“Everything from apple cores to food packaging-not to mention those leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge for the last two weeks. All of this food related waste has to go somewhere. And right now, the majority of it goes right in the trash.” – Speaker Quinn
Goal 11: Decrease waste throughout the food system. To reduce the costs and environmental impacts of handling food system waste, we must decrease the amount of waste we generate upstream. By making choices about what we purchase, how we use it, and what we discard, we can begin to decrease the volume and weight of our waste. However, doing so will require changes to our government purchases, better decision making by private sector producers and distributors, and encouraging better consumer choice. Our main strategy for reducing food system waste upstream will be to improve the environmental impact associated with agencies’ and institutions’ food procurement.
Strategy: Improve the net environmental impact associated with food procured by city agencies and institutions. Proposals:
• Reduce packaging on food procured by city agencies.
• Identify alternatives to polystyrene foam in city food programs.
• Discourage bottled water consumption.
Goal 12: Increase resource recapture in the food system. Much of our food system can now be categorized as an open system, with byproducts at each phase being diverted to various waste streams. Our goal is to close this system where possible and treat these byproducts as resources to be reinvested. Packaging, whether plastic, paper, glass, or metal, used in the processing and transport of food can be recycled and reused as other materials. Additionally, organic scraps from growing, manufacturing, household cooking, and institutional kitchens, can be recaptured for composting and reused as inputs into the production of food. The advent of new technologies is helping to close this system nationally, and we must continue to explore their adoption here. The strategies listed outline our plan to increase resource capture by expanding composting, ensuring that more of the materials we consume are recyclable, and recycling as much of these materials as possible.
Strategy: Increase residential, commercial, and governmental composting. Proposals:
• Establish a voluntary household composting program.
• Explore citywide composting of food waste.
Strategy: Increase recycling of waste related to food processing and packaging. Proposals:
