The National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) Conserve program is a resource to explore and learn about sustainability in the restaurant business. To promote the program, the NRA developed 4 tips from industry experts on easy practices to implement that enhance a restaurant’s sustainability and produce environmental benefits: Recycle your cardboard Conserve water by establishing a…
In April, Keep America Beautiful published findings of a 2014 research study in a report titled “Recycling at Work: Research to Inform Improved Recycling in the Workplace”. Keep America Beautiful commissioned Action Research to conduct the study, which was sponsored by PepsiCo Recycling. The study assessed the effects of different desk-side bin types and placements in over…
The Food Recovery Network (FRN) brings together students at colleges and universities across the nation to combat food waste and hunger by recovering edible food from their campuses that would have otherwise gone to waste and redistributing it to people in need. FRN partnered with Bon Appetit Management Company to launch a gleaning initiative to…
On Earth Day, U.S. EPA New England (Region 1) announced its 2015 Environmental Merit Awards. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School’s Environmental Club received a 2014 President’s Environmental Youth Award. The Environmental Club carried out an initiative to encourage reusable water bottles and spread awareness of climate change to fellow students, which involved fundraising to purchase two purified…
In November 2014, the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, a working group of major food service retailers and trade associations, released the report Analysis of U.S. Food Waste Among Food Manufacturers, Retailers, and Restaurants. From statistics in the report, Jordan Figueiredo of EndFoodWaste.org and Nicole Civita of the Food Recovery Project at the University of Arkansas created…
The U.S. EPA Region 1 (New England) office recently announced the Regional 2014 Food Recovery Challenge Achievement Award winners based on 2013 data. The awards go to those who significantly reduce the volume of surplus food generated, donate food to people or animals, and/or compost excess food. The Massachusetts winners include: Tufts University Medford Campus,…
This article and accompanying video highlight major grocery store chains that are diverting unsold food that cannot be donated, as well as food scraps that are not sent to composting, to anaerobic digestion. In April, Stop & Shop announced the groundbreaking for its 1.25 MW anaerobic digester at its Freetown Distribution Center, which will…
This article from Wicked Local Burlington describes how food donations to the Burlington Food Pantry have increased since the Commercial Food Waste Disposal Ban went into effect in October 2014. The increase in food donations from large food service providers like a Wegmans grocery store has led the Burlington Food Pantry to expand hours and…
In Fall 2014, Simmons College, Emmanuel College, Wheelock College and Wentworth Institute of Technology all partnered with Casella Resource Solutions on waste diversion improvements, including single-stream recycling and back-of-house food waste diversion. This article highlights the increased diversion rates and positive behavior change these colleges have experienced as a result of working with Casella…
This article from Boston University’s (BU) independent student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, discusses the increase in food waste diversion to alternative organic waste processing methods like composting as a result of the Commercial Food Waste Disposal Ban that took effect October 1, 2014. The article highlights BU’s food waste diversion program, which was successfully…
