| Cutting Food Waste Beefs Up Hospital's Pocketbook |
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| Written by Kiki Hubbard | |
| Tuesday, 15 July 2008 | |
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The enormous amount of food wasted each year isn't exactly news. We watch half-eaten steaks get carried away from restaurant tables; we wonder at the seemingly endless amounts of potato salad behind deli counters; and we all dumpster dove for day-old bagels in college, right? Here are the numbers: In the U.S., about 27 percent of food available is wasted and Americans account for nearly 30 million tons of food waste every year. But take heart, there's a hopeful story to accompany these gloomy statistics. A hospital called North Memorial Medical Center in the Twin Cities has become a model for cutting down on food waste. The hospital entered a program called "Valu Waste" in 2006, where it weighed the food it wasted and documented the reasons: Was there a spill? Was there too much prepared? The hospital then entered this information into a computer and devised a plan to cut down on the $2 million it spends each year on food. For example, North Memorial replaced ready-made croutons with cut-up ends of bread loaves, which allowed it to save $5,000 right there (crazy, huh?). In just one year, "Valu Waste" saved North Memorial $50,000 and reduced its food waste by 50 percent. As food prices skyrocket (up almost 10 percent), avoiding those moldy peaches and other wasted food at the back of your fridge will likely become a priority for financial reasons. But eliminating food waste has alwasy been good for the planet. As Envirovore told you once before, about one-third of landfill waste is from kitchen food scraps alone. Source: WCCO Comments (1)
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It's true what our moms said...we are what we eat. In fact, it's truer than they thought. What I eat doesn't just affect me anymore, it affects all of us.
Unfortunately, the story of food can sometimes be complicated. But envirovores help each other out...which is why this blog will be bringing you news, tips, and information about food and the environment every step of the way.
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That's crazy!
That's like wasting an entire days food every four days!
And reducing food wasted will do more than just save the cost of the food, it means less lorries on the road to transport that extra food, less trips to the supermarket (as the food you have 'lasts longer' because you don't waste it), any possible savings of using less fridge space (would probably be small, but it all adds up), etc.