Benefits of
Food Waste Recycling
Food waste recycling salvages lost food and its associated resources. Wasted food isn’t just about the food; it’s also water, transport, energy, and labor. Recycling food waste can create tens of thousands of jobs, drive innovation, generate clean energy, boost soil health, and generally improve the standard of living for innumerable individuals.
"If food waste were a country, it would be third only to China and the United States in terms of greenhouse gas emissions,” says Dr. Frank Mitloehner, a professor at UC Davis. Food waste in the United States is responsible for massive GHG emissions, generating 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, matching the annual output of 42 coal-fired power plants.”
What do you mean, it’s just a banana peel, for goodness sake?
Ok, let’s talk bananas. Bananas are one of the most consumed fruits in the United States. Though consumption has fluctuated since 2000, as of 2022, banana consumption was about 26.62 pounds per person. Comparing this to the current population of the United States, estimated at 34,196,500 at the time of this report, that equates to 910,310,830 pounds per year. That’s a lot of banana peels in our landfills. Add all the other foods tossed out annually and you get the drift. It’s a lot of methane gas spewing into our air. Click here for more detailed information.
How to act locally!
Learn more from the city of Tucson’s January 25th FoodCycle at Home Training Event at Reid Park Zoo and join the Food Waste Collection Program. Just sign up here for a 30-minute information session to learn the basics, complete the training and receive a free home kitchen compost pail to collect food scraps, receive the code to access the container lock at drop off city collection sites. The EGSD will collect the food waste and use it at the composting facility at the Los Reales Sustainability Campus.
Another resource is Desert Compostables. They provide a fee-based food waste pickup service on a mission to return food waste and other organic materials to the Earth. Their service area stretches as far south as Drexel and Alvernon Way all the way up to Northern Marana. Click here to learn more:
And remember you can always compost on your own at home. Click here for more information:
Start composting food waste today. Together we can work to improve our Sonoran Desert air quality, create landfill space, decrease food waste contaminates and Keep our Desert and Community Livable and Thriving.
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