What's New: Food Waste Solutions
Various NC cities -- Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh -- have made promising developments to reduce food wase by promoting at-home-composting and utilizing programs and organizations that divert food scraps from landfills to those facing food insecurity.
How the Queen City is Tackling Food Waste
2024 Statistics prove that the United States wastes more food than any other country. This excess waste results in critical damages to the health of the environment and the lives of many. Charlotte and other NC cities are locally addressing the matter through developing and implementing solutions to reduce food waste and preserve the environment's health.
Feeding Charlotte has aided in the fight by collecting fresh, unserved, and surplus meals from establishments and delivering them to nonprofits who feed the hungry. This directly targets two issues, food waste and food insecurity.
They've also partnered with health care systems like Atrium Health who have launched programs that address the issue of 40% of food in the U.S. being wasted. This program stresses the importance of the hospital kitchens composting food and donating leftovers to food banks.
The Solutions of Other NC Cities
Charlotte isn't the only one. Raleigh and Greensboro sell composting bins to reduce food waste. Instead of large amounts of solid food scraps going to landfills, it's first diverted into organic materials. This saves space in landfills, saving the environment from heavy carbon emissions that would've occurred with trying to dispose of solid waste.
Encouraging at-home-composting significantly reduces solid food waste from pilling into landfills. It’s known as an effective solution that the United States EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) promotes. This agency has plenty of articles dedicated to showing the pros and effectiveness of composting.
Rules of Composting
Composting is a process that naturally recycles materials, returning nutrients to the soil instead of harming the environment.
There are various forms of composting but the most basic form requires a container with a lid, carbon-rich materials (“browns”), Nitrogen-rich materials (“greens”), water, and air.
There are rules and regulations in properly maintaining your compost which can be found on several environmental websites, official and self-published ones.
Composting: Community Problems
Not everyone is knowledgeable about composting. Difficulties in knowing what materials should and shouldn't be included is a problem due to lack of education on the matter.
But environmental agencies have stepped up in providing informational sources. It’s just up to people to grasp it and apply them.
There are also some forms of composting that can be expensive and some people have limited space that prevents them from participating.
The Alternatives
The community should realize the great efforts agencies are putting into bettering the environment and the lives of many. They learn about ways in reducing food waste from at home, helping to contribute to the fight.
There are some mixed reviews on at-home-composting. Some people find it expensive and hard to manage, while others find affordable alternatives. There are some limitations, but to have full participation, environmental agencies have encouraged people to utilize municipal and county compost services that’ll take food scraps for composting.
“We [Crown Town Compost] have stations at different places. Customers take a bucket with them and drop off their compost at the drop-off stations,” said DJ, a customer representative at Crown Town Compost.
The Importance of Community Engagement
The collaboration between these organizations encourages more positive change. It sets an example to others who can help by utilizing their resources and participating in at-home-composting. This community of work increases awareness, bringing people together to better the health of the environment and lives of others through proactivity.
Feeding Charlotte’s Partnership with Healthcare Systems
Charlotte has provided its residents with a variety of sources, instilled sustainable and healthy practices, raised awareness on the matter, and has seen countless collaborations amongst organizations to help reduce food waste.
Food organizations like Feeding Charlotte and healthcare establishments, Atrium Health and Morrison Healthcare, have partnered in the past to ensure food scraps aren't wasted but rather given to those who lack proper food sources.
Feeding Charlotte's 2023 impact shows they've saved nearly 54,738lbs of food from going to waste, and delivered 45,615 meals.
This 2021 partnership has seen an estimation of 1,000 pounds of surplus fresh food -- proteins, vegetables, etc. -- being distributed each week instead of collecting in landfills.
The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources has a website of information on how to reduce food waste. It encourages its residents to utilize existing municipal and county compost services and to perform at-home-composting themselves.
Rich, Representative of Feeding Charlotte said, “If [food waste] it’s something that can be composted, we always direct them to Crown Town Composting. If it’s food that’s good and can be reused, we request the food be delivered to us, where we can get it to people in need.”
Kim Aprill, Co-founder and Executive Director of Feeding Charlotte said, "Almost 50 million Americans are food insecure ... our first year of operations [2020] we've rescued over 50,000 pounds of food ... that equates to 42,000 meals."
Food Waste History & Public Health Concerns
Food waste in the U.S. has been a problem since the late 19th century, but received more attention during the early 20th century. The country has tripled over the past 50 years and wastes more than the global average of any other country.
This huge amount of waste is deposited in landfills that collect and rottens, turning into a potent greenhouse gas, methane. The production, transportation, and handling of food waste creates significant amounts of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide.
These emissions contribute to the climate change crisis and health concerns, like kidney disease, cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc.
Challenges in Reducing Food Waste
Despite the progressive work of the Charlotte community and other NC cities, food waste continues to prevail and is even harder to manage. There are informational and helpful policies that provide its residents with information on how to reduce food waste, but not everyone has the access to do so.
Many consumers have limited access or none to municipal food waste recycling programs and have barriers that prevent them from at-home-composting. Not everyone has the same sources or “luxury” to participate.
There’s also complications with dealing with the matter as a whole since it’s complex and there are various existing outlets that contribute to food waste.
But people should continue to do what they can in supporting the fight against food waste. Seek resources and other ways that will substitute as a solution of change.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Food waste is a complex matter that requires a lot of attention, but if addressed as a community it can be reduced. People should continue collaborating, raising awareness, and providing resources and education to each other to ensure continuous progression.
“We get food from professional kitchens instead of that food ending up in the landfills … there’s two positive impacts [reducing food waste and insecurity] that we’re making, “ Rich said.
Through consistent collaborations, positive mindsets, and effective strategies that better the environment, progressive change can occur. Fighting against food waste within the communities is a great start.
Jada Poe is a North Carolina A&T junior English Major from Charlotte, NC.