INFORMATION
Across the globe, one third of the food produced for human consumption goes uneaten. It’s a shocking figure—especially when 870 million people worldwide go hungry every day. Aside from the impacts on people, this level of waste carries with it high financial and environmental costs as well. The environmental impact is actually a double hit, with repercussions felt both from the production of food and from its decomposition. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the Philippines, food waste worldwide costs about ₱750 billion a year, and adds 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere.
In the Philippines, a fair amount happens at the farm level (16 percent), but most happens at businesses, such as grocery stores and restaurants (40 percent) and in consumers’ homes (43 percent). Any solution that hopes to tackle food waste must recognize and address the multiple places where it occurs, as food is produced, distributed, and consumed.
What is the solution?
The starting point—and the most immediate impact in terms of economic value per ton—is found in prevention. Solutions that prevent food from being wasted in the first place, such as standardized date labeling, consumer education campaigns, and packaging adjustments, require relatively little capital to reap great gains. The three most effective are donation tax incentives, standardized donation regulation, and software that matches food donations with recipient organizations in need. These solutions require both legislative and technological support, but they can make a big difference in ensuring surplus food gets to the people who need it.
It’s clear that food waste prevention and food recovery have the potential for enormous positive environmental and societal impacts, and they should be prioritized first. But even if extensive strides were to be made in both of these critical areas, food recycling—the third area of focus—will always have an important role to play. Food recycling has the greatest growth potential and will have a major impact on further reducing waste in the coming decades. The reason lies in the efficiency of this approach. Since food scrap volume is tied to population density, large cities can have a proportionately large impact, lessening the need to scale programs nationwide.
Prevent, Recover, Recycle: Finding Solutions for Food Waste
September 18, 2016
What One Thing Should I Recycle?
Not all recycling is created equal. Some materials are more "worth it" than others. There is a gray area concerning the pluses and minuses of recycling for the simple reason that it is difficult to follow a product through its life cycle, from the factory to you and to the recycling technique.
Recycling Techniques
The recycling of aluminum, which is made from bauxite ore, is a closed-loop process, meaning that no new materials are introduced along the way. Aluminum is infinitely recyclable: Cans can be recycled over and over again without degrading. Because of this efficiency, more than two-thirds of all the aluminum ever produced is still in use today . Not aluminum can be recycled but others also too. Here are some benefits of recycling aluminum, steel, plastic and glass.
Benefits of Recycling Aluminum:
1. Recycling aluminum prevents the need to mine for ore to create new aluminum. It requires 4 tons of ore to create 1 ton of aluminum.
2. Recycling aluminum cans takes 95 percent less energy than creating new ones.
3. The energy it takes to produce one can could produce 20 recycled cans.
4.The energy saved from recycling one aluminum can could power a 100-watt light bulb for four hours or a television for three hours.
Benefits of Recycling Steel:
Another recyclable metal made mainly from mined ore, requires 60 percent less energy to recycle than it does to make a new one. Recycling one ton of steel prevents the mining of 2,500 pounds (1,134 kilograms) of iron ore, 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms) of coal and 120 pounds (54 kilograms) of limestone.
Benefits of Recycling Plastic:
Usually downcycled, meaning it is recycled into something of lesser value like fleece or lumber, but requires 70 percent less energy to recycle than to produce from virgin materials. And while some people argue that recycling plastic is a lost cause because of its tendency to weaken during reprocessing, manufacturing plastic from new materials requires the messy business of mining for oil and natural gas. Even if plastic can only be recycled once, that's one time that oil and natural gas can be saved.
Benefits of Recycling Glass:
Recycling glass is 33 percent more energy efficient (and cheaper) than starting fresh and involves no downcycling.
September 18, 2016
Three Big Mistakes We Make With Recycling
September 18, 2016
Recycling is a civic and moral duty, but it also can be a pain in the neck. Consider the humble plastic coffee cup. Many of us dutifully toss our coffee shop cups and lids in the recycle bin, assuming that the discarded cups will be refashioned into some kind of eco-friendly baby toy for needy children. Truth is, it's probably going to the landfill. We all want to be good recyclers; we want to do the right thing. But if you rush to recycle — without understanding how recycling actually works — you'll end up sending even more stuff to the garbage heap. Sorry to break it to you, but most likely, you're recycling wrong.
People think, 'I don't know what this material is. It could be plastic or some type of glass or etc.' and 'wishing' that an item can be recycled. Perhaps the biggest mistake made by well-meaning recyclers is to wrap items up in plastic grocery bags. We're so accustomed to bagging our trash that it's only natural to neatly wrap up a stack of cat food cans in a grocery bag before dropping it in the recycling bin. In truth, all you're really doing is sending those bagged cans straight to the garbage heap. Just remember, anything you try to recycle in a bag will end up getting tossed in the trash.
Recycling Do's and Dont's:
1. Plastic bottle caps are recyclable now, but only if they're attached to the bottle.
2. Cardboard boxes need to be flattened at home or else they trap other items in the sorting machines.
3. Broken glass can be recucled into a bottle artwork.
4. Clean pizza boxes (without food or the paper liner) can be recycled.
If you're not sure on if something is recyclable, DON"T TRY TO RECYCLE IT.