Food Waste
June 7, 2023
We’re all guilty of food waste, and now our environment is begging us to reduce it. Summit County’s bars and restaurants waste is 66% organics and residential waste is 36% organics. Reducing food waste is ranked in the top ten solutions to mitigating climate change in an article by the World Resources Institute. Paul Hawken in Drawdown ranks reduced food waste as #3 out of 100 important ways to reverse global warming by 2050. Hawken states, “The food we waste is roughly 8% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. People who need food are not getting it, and the food that is not getting consumed is heating up the planet.”
We are extremely fortunate in Summit County to have ways to donate food and compost. Contact the Christian Center of Park City (CCPC) for ways to donate uneaten food for those in need; subscribe to Momentum to compost business or event food waste or Spoil to Soil for residential. Or, start composting at your home with a backyard bin or electric composter.
Change is not easy, it’s certainly easy to refuse to do. But how long can our resilient Earth stand up to our human actions? Make it your goal today to start a food waste plan in 2023 for your home and workplace. Our community will thank you for it.
Mary Closser
Recycle Utah Education Director
