Author: Jerri-Lynn Scofield, he has served as a securities lawyer and derivatives trader.She is currently writing a book about textile craftsmen.

After Vermont and the cities of Seattle and San Francisco issued similar measures, California will soon launch the largest household food waste recycling program in the United States.

Food waste is an important factor leading to global warming, and reducing the former will alleviate the latter. Waste dive report:

In the United States, between 73 and 152 million metric tons of food are wasted each year, accounting for more than one-third of the country’s food supply. according to A recent report come from America [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)]. The most commonly wasted food is fruits and vegetables, followed by dairy products and eggs. More than half of the waste occurs in households and restaurants. The agency stated that the food processing industry generates 34 million tons of waste every year.

In 2015, the EPA set a goal of halving food waste in the United States by 2030 (see U.S. goal of reducing food loss and waste in 2030). Just like similar promises in the period before Trump, before Trump became president, except for the virtue signal phase, there was little progress in achieving this goal, and even this inadequate verbal service was rejected. In contrast, according to EPA data cited by Waste Dive, food loss and waste have actually increased by 12% to 14% in the past decade.

Still, according to Waste Dive, the benefits of taking seriously the goal of halving food waste are huge:

[Reducing food waste by half in the U.S.] It will save 3.2 trillion gallons of blue water, 640 million pounds of chemical fertilizer, 262 billion kilowatt-hours of energy, 92 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and more than 75 million acres of agricultural land. The agency stated that reducing the waste of meat, grains, fresh fruits and vegetables will have the greatest impact on the environment.

California Plan

The Guardian reported on the details of California’s upcoming mandatory food waste recycling program California disposes of food waste through America’s largest recycling program:

Starting in January, all cities and counties that provide garbage services should have food recycling programs. Grocery stores must donate edible food to food banks or similar organizations, or they will be thrown away.

“There is no reason to stick this material in a landfill, it just happens to be cheap and easy to do,” said Ned Spang, head of the faculty at the University of California, Davis, Food Loss and Waste Cooperative Organization.

Cities and municipalities in California will collect waste in special containers and convert it into compost or biogas. Exemptions will be granted to heavily rural areas. The collection will learn from existing procedures. According to the Guardian:

Davis, California already has a mandatory food recycling program. Joy Klineberg puts coffee grounds, peels and cooking residues into a metal box marked “compost” on her countertop. When preparing dinner, she dumped the excess food on the cutting board into the trash can.

Every few days, she would dump the contents into the green trash can outside, which would be picked up and sent to a facility in the county. She said that the unpleasant smell of the countertop trash can is not a problem.

“What you change is where you throw things, it’s just another trash can,” she said. “It’s really easy, and you have so much less trash, it’s amazing.”

For a long time, I have been criticizing those who relied more or less on recycling fairies to solve the plastic crisis. Many people don’t understand that by advocating only focusing on recycling solutions, they support shifting the responsibility of cleaning up plastic waste from the hands of plastic promoters who make money by selling plastic to ordinary people. Even before taking into account that the very low recycling rate means that the impact of recycling plastic on reducing dumping into landfills is minimal.

In contrast, if implemented carefully, food recycling can alleviate climate change. According to the Guardian:

Rachel Wagoner, director of the California Department of Resources, said: “This is the biggest change in waste since recycling began in the 1980s.” Recycle And recovery.

…

Wagner said that recycling food waste “is the easiest and fastest thing everyone can do to affect climate change.”

The Guardian pointed out that California’s plan targets households and businesses, while France requires grocery stores and other large businesses to recycle food waste or donate food to charities. The pandemic has weakened the food security of many people in the United States and has stimulated dependence on food banks. Meet the food needs of many people. California’s new plan also includes a goal to provide food for the hungry:

The state also set a goal for 2025 to transfer 20% of food to landfills to feed those in need. Supermarkets must start donating excess food in January, and hotels, restaurants, hospitals, schools and large-scale event venues will start donating in 2024. The donated portion of the law will help achieve the federal goal of halving food waste by 2030.

Enterprise effort

The Waste Diving article discussed the ongoing efforts of some companies to reduce food waste. One of them caught my attention because it helped alleviate the plastic crisis:

Data from ReFED and the Food and Agriculture Organization cited in the EPA report show that agricultural products account for 34% to 40% of food waste in the United States. Announcing a commitment to achieve zero fruit loss by 2025One way to solve this problem is to reuse pineapple leaves to make a biodegradable mesh material called Piñatex, which is used in clothing by brands such as Nike and H&M.it is also A consumer campaign was launched in New York City in September last year This includes showing the fact of food waste on trash cans throughout the city.

In the course of my textile research, I tried to track manufacturers who continue to use natural fibers other than natural fibers (such as cotton, silk, wool, and linen) to make traditional textiles. Some of these efforts have proven to be ambitious pursuits, especially an exploration during a trip to Nagaland about ten years ago, when I was in vain looking for someone who made textiles from nettles. IRRC, pineapple fiber is used in the Philippines to make luxurious lace-although I have never seen any examples myself. This work by Dole looks interesting because it converts the waste generated into something useful before the pineapple reaches the consumer. Therefore, the resources we use to produce pineapples can generate additional output, and Piñatex is made from waste that was previously discarded.