Food Scraps Meeting Notes

MORPC meeting notes relating to food waste project:

February 25, 2009 held at MORPC

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency are dedicated to reducing food waste through the use of recycling, composting, and better habits of reducing food waste. The Ohio EPA has a Central Ohio Food Scraps Diversion Task Force dedicated to this topic

• According to the Ohio EPA, the main barriers to reducing food waste is the lack of infrastructure and hauling issues

Hauling

• Price Barnes Organics – composting in Delaware
• Kroger – compostible bags and on-site composter

Other sites of composting include the Ohio State Fair and other universties such as Ohio University, Baldwin Wallace, and Kenyon

Kroger

Pioneer in grocery store waste management – began a pilot program in Jelu 2008

According to Kroger, 45-60% of waste can be composted – this includes food but also includes cardboard and non-treated wood.

 

More Project Thoughts

Mid-Ohio Food Bank – Feed the hungry by collecting and distributing food and graocery products, adovacating for hunger-relief programs, and collaborating with others who address basic human needs

• Food Industy Donations - They work with restaurants, supermarkets, wholesalers  etc. to collect un-served food to redistribute to the hungry. They can even arrange food pickups so this may be an option that OWU can pursue.

Composting Food Waste

•  Youngstown State University( they give the finished compost to buildings and grounds for landscaping),
•  University of Iowa (Same Story)
• University of Vermont (give finished product to farmers, home gardeners, and landscapers)
• There are more examples as well, but this could also be another option of dealing with food waste at OWU

 

Course Project Initial Thoughts and Research

Food Waste Project

Possibilities – Linking food waste sites on campus and throughout the Delaware area with food pantries such as PIN (People in Need). Map the sites of salvageable food waste and create an efficient process of transporting that food to the food bank. Food Logistics

PIN (People in Need) – the only regulated food pantry in Delaware

These items are what PIN in Delaware lists as most needed

Bar Soap** Boxed Dinners Cake and Frosting Mixes
Canned Fruit Canned Fruit Juices Canned Meats/Fish
Canned Vegetables Canned Pasta Cereal – cooked/dry
Coffee – instant/perked Cooking oil/shortening Diapers/Wipes**
Dish Soap** Dry Milk Feminine Hygiene Products
Hot Chocolate – instant/mix Jell-O Jelly
Kleenex Laundry Detergent** Macaroni & Cheese
Muffin Mixes Noodles/Macaroni Pancake Mix (complete)
Paper Towels** Peanut Butter Potatoes – boxed/instant
Pudding Mixes Saltine & Graham Crackers Shampoo**
Shaving Cream** Spaghetti Sauce Soup
Sugar Syrup Tea Bags
Tissues** Toilet Paper** Toothbrushes**
Toothpaste**

Half of US Food Goes to Waste – Interesting article states that forty to fifty percent of food ready for harvest never gets eaten. I think that this article is talking about the fresh fruits and vegetables grown that do not meet the top grade quality and are left to rot or be plowed over in fields. The effort of many groups to harvest these foods left to rot is called gleaning – Society of St. Andrew that organizes a gleaning network in the US

Turning food waste into biofuel – article about a UK supermarket chain, Sainsbury, making efforts to turn all of their food waste into biofuel. At the end of February they said that they will stop sending any food waste from their Scottish stores to landfill.