My group’s action project on food waste ended up (after a bit of re-calibrating) being the creation of a website to spread awareness of how much food goes to waste, and the effects of this waste. We also focused on a few groups that are doing their part in reducing food waste – Imperfect Produce, and UW Campus Sustainability funded student and alumni projects.
Imperfect produce shows up on campus fairly regularly; they sell produce boxes from local farms (similar to the ones described in lecture) that aren’t quite fit for grocery store shelves.
The boxes of produce arrive straight to your door, saving time and money for consumers while preventing the waste of ugly produce.
The other initiative we described on the website was the UW Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF). One of the members of my group spoke with the CSF Outreach Coordinator, Whisper St Christopher, about a few of the initiatives that relate to food waste. The first, an anaerobic biogas digester, would help reduce carbon emissions, while producing nutrient rich compost for the rest of the campus to use.
The other project focused on biogas as well – in this case, with a food cart powered by biogas. This reduces the amount of food waste that goes straight into landfills, releasing methane into the atmosphere, while also putting that food to good use.
In tying these projects together, it’s clear that it’s important to have local initiatives work to bring solutions to the problem of food waste. Startups like Imperfect Produce and student run initiatives like those being funded by the Campus Sustainability Fund let us test out solutions at a small scale before attempting to apply them to the nation – and world – at large.