MassDEP is aware of the Chinese government’s policy and intention to limit the import of secondary mixed paper and mixed plastics. MassDEP is evaluating the situation and communicating with impacted parties as well as other state government agencies nationwide. There continues to be significant uncertainty on the short and long-term impacts of this policy. As…
LeanPath’s Executive Chef, Robb White, recently addressed three of the biggest waste culprits in the kitchen: Overbuying, Fear of Running Out, and Knife Skills. 1. Overbuying is when more food was purchased than could be utilized before it was spoiled, passed the serve by date, or deteriorated in quality. White lists several solutions to help…
LeanPath’s co-founder and CEO, Andrew Shakman, recently wrote a post about funding upfront investment in food waste prevention. Food waste reduction is most effective when preventing the food waste from happening in the first place. The first step to prevention is measurement. However, as Shakman mentions, a common challenge in waste tracking and analytics is…
WasteDIVE recently published an article on Wasteless, a startup aiming to reduce waste while saving customers and retailers money. The technology tags perishable foods in stores by replacing the bar codes on products with an RFID chip. The RFID chip tracks items’ expiration dates, and detects the appropriate price to encourage items to sell. Soon…
The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), recently added a section on recycling stock pharmaceutical bottles to their guide on recycling grocery rigid plastics. The guide encourages grocery stores to recycle their primary rigid plastics: High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polypropylene (PP). The guide was developed with assistance from the American Chemistry Council, and includes data…
Fortune’s column on startups recently published Beth Kowitt’s article featuring the Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery store based in Dorchester, MA. Founded by Doug Rauch, the grocery store aims to reduce wasted food and increase access to affordable nutritious food. Rauch explains that while “best by” or “sell by” dates, for most items, are a…
Jennifer Gerholdt’s recent article on the World Economic Forum website highlights four businesses that are finding value in the circular economy. The circular economy is an economic model focused on designing and manufacturing products, components and materials for reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. The four companies featured in this article are part of report by the…
Jon Frandsen from PBS recently reported on how states are working to reduce food waste. The article describes the growing number of state policies to reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfills. In addition to Massachusetts, four other states (California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont) already have some form of food waste disposal…
A study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future analyzes the nutritional composition of wasted food in the United States. The study shines a light on the link between the millions of Americans who are food insecure and the massive quantity of wasted food that could help…
City of Boston Mayor Martin Walsh recently released a Request for Proposals to develop a Zero Waste Plan for the City of Boston. In doing so, Mayor Walsh emphasized that reducing waste would result in positive economic, environmental, and public health impacts for citizens. The zero waste plan, following the model of other cities such…
