{"id":18357,"date":"2017-03-07T10:52:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wasteadvantagemag.com\/?p=18357"},"modified":"2017-03-07T10:52:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:52:55","slug":"with-nys-regulations-coming-groceries-look-to-cut-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wasteadvantagemag.com\/with-nys-regulations-coming-groceries-look-to-cut-food-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"With NYS Regulations Coming, Groceries Look to Cut Food Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"
Some local grocers and national retailers are taking a harder look at what\u2019s in their trash\u00a0to increase the bottom line by diverting food from landfills and to those most needing it. Wegmans Food Markets joined an effort late last year with several businesses and the\u00a0Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture to cut food waste in half by 2030.<\/p>\n
“Food waste has taken a front and center stage because, quite frankly, it’s the largest amount of what we are finding in our trash these days,”\u00a0said Jason Wadsworth, a manager of sustainability at\u00a0Wegmans. “It’s also how we can make the most significant change,\u00a0not only for what’s ending up in landfills but for our communities.”<\/p>\n
He declined to disclose how much Wegmans spends on hauling food waste, but said finding ways to keep items out of the landfill would reduce overhead costs for the Gates-based grocer. “If we reduce waste, Wegmans doesn’t have to pay to send it to a landfill \u2014\u00a0that is as simple as I can make it,”\u00a0Wadsworth said.<\/p>\n
In 2010, roughly 30 percent, or about 133 billion pounds, of all food in the United States went uneaten, according to estimates from the Department of Agriculture. The typical family of four spent an average of roughly $1,500 on food they just throw out. Some have put those numbers even higher.<\/p>\n
“Consumers don\u2019t even realize how much food is wasted,”\u00a0said Callie Babbit,\u00a0an associate professor of sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology. “We walk into a grocery store and we see these vast aisles of food and it seems like it’s a readily available resource.”<\/p>\n
Forcing the issue?<\/em><\/p>\n Food, Babbit said, has become the single largest item in American landfills, amounting on a daily basis to a pile of garbage the size of a 90,000-seat stadium. Researchers at RIT have received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a better farm-to-table supply chain to reduce food waste, its environmental impact and create new economic opportunities.<\/p>\n Lawmakers in various parts of the country have already implemented plans to cut down on\u00a0discarded food, which is widely known to produce methane as it slowly decomposes in landfills. For instance,\u00a0Seattle and San Francisco have citywide composting programs. Seattle, New York City, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, California and Connecticut currently ban food scraps from landfills,\u00a0according to the U.S. Composting Council.<\/p>\n In New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u00a0first introduced the idea of a landfill ban last year. Implementation of the\u00a0idea was slowed down for further study. The governor\u00a0announced earlier this year in his\u00a0State of the State address new plans to reduce methane emissions\u00a0at landfills, suggesting\u00a0new regulations requiring the largest producers of food waste to divert edible food to food banks along with other measures. The legislation would apply to supermarkets, restaurants, colleges, hospitals and those producing more than two tons of waste per week.<\/p>\n