Reducing Food Waste
Reduce AVOIDABLE Food Waste. Responsibly Manage UNAVOIDABLE Food Waste.
Reduce AVOIDABLE Food Waste. Responsibly Manage UNAVOIDABLE Food Waste.
Disposing of food scraps and food waste in a landfill or incinerating them has a negative environmental effect. Following a few steps with your food scraps can make a difference far beyond your kitchen.
Reducing the amount of excess food purchased is at the top of the hierarchy. As much as 55% of food purchases are unplanned, which leads to over-purchasing and spoilage. The temptation of saving on bulk purchases causes many families to purchase more food than they will eat. In addition, a full 20% of at-home food waste is estimated to be caused by a lack of standardization of date labels that leads consumers to throw away food before it's actually spoiled.
For businesses or households that end up purchasing more food than they need, the next step could be donating to shelters, food pantries and soup kitchens to help those in need.
If the excess food waste and food scraps aren't fit for human consumption, the next step could be to use them to feed local farm animals.
Here is where garbage disposals come in–by helping turn food waste into renewable energy. By capturing methane for biofuel and creating fertilizer from biosolids, industrial biogas production and composting–both at the industrial and household level–are the last lines of defense before landfills and incineration.
Although composting food waste is the last resort before landfilling, from an environmental standpoint, it's vital. You can grind food scraps in your InSinkErator that can't be composted, like dairy, meat and bones, and you can compost many non-food items that shouldn't be put down a garbage disposal, like paper, cardboard, wood chips, cotton rags, dryer lint and fireplace ashes. Together, these two solutions maximize the amount of organic material diverted from landfills.
You know that little things can add up to big changes. It’s why you compost. But did you know that composting and garbage disposals share a common enemy?
You know that little things can add up to big changes. It’s why you compost. But did you know that composting and garbage disposals share a common enemy?
