Eliminate your food waste instead of sending it to landfill
Generally we are all now well aware of the benefits of eating healthy. Freshly made smoothies are now becoming the majority of people’s breakfast to kick start their day. But just how many of us throw the scraps of the vegetables or the skin of the fruit away as food waste and why?
A major company called Baldour realised the potential of what the scraps really had to offer. And just how they can manufacture it so that it no longer has to go into landfill.
How one company eliminated food waste: ‘The landfill can no longer be an option’
A produce processor renamed its food scraps ‘sparcs’ and started finding other uses for them.
The carrot tops you’ve lopped off are not garbage. Your snapped-off green-bean stems are not scraps. They are what Thomas McQuillan, sustainability director for Baldor, a specialty foods and produce distributor, calls sparcs – “scraps” spelled backward and pronounced like “sparks.” And sparcs, despite popular assumption, are often just as edible as the rest of the fruit or vegetable.
“The story about food we don’t usually eat is mostly negative,” said McQuillan. This includes “ugly” produce or “trash cooking.” Instead of these names, let’s find a better term for trim or byproduct.
Surprisingly it worked for the slimehead, a fish we now see on restaurant menus as orange roughy. It worked for Archibald Alexander Leach – you probably knew him as Cary Grant. And McQuillan is hoping the re-branding effort will make a dent in this country’s huge problem with food waste.
Ultimately, before you throw food away next time, take a moment to ask yourself, “Can I use this food waste in another way?” This small habit not only helps you save money on your food bills but also plays a part in reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. It’s an easy change that benefits both your wallet and the environment.