Zero Food Waste: What Can We Do?
Overview of our latest ‘Food Sustainability 101’ webinar about Zero Food Waste
As part of our GROWCircle programme, we host experts, practitioners and GIY friends for our virtual fireside chats where we love talking about food sustainability. This month, we took on the topic of Zero Food Waste. Our inspiring guests were Niamh and Ruairi Dooley, co-founders of Biasol, and Erin O’Brien, Project Lead at The Cork Urban Soil Project.
As a background to our discussion, food waste is a global problem with a large environmental impact. The latest stats indicate that a third of all food grown does not reach our plates. It can be wasted either before it reaches our tables or afterwards, heading straight for the bin. This is partly because of how our food system is designed: a supermarket culture that over-relies on best before dates and permanently stocked selves, combined with a culture of large portions in private catering, as well as food pricing that is so cheap we see no problem in throwing it away.
When we throw a food item in the bin, we are also throwing the resources used to grow, pack, transport and store it (if we bought it in a supermarket). Let’s not forget the greenhouse gases that are emitted when the forest is cleared to create vegetable or grain fields.
All combined, if the world’s food waste was a country, it would be the third biggest global greenhouse gases emitter, after China and the USA. However, unlike other problems, global food waste could be an area of hope. For example, if we managed to eliminate food waste, we couldreduce global annual greenhouse gases emissions by 6%.
For our GROWCircle discussion, our panel provided a rounded view on this important food sustainability topic.
The Cork Urban Soil Project
Firstly, Erin from The Cork Urban Soil Project introduced us to the possibility of eliminating food waste by redesigning our waste stream by simply changing it from a line to a circle. Their project is a prototype of an urban circular waste system – food waste from local food businesses together with cardboard and paper waste from local breweries and offices are combined in a “fast composter” to produce a compost within 4 to 8 weeks.
This compost is then used to grow food in an urban farm located in the local industrial estate. This food can then be sold or used in food business products. Even better, the system is designed to operate at a community level, so it can provide local benefits in the face of larger-scale challenges, such as an interruption of overseas food imports.
Biasol
Ruairi and Niamh Dooley of Biasol then gave a prime example of circular design in practice. Early in 2020, Niamh decided to start researching the most common waste products of local food businesses in the Irish Midlands. She discovered that a huge amount of used grain was left over from the brewing process. This waste was costly to dispose of, and mostly went to landfill or the incinerator, with some used by farmers as animal feed.
However, on further inspection, this spent grain was found to be nutritional gold dust – both high in fibre and protein. When dried, the spent grain had the same health function as psyllium husk, but with the added benefit of being locally produced. It also adds a delicious malty flavour to all baking, as the Biasol crew have discovered. As a result, they have created a line of baking products and now supply bakers and shops. They have turned what was a waste product into a resource, and are being approached by multiple brewers who would like to do the same.
3 simple actions to immediately reduce our food waste:
- Check your fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what you can use before heading to the shop.
- Compost food waste at home. A simple first step is to put your food waste in a separate container for a week – this will give you a sense of what your weekly food waste is and will inform the next steps, such as size of compost bin required.
- Finally, growing it yourself is a way to reduce the impact of food waste – it can be as simple as herbs in a window box!
By Molly Garvey, GIY Community Manager
GROWCircle is an employee engagement programme that delivers bite-sized food sustainability actions for the household and work community.
WASTED is the GIY food waste initiative for food service professionals, another way we work towards reduced food waste as part of our GIY Manifesto.