Food Waste Management

Food waste happens along the complete spectrum of production, from the farm to distribution to retailers to the client.

How to Reduce the Impact of Wasted Food?

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Are you aware of the ugly truth about food waste?

If you’re not, the below-mentioned figures will shock you and also make you regret your food waste choices!

Food waste: The Social Problem

Did you know that on average a person throws away 50 kg of food every year in Indian homes?

These figures are not made up but actually published in the Food Waste Index Report 2021 published by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

Can you think of the seriousness of these numbers in a country where almost 189.2 million people are undernourished? (‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’, 2020 report)

Food waste: The Environmental Problem

Out of 43 million tonnes of waste collected in the country, 31 million tonnes of waste is dumped in landfills — enough to fill up landfills and make them much bigger.

But that’s not all. Almost half of the waste collected is organic in nature.

Food waste also has an impact on climate change because it releases methane when it decomposes in landfills. According to the NSWAI, “India is one of the world’s largest emitters of methane from landfills, currently producing around 16 Mt CO2 eq per year, and predicted to increase to almost 20 Mt CO2 eq per year by 2020.”

How to Reduce Food Waste Impact?

That’s why reducing food waste is so important. The less food we waste, the less we need to grow, and the less land and resources we use to produce it.

Reducing wasted food is about making smarter choices when shopping and preparing meals. It’s also about donating extra food to those who need it most.

Tips To Reduce The Food Waste Impact In India

To reduce food waste or lower its impact, first, we need to understand the Food Recovery Hierarchy.

“The Food Recovery Hierarchy prioritizes actions organizations can take to prevent and divert wasted food. Each tier of the Food Recovery Hierarchy focuses on different management strategies for your wasted food.” Says EPA

“The top levels of the hierarchy are the best ways to prevent and divert wasted food because they create the most benefits for the environment, society, and the economy.” – it also adds

Though the chart itself is self-explanatory, let’s discuss it in detail:

Source Reduction

As they say, Prevention is better than cure, and we will start with that only.

Source Reduction suggests lowering the production of food. If you look at WWF’s latest report n food waste statistics, you will shock to know that 1/3rd of the food produced worldwide is never eaten.

Yes, you heard that right!

Much of the food produced gets lost or wasted at the production or supply stage.

Here’s the contribution of each stage of production, supply, and consumption to food waste:

“Farm-stage food waste amounts to 2.2 gigatonnes of CO2 a year, that is 4% of global anthropogenic emissions, while food waste overall, 6-8%.” – The report further adds.

While at the consumer end we can’t control these factors, what source reduction can be for us is to reduce the amount of food that ends up in your trashcan by buying only what you need and planning meals ahead of time.

If you buy smaller quantities, it will be easier to eat everything before it becomes spoiled and has to be thrown away.

But this shouldn’t stop there only. Additionally, we can also use leftovers to make new meals.

Feeding hungry people

In a world where one in nine people do not have enough to eat, donating your leftovers seems far more reasonable than simply throwing them away in the trash can.

Food Banks, an Food Security Foundation of India’s initiative, “offers a food management solution for excess food inventory and helps food businesses to timely save these surplus food products to feed those in need.”

There are also many NGOs that also work for the same cause. You can donate your leftover foods to them, and they will take care of the rest.

Feed Animals

Feeding animals can also help reduce the amount of wasted food that ends up in landfills each year.

Many farmers have started incorporating their own livestock into their operations so they can feed them scraps from restaurants and grocery stores instead of throwing them out like trash.

This reduces their dependence on fossil fuels as well as greenhouse gas emissions from transportation trucks.

Industrial uses

If the Wasted Food is inedible, it can still be put into good use by employing it in industrial processes for the production of biofuels or biopolymers.

Fats, oil, and grease

Further, fats, oil, and grease obtained from liquid fats and solid meat products can be used as raw materials in the rendering industry. These are further converted into cosmetics, soap, and other products.

They can also be added to anaerobic digesters at wastewater treatment plants to generate renewable energy in the form of biogas.

Composting

Composting is unparalleled when it comes to managing organic waste effectively & efficiently. You can check our blog How Composting Is Good For The Environment? to know more about it.

It converts the organic waste into compost by the aerobic reaction so there’s no emission of methane (CH4, the 2nd most emitted Greenhouse gas), and it also promotes the growth of flora that helps lower the carbon dioxide (CO2, the most emitted Greenhouse gas) levels from the environment by absorbing it.

However, in commercial-stage, such as restaurants, offices, etc., manual composting can be a daunting task because of the amount of waste generated every day and the slow pace of composting.

GoClean Organic Waste Composters by Clean India Ventures, helps these bodies to manage their organic waste in a better way with its varied capacity options (25 KG to 1000 KG), and superfast composting (within 24 hours).

Landfills

Sending your food waste to landfills should be the last resort. And, if you’re doing so, make sure you segregate your waste at the source into materials like plastic, tin, glass, paper, and others.

The segregation at the source facilitates the proper treatment of waste by waste management authorities, so it doesn’t add to a load of landfills.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that India is drowning in garbage, and it’s our efforts & awareness that can pull us out of it and help create a better future for the upcoming generations.

Do follow these tips the next time you are dealing with the leftover food!

May 30, 2022 0 comment

Food Waste Management

How to Reduce Food Waste in Your Restaurant?

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Food waste is one of the biggest problems our country is facing at the moment.

Let’s have a look at some of the statistics before we move ahead:

189.2 million people, or 14% of the population, are undernourished in India — According to FAO estimates in ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020 report.

Also, there are 17.76 lakh severely acute malnourished children (SAM) and 15.46 lakh moderately acute malnourished (MAM) children as of October 14, 2021, as per the Govt. Data.

However, it’s the same country where an average person wastes 50KG of food in a year, says Food Waste Index Report 2021.

These numbers are just to give you the gist of the situation and how important it is for us to overcome this.

However, today we’ll talk about one of the places where food waste happens the most.

Yes, you guess it right — Restaurants.

We’ll discuss the reason of food waste in the restaurants, tips to reduce the food waste, and an ideal food waste management system for the.

So without any further adieu, let’s just jump straight into the topic.

Why does food waste happen at restaurants?

Restaurants, not only in India but around the globe, are always under the constant pressure of serving only fresh food to their customers, and they can’t compromise on it as it’ll upset their customers.

In their quest to maintain the quality, they can’t even afford to cook with substandard items. And that’s the biggest reason why the food is wasted in the restaurants.

The other reason for food waste at restaurants is because of the bulk purchase they make to meet the demands of the customer. Since the demands constantly fluctuate, most of their raw materials get spoiled.

And last but not least, Customers.

Yes! The uneaten food left by the customers accounts for a fair proportion of the food waste by the restaurants.

Tips to reduce & manage food waste at restaurants

Ingredients labeling or Stock Rotation

Suppose you’re a chef and you got an order of Paneer masala. So you open your fridge and go for the first paneer packet & the vegetable you get your hands on.

Right?

Well, that’s a very wrong way to manage your pantry & fridge.

The more efficient way would be the FIFO rule — First Come, First Serve.

Label the items with their expiry or arrange the vegetables & fruits in such a manner so that the soon to expire food first is first in order.

This way, you’d be less prone to deal with spoiled items.

Be Vigilant

Inspect all food orders, prepare the grocery list & menu together, regulate & keep a check on pantry temperature.

These are some methods by which you can prevent any unwanted spoilage.

Donate Surplus Food

What’s a better way to deal with surplus food than donating it to those who need it most. Dropping off surplus to a nearby underprivileged area.

You can also feed the food scraps to animals.

Compost Food Waste

All the above methods emphasize minimizing food waste.

But let’s just say there’s still food waste even after all these efforts.

What will you do about it? Throw it in the bin. Right?

No!

Your whole focus should be on putting your food waste to good use instead of simply sending it to landfills.

Why?

The organic waste you send to landfills goes through anaerobic decomposition and produces harmful greenhouse gases such as methane.

So what can you do about it?

The answer is simple — Composting!

When you compost your food waste, it helps reduce the load on landfills. Also, the resulting compost enriches the soil with nutrients that promote plants’ growth.

Plants not only provide oxygen to us but also help to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere.

This way, you’re contributing your bit to society.

Now the next question that must be in your mind is, “Can cooked food be composted?”

The answer is, Yes! Cooked food is very much compostable. However, it tends to attract rodents & pests. It also gives an unpleasant odour.

So what’s the solution?

Well, you can try our GoClean organic waste composters that can convert organic waste into compost in 24 hours.

Also, since it’s a wholly enclosed process, there’s no possibility of an unpleasant smell or rodent attack.

But why only GoClean composters?

GoClean composters come in a wide range of capacities, starting from 25 kg and up to 1000 kg. So, you can always find the one that suits your requirements.

Also, it requires little to no manual effort, so you don’t need to invest in resources separately.

Conclusion

Being responsible citizens, we should find ways not only to minimize food waste but also the most efficient & sustainable food waste management solutions.

Also, though the ways to minimize food waste can be different, composting is the only sustainable method for treating any organic waste.

February 7, 2022 0 comment

Food Waste Management

Is your Leftover Food really a Waste!

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Wherever there is food, there is bound to be leftover too in some quantity. The general household practice is to put the consumable leftover into the cool preserve of the refrigerator. On a commercial level, say at restaurants, hotels, and mess, they have big freezing boxes to store the unused food or if unusable, it goes into waste. However, by exercising a little caution and creativity, we can minimize the leftover from turning into waste. The situation is trickier when the food platter is half-eaten. Be it a home or eatery, such leftovers have no other place but to be thrown into a trash bin. Only good judgment at the time of serving can prevent this kind of wastage. For other situations, food waste may be checked with a little ingenuity.

Look at your leftover every day

An ideal way is to look into your freezer every morning for the leftovers, and plan the meal for the day so that either the leftovers are consumed first or used in preparations of the other dishes for the day. Surprisingly, this small practice saves money in tons over a period of time, and far more importantly it reduces the output of food waste to a great deal.

Learn to Reuse

Culinary experts have many tricks up their sleeve to transform refrigerated leftover food into mouthwatering delicacies. They can treat boiled rice into delicious rice pulao or jeera rice. Meticulous housewives know how to rework the leftover curry with fresh spices and condiments so that it becomes a new treat on your plate the next morning at breakfast. Even leftover bread crumbs and dry vegetables can be cooked together by expert hands to create a new flavor.

Weekly leftover day

Every household should make it a practice to allocate a day every week for cleaning up their refrigerators. Even those, who have little time to experiment with food, can simply empty their refrigerator of the leftover, heat or recook it and eat it. Not only will this practice relieve your overstuffed fridge, but it will also help dispose of the leftover in the most suitable manner.

A stitch in time saves nine

So it is more of a habit and attitude which needs to be changed if we want to protect leftovers from becoming food waste. Once the mind is set to use and consume leftovers, we can easily devise ways to deal with them. Leftovers are a regular phenomenon and we can’t wish them away. Being a perishable commodity, it is bound to be a waste if not reused in time. But what uses is culinary expertise and various kitchen gadgets if we have to bear with the losses incurred by throwing away leftovers into the waste bins?

January 2, 2021 0 comment

Food Waste Management

How to convert Vegetable Waste into Compost?

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The average amount of waste produced by a single household in a year is approximately 1000 kg of which only 30% of the total waste is recycled, as per the studies by the Swachh Bharat Urban ministry. The rest of the waste is either processed by the municipality or thrown out in the water bodies or at landfill sites. But, if the people across the world, let alone India, segregate, recycle and compost the waste at their hands, can reduce the waste from a whopping 1000 kg to a minimal 100 kg per year, which can be recycled by the municipality, and also not have a negative impact on our environment.

The people need to change the ingrained habit related to waste management and become a proud members of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan by learning the easy way of decomposing everyday kitchen waste into a rich soil known as compost. Here are the steps that one must follow to turn their garbage into nutritional manure:

Step 1: Find your composting spot. While you can choose to compost at any location in the house- inside or outside, it is necessary that you pick a place, be it your kitchen, balcony, terrace, or any other place.

Step 2: Segregate your waste. This is one of the most important steps in the process of composting. You must identify waste into 3 categories-

1) Edible waste such as fruits and vegetable peels, wasted cooked food,

2) Dry waste such as dry leaves, newspaper chunks, and decomposable packaging material, and

3) non-biodegradable waste such as plastic/foam packaging, metal cans, glass, etc. While you can re-use the 3rd category products as per your needs/requirements, the rest waste must be kept in 2 different containers with a tightly closed lid to avoid any infiltration of bugs, flies, or worms.

Step 3: Build your composting bin. Once you’ve segregated the waste, it is your turn to build the container in which all the composting will take place. You can use any kind of container from a bucket to a big basket or it will work even in a garden pot. You then need to drill down 4-5 holes around the container at different levels so as to allow proper aeration for the composting process.

Step 4: Start with the composting process. In your composting bin, add a layer of newspaper as a base to avoid any spill and a layer of soil at the bottom before beginning. To maintain healthy compost, you need to ensure that there is an equal amount of dry and wet waste in the bin. To do so, you can add even and alternate layers of dry and wet waste. You need to add soil once every week, and also to fasten the process, you can add some semi-composted soil to the fresh batch.

Step 5: Dos & Don’ts to manage your compost. You can add extra newspaper waste or also make additional holes when your compost smells due to an imbalance of waste in the bin. You can also sprinkle some water if the compost turns too dry, and give the pile of waste a quick turn using a spade for aeration to allow the waste to decompose successfully. Your compost will get ready within 8-10 weeks and will be okay to use in your garden or potted plants.

While you can choose to decompose your waste at home, you can also choose to decompose large waste in GoClean machines designed by Clean India Ventures. The machines are designed to convert mixed organic waste into compost within 24-48 hours. The machine offers a path-breaking technology that allows enables users in proper kitchen waste management process, temple waste management, or horticulture waste management into Organic Compost and Liquid Fuel.

December 22, 2020 0 comment

Food Waste Management

Food Waste Management Solutions in India: Measures you can take

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Emerging food waste management solutions

‘Reduce FOOD WASTAGE, Start COMPOSTING’

Coronavirus pandemic has brought about a major shift in how we people do things. A complete lockdown has made people think about their choices and preferences and how to change them to be able to survive and thrive through this life-altering time. As we continue to live at home, we as the citizens of the world should not put further pressure on the already ongoing crisis, and start taking care of the things that can be managed by us by just going that extra mile. Our steps towards managing our mixed organic waste at home and taking these steps towards food waste management solutions can fix our nation a little. So, we at Clean India Ventures urge you to bring the following measures into practice:

Read Also: What is an Organic Waste Composter?

1. Buy Only What You Need: It is the best and the first step towards controlling waste produced at home, restaurant, or any kitchen. Spending on unrequired stuff will only lead to things getting expired and ending up in the dustbin. So, ask yourself while you are planning to purchase the item- Do I need it today or within this week?

2. Practice First In, First Out: Whenever you buy new stocks of food- perishable or non-perishable, first finish or use the stuff that has been bought first so that it does not get rotten. Everyone must make First In & First Out an integral part of their consumption pattern & choices to not let go waste the leftovers in the fridge.

3. Prepare a Grocery List: While you are planning to go to a grocery store to buy weekly required items, just make a list. Impulsive buyers should always try to stick to the list, firstly to not waste food, and secondly to save a lot of money.

4. Donate Surplus Food: In India, millions of poor people go to sleep at night with an empty stomach. If you have surplus food – left over from the day or night, you must feed the hungry. Instead of throwing away which will only further pollute the environment, you can do it for inner peace and make the world a better place to live in for everyone. If you do not have any needy person living near your area, you can drop off the surplus food at the nearby shelter or feed the street animals.

5. Compost Food Waste: If you adopt food waste management India solutions that has been mentioned above, measures at home or anywhere food is bought and consumed, then you already are managing half of the waste problem. But, if you still are producing organic food waste, then you must start composting instead of throwing the leftovers away in the bin. For some, it can be a complex process, but if you get a hold of it- you can just go green and reduce a lot of landfill waste.

Read Also: Waste Management Solutions and its techniques

Clean India Ventures is endeavored to make the world green, organic, and wastage-free. We have designed a complete food waste management solutions that converts mixed organic waste, horticulture waste, kitchen waste, temple waste, and more into organic manure. The machine can convert approximately 1000 Kg of waste in 24-48 hours. If installed strategically, the machine is capable of controlling the society waste problem with the support of semi-skilled labour required for segregation.

December 22, 2020 0 comment