Hi
Can anyone direct me to any examples they know of where there has been a successful campaign to increase the amount of food waste being recycled (for turning into compost) as opposed to being thrown into refuse. I am looking to organise a campaign to increase the number of participants in a kitchen waste collection service and would appreciate any examples of successful past projects - any links to press coverage/contact details for organisations would be great.
Thanks
John.
Johnathan Schroder
Communications Officer
London Borough of Barnet,
North London Business Park,
Oakleigh Road South,
London N11 1NP
Tel: 020 8359 7954
Mobile: 07931 451134
Barnet Online: www.barnet.gov.uk
Food Waste
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Hi Jonathan and all
In 2005/06, Burnside Council (Adelaide, South Australia) ran a successful food organics trial - see the following for further information www.burnside.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/media_release_web_version ..pdf www.burnside.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/Final_Brochure.pdf www.burnside.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/Bio_Basket_Trial_Outcomes ..pdf
Cheers,
Sharon Ede
Research/Project Officer
(Greening of Government)
Zero Waste SA
www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au
At the Washington State Department of Ecology, we've launched a "lead by example" campaign aimed at institutions and agencies around the state. By collecting food scraps (from 1000+ building occupants) and composting on-site, we are demonstrating a closed loop food scrap management program. In 2006, we diverted almost 11 tons of food scraps from the landfill-we'll top that in 2007 as our collection rate has increased. We've written Managing Food Scraps at Institutions and Agencies - A Guide for Washington State, http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0607033.html, to help others launch programs. We provide tours of our facility and pursue every public outreach opportunity available to us. And...we are seeing some results from our outreach efforts. Several public agencies and a number of schools are adding food scrap management programs to their Sustainability Plans. Residents in several Washington communities also have access to commercial food scrap composting. Food scraps are collected with yard debris and taken to a large scale composting facility. King County, http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/foodwaste/residential/index.asp, has a good program in place. I hope that is helpful.
Chery
Chery Sullivan
WA State Dept. of Ecology
360.407.6915
[email protected]
See Waste in a New Way -
Organics Recycling Gives Waste New Life
Peel Region Organics Recycling Program
The Region of Peel, which is comprised of three municipalities just west of the City of Toronto, introduced an organics recycling program on April 2, 2007, to all 290,000 households receiving curbside collection in the Cities of Brampton and Mississauga and the Town of Caledon. The new program diverts household organic material such as food waste from disposal and turns it into a rich, renewable resource - finished compost. A green bin for curbside collection and a smaller kitchen container for indoor collection have been delivered to residents. In order to encourage high participation rates, residents are permitted to line their organics containers with compostable liners, such as paper or compostable plastic bags certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI). Polyethylene plastic bags, which are not compostable and contaminate the finished compost, are not permitted in the new program. We received a lot media coverage for the new program - you can visit our media page for press releases and program artwork. The artwork for the communications campaign was displayed in local newspapers, on public transit buses, posters, and on our organics collection vehicles. We have also conducted a series of "Green Days" at local grocery and retail stores where staff were on hand to answer resident questions about the new program and provide tips for participating. Since the program launched, we have collected over 8,000 tonnes of organic material for composting. We are continuing communications and outreach initiatives to raise that number as the Region works towards achieving its goal of diverting 70 per cent of waste from landfill by 2016. http://www.peelregion.ca/pw/waste/organics1/index.htm
Best of luck with your new program!
Elizabeth Baxter, M.Sc.
Technical Analyst Waste Management -
Program Planning Region of Peel
T: 905-791-7800 ext. 4760
F: 905-791-2398
[email protected]
www.peelregion.ca
I posted the question on a food waste blog and got this reply. I would tell John that both San Francisco ( http://www.sfrecycling.com/composting.htm) and Toronto ( http://www.toronto.ca/compost/index.htm) have successful composting programs. Also, have him e-mail me in the future to let me know how he's progressing. Best, Jonathan [email protected] At the Washington State Department of Ecology, we've launched a "lead by example" campaign aimed at institutions and agencies around the state. By collecting food scraps (from 1000+ building occupants) and composting on-site, we are demonstrating a closed loop food scrap management program. In 2006, we diverted almost 11 tons of food scraps from the landfillwe'll top that in 2007 as our collection rate has increased. We've written *Managing Food Scraps at Institutions and Agencies - A Guide for Washington State*, http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0607033.html, to help others launch programs. We provide tours of our facility and pursue every public outreach opportunity available to us. Andwe are seeing some results from our outreach efforts. Several public agencies and a number of schools are adding food scrap management programs to their Sustainability Plans. Residents in several Washington communities also have access to commercial food scrap composting. Food scraps are collected with yard debris and taken to a large scale composting facility. King County, http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/foodwaste/residential/index.asp, has a good program in place. I hope that is helpful.
Chery
*Chery Sullivan*
WA State Dept. of Ecology
360.407.6915
[email protected]
Food Scrap
Here in California, Alameda County's StopWaste.Org has done recent media campaigns on Food Scrap composting for residents. Almost all of the cities in the county now have curbside food scrap collection for single family residents. You can contact them for more details: http://www.stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=528
Peter Schultze-Allen
Environmental Analyst
City of Emeryville
1333 Park Ave 94608
510-596-3728
fax 596-4389
SORT IT! Collections in Somerset
Hi,
We started rolling out food waste collections, as part of a new integrated package of waste collections, in October 2004. Our award-winning SORT IT! collections now cover over 160,000 households in Somerset (UK) and are capturing just over 50% of our domestic food waste - over 14,000 tonnes pa. We also promote home composting and have sold over 60,000 cut-price compost bins. Currently our food waste is mixed with garden waste and processed in an In-Vessel Composting facility, with the compost used by local farmers. We have plans to build an Anaerobic Digestion plant to process more food waste and then extend our SORT IT! collections to serve all 230,000 Somerset households. Somerset's recycling rate for household waste is 47% and rising. Our next targets are to achieve 50% and then 65%. We implemented a successful communications plan when first introducing the new collections and are now testing a variety of further communication initiatives to further boost participation, including: a pledge campaign, door-stepping, newsletters, e-newsletters, stickers on refuse bins and recycling boxes, roadshows, distribution of liner starter packs, and local media advertising. I can provide a PDF copy of an information pack on our collections and we should have an evaluation report on our latest communication initiatives available next March (2008). Please email me at: [email protected]. A number of other UK local authorities have followed our lead, including the City of Bristol, and food waste collections featured highly for the first time in the new Waste Strategy for England recently published.
David Mansell
Waste Strategy Co-ordinator (Acting)
Somerset County Council
[email protected]
I don't know how effective the campaigns are, but here's a couple more recent examples of campaigns to reduce food waste.
NRDC's informational campaign called "Save the Food" https://www.savethefood.com/
Despite it being information heavy, they do seem to be tackling some specific knowledge barriers. They've added a "food waste" knowledge component to Amazon's Alexa, created a database for people to learn how to safely and effectively store all kinds of food for as long as possible, listed food-waste related recipes, and gotten celebrities involved. They have advertising materials available for widespread usage, which I think they are hoping will help to create norms around reducing food waste.
The Food: Too Good to Waste (I Value Food) challenge: http://challenge.ivaluefood.com/
This one is more intensive, and while I'm not sure what the uptake is like, it's well-designed to help motivated households to evaluate their current food waste habits and take actions to reduce them. The real trick is that there's a significant amount of work involved in actually getting people to engage in this challenge.
Teresa Looy
Compost Program Co-ordinator
Green Action Centre
Canada
John:
Check out the Fork it Over campaign: http://www.toolsofchange.com/English/CaseStudies/default.asp ?ID=166
Cheers,
Jay
Jay Kassirer
President, Cullbridge Marketing and Communications
61 Forest Hill Avenue, Ottawa ON, Canada K2C 1P7
Tel: (613) 224-3800,
e-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.cullbridge.com