Monday, October 17, 2011

Food trash

How much food in America is thrown in the garbage or devoured by your garbage disposal?  Ever wonder how environmentally friendly the garbage disposal is?  Ever wonder about what happens to the food trash in landfills?


Well, Korea Recycles!
Here's just some quick facts without interpretation...




Direct landfill of food waste was forbidden to overcome the landfill problems and to improve the recycling rate since 2005.

South Korea uses about 4 million tons of plastic per year - including 1.6 million tons of plastic packaging material - but only 15 per cent is estimated to be reused. The Korean government is hoping that adding that the measure will reduce domestic rubbish by up to 30 per cent.
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Korea-steps-up-recycling



Korea fights this situation in various manners.
First, food trash is separated.


More than 80%of Food Waste (FW) is separately collected in Korea.  More than 80% of collected FW is carrying to feedstuff and compost, but low demands of each product are falling them into dilemma.


Korean law dictates that no food is to be thrown into the regular trash. 
http://aec.army.mil/usaec/newsroom/update/fall08/fall0807.html
Food waste includes uneaten portions of meals discarded by households or restaurants, any food substances discarded in the process of sales or distribution, trimmings from food preparation activities in kitchens and cafeterias, and food products that are thrown away due to degradation in their quality, damage, rot or the passing of its expiration date. http://eng.me.go.kr/content.do?method=moveContent&menuCode=res_cit_was_energy

People take down their food trash daily to the food trash can.  The baggy containing the food is thrown in another trash can.  A few times a week, a food trash truck comes and wisks it away.

Among household food wastes, the largest amount of waste are derived from fruit and vegetable peelings (70.6%), followed by rotten food (10.7%) and leftover side dishes (10.6%). http://eng.me.go.kr/content.do?method=moveContent&menuCode=res_cit_was_energy

People are given suggestions and guidance from organizations how to help minimize food trash:
Prepare medium size meals for your family.
Get creative with your left-overs and try a new recipe.
Food trash is filling up landfills.
Dream green for a better future.

"Now, with the help of a Swedish company, it is going to start converting that waste water into biogas, a type of clean fuel that can be used as power to heat buildings and even run vehicles.

"'If you dump it into the sea, methane will be produced," he said. "And methane released into the air is 21 times more aggressive than carbon dioxide. So it has a great impact on the greenhouse effect."
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