garbage to Energy facility
- How large of an area does it cover, how many facilities per city/town?
- Recycling depot
Government (Law and Legislation):
- Municipal pick up:
- Garbage Day
- Recycle Day
- Compost Day
- Food Bank
- Needs
- What supplies
- Homeless shelter
- Hot meals
- Quotas?
- Municipal Bylaws? Mandatory?
- Provincial or Federal law?
- Food waste tax?
- Mandatory green output per capita?
- Law
- Municipal, provincial, federal laws and bylaws on food establishments
- Vicarious liability
- Municipal, provincial, federal laws and bylaws on food establishments
Urban vs. Rural
- 70% of the population lives in an urban area
Smaller urban centres or rural areas
- More difficulties
- Wildlife
- “Garbage day”
- Compost ?
What is food waste? Why do we waste it?
- Past due
- Almost past due
- Inedible (Bones…)
- Looks gross
- Don’t like it (picky)
- Edible but gross (brussel sprouts)
- Allergies or intolerances
- Leftovers
Survey:
“Why do you waste food?”
- Groceries
- Restaurants
“Who wastes the most? Where do they waste the most?”
- Facebook and family survey
Start in Canadian Cities prove it works, it’s green, it’s sustainable.
- Feed your own, then feed the rest.
Afterthought- 100% recycled building? …
Notes from CalWHO:
- Iron and Earth jobs
- Cows and Pigs… chemical energy?
- Survey
- Alberta acts on climate change
- Climate voices Alberta
- Look at Germany
- Are others already doing it?
- Talk to ASHA people how did you get the survey
- Precedent.. Laws…
Talk to Bronwyn! https://wastingless.blogspot.ca/
http://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/food-waste/definition/en/
https://sustainablecalgary.org/blog/2015/08/15/fixing-calgarys-food-waste/
Can Gov’t
- https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/municipal-solid/greenhouse-gases.html
- https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-201-x/2009000/part-partie1-eng.htm
- http://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-231/first-reading
- http://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?billId=8112052&Language=E&Mode=1
TEDTALK: