food waste » Sift Blog
Posts Tagged ‘food waste’
Friday, June 24th, 2011 by Admin
 Eating Design from Marije Vogelzang as part of Go Slow Cafe - love the representation of food miles on the board. Source: BlackEiffel Another tiring week of earthquakes but lots of great stuff happening locally and around the world around sustainability to keep the spirits up. Here are a few goodies we found this week:
Have a great waste free weekend and hopefully an less shakey one for Cantabs.
Tags: fashion, food waste, Good Magazine, Green Ribbon Awards, Greening the Rubble, Hot Topic, marije vogelzang, oceans, plastic, Plastiki, Re-nest, recycling, seed cathedral, Woolgro
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 by Admin
 The Guardian Sue Perkins Lucy Siegal Food Waste While scouting the internet for yesterday’s food waste pic I spotted this great video from the Guardian newspaper’s Green Team from December 2009. In it comedian and broadcaster Sue Perkins (from the wonderful “The Supersizers Go..” and many other great shows) talks to Lucy Siegle from the Guardian about some great food storage tips to reduce food waste.
I love the idea of keeping a note of what is exactly in your freezer so you can see what is still left to be eaten. And that you can freeze cream and butter and salmon! Genius!
Watch the video.
Read more from Love Food Hate Waste (UK).
Tags: carbon emissions, food waste, Sue Perkins, the Guardian, video
Posted in Pratical Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Monday, April 18th, 2011 by Admin
 Source: Myzerowaste.com I feel it might be time to start the mantra “Waste Not, Want Not” again after reading the below article from the NZ Herald on New Zealander’s wasting $750million in food a year. That is massive. Think of all the wasted energy in labour, food growth (sun, water), chemicals, fuel for tractors, fuel for ships to bring some of it here, transportation, energy used in our distribution warehouses, energy used in our supermarkets, energy used in getting to the supermarket, waster $ in our spending, the energy used by our refrigerators and freezers (for those products stored in the fridge/freezer), the human energy to throw it out and then the ultimate waste of it going to landfill (some still wrapped in plastic no doubt) and the energy it takes to pick it up from the kerb, truck it to our transfer stations and then to Kate Valley where it sits. Or hopefully, some it is going in the green bin or being composted.
Not really an efficient use of our resources.
It is interesting to read that in Britain they are reviewing their labelling standards to improve consumer education on when the food is good till. This is worth doing here (along with carbon information in its manufacturing/production and distribution).
NZ Herald: Study, $750 million wasted on food by Martin Johnston and Isaac Davison
Kim Hill also interviewed the Australian economist, Richard Denniss, quoted in the NZ Herald article on her show on Saturday morning (Radion New Zealand). Mr Denniss discusses the survey that was conducted and what we can do to reduce that waste (and other wasted items such as “things” and “stuff” that we think we need and never use). Hmm.. again it seems to be coming back to reducing our consumption to reduce our impact on the environment and reduce our carbon emissions.
Download the mp3 podcast of that interview.
Tags: carbon, Energy, food waste, Kim Hill, NZ Herald, Richard Denniss
Posted in Business & Sustainability, Waste Management | No Comments »
Friday, January 28th, 2011 by Admin
 Source: Re-Nest Roof made from recycled plastic bottles The year is streaming past already – it’s February next week – and we are in full projects mode here at SIFT with a new set of potential new project applications already! But, to have a breather this weekend here are our Friday Favourites (lots this week):
Have a great waste free weekend.
Tags: Beehive, Ben and Jerrys, Celsias, food waste, Inhabitat, printing, recycling, Rerip, surfing, The Age, Waste Minimisation fund
Posted in Business & Sustainability, Friday favourites, News on Sustainability | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 by Admin
 Source - Flickr From youmakemehappywhenskiesaregrey For Christchurch, in 2008/2009, nearly a quarter of all waste sent to landfill was kitchen waste. This is one of the waste streams that can be reduced the fastest and that each household and business in Canterbury can directly impact. Not only does wasted food impact the space in our landfills but also impact on global warming with the methane emitted as it breaks down (not to mention all the emissions from the production, manufacturing and transportation of the food that isn’t eaten before it gets to the consumer).
Reduce your food waste by firstly recognising what, when and how you are buying (maybe buying less more often will mean less spolied food), by planning your meals and using leftovers and then what is left over can go into a compost bin or EM Bokashi system breaking down and then providing much needed nutrients for your garden (or potted plants).
Or if you are a business in the food service, hospitality or produce industry look at how you can reduce the amount of unsold food that is wasted. Can it be reduced in price on or just before the use by date or can you set up a business composting system or give the food away to a community garden’s compost?
There are some great ideas for creative uses for kitchen scraps from Re-Nest.
Or check out the wonderful UK site Love Food Hate Waste for some excellent practical actions that you can do today.
Love to hear your ideas on how business can help to reduce food waste.
Tags: business, canterbury, community, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, food waste, sustainable future, sustainable living, waste, Waste Management
Posted in Sustainability in Action, World Environment Day 2009 | No Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010 by Admin
 Source: Flickr Zenkatydid Here are a few good links that we have come across over the past week that you might be interested in:
Tags: art, behaviour change, CDs, christchurch, decomposition, DVDs, eco bag, electric, food waste, packaging, piano stairs, plastics, trelise cooper, waste
Posted in News on Sustainability, Other Sustainable Initiatives, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010 by Admin
 ASB Classical Sparks Last Friday the Christchurch City Council put on one of the favourite events of the Summertimes festival, the ASB Classical Sparks. Classical music, a picnic and some fireworks brought between 80,000 and 100,000 Cantabrians to North Hagley park. But, that also brought a mammoth amount of rubbish as well. People brought their own picnics with varying degrees of preparedness and others were able to purchase food onsite.
Being a waste minded person I was a little worried about what would be on offer for festival goers in the way of waste disposal but, the City Council had the waste logistics covered. All around North Hagley park there were the recognisable Christchurch City waste bins – yellow for recycling, red for rubbish to landfill and green for food waste. It was great to see these waste depots dotted around for easier access. As well as being told by the emcee about how to dispose of rubbish (and even told to take it home with you) there were also city council events people standing next to each depot to help event goers put the right rubbish in the right bin. An excellent opportunity to increase a population’s knowledge (and therefore change their behaviour) of how to dispose of their waste in the right way.
It is hoped that every event provides easy access for people to dispose of their waste appropriately or even better events become zero waste.
Regardless of the waste element a great night was had by all.
Tags: ASB Classical Sparks, behaviour change, canterbury, Christchurch City Council, food waste, landfill, picnic, recycling, rubbish, waste
Posted in Events, Waste Management | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 by Admin
Radio New Zealand National is somewhat underrated for its level of interesting, informative and on-trend information. This past Saturday This Way Up looked into the amount of food waste that there is each year, where it comes from and what we can do. They state that there are no reliable figures from the Ministry for the Environment for food waste in New Zealand but site a 2003 Australian study that said that 13% of all waste is from food – that’s around $500 per person per year. They go on to say that this ofcourse has a significant impact on the levels of Methane in our landfills which is around 35 times more impactful and damaging than CO2 in the atmosphere.
In 2008, in Christchurch, 23% of our waste is “kitchen” waste which we can assume will be mostly food, that has gone to landfill. That’s 50,000 kg of organics that could have been composted (there are no figures on how much comes from household and how much from producers, manufacturers and retailers).
 Waste by Tristram Stuart This Way Up interviewed Tristram Stuart who wrote the book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal who talks about how the UK government “raked through 2000 homes” in order to see what was in their rubbish and the impact of food waste from retailers and manufacturers. He also discusses how the UK government carried out an educational campaign on how to reduce their food waste (such as food storage, cooking and using left overs) and it worked saving many hundreds of millions of pounds.
This Way Up then they interviewed both Foodstuffs and Progressive (although Foodstuff didn’t give an interview and stated it “didn’t have any figures on the problem” of food waste from the supermarkets). Progressive state that nationally they are sending 20,000 tonnes of food waste to landfill and that “they are actively monitoring and measuring this”.
Interestingly, Progressive are looking to reduce their carbon footprint by 40% by 2014 on 2006 levels and to reduce their food waste by 1%. Progressive are also rolling out a feedstock programme so that their organic food waste goes to livestock and have given manager’s the opportunity to reduce prices that have gone past their sell by date (nothing is sold that has gone past its used by date and they discuss the health and safety around products that have gone past their used by date but could still be okay to eat and they are looking into a programme that can give this healthy but gone past its used by date to the needy). They are also using better food ordering and waste reporting systems.
This is an interesting insight into food waste in New Zealand and we feel there is a quite a gap in knowledge on our food waste.
 Food Waste that can still by eaten Source: Flickr JBloom
Tags: climate change, CO2, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, food waste, Foodstuffs, kitchen, methane, organics, Progressive, RadioNZ National, This Way Up, Tristram Stuart, waste
Posted in Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | 1 Comment »
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