Each day people around the world throw away a staggering amount of food – by some accounts, almost half of all food produced winds up in the trash. The German website foodsharing.de aims to fight this statistic by allowing people to trade or give away food that would otherwise go to waste. Not only does the site keep food out of the landfill; it also helps out those in need. Brilliant!

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Post tags: eliminating waste, Excess food sharing, Food sharing, Food sharing website, food solutions, food waste, foodsharing, German food sharing, preventing food waste

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Post tags: aid organization, Armenian Family, Azerbaijani Family, Charity, English Family, Environment, Ethiopian family, food politics, food waste, hunger, injustice, News, non-profit organization, obesity, Oxfam America, oxfam food photos, Poverty, seven photos of what seven families eat, Sri Lankan family, Tajik Family

It’s not unusual for chefs to resort to highly bizarre ingredients in an effort to provide a unique, avant garde dining experience, but one French restaurant in Japan has dug deep—literally—to create a menu entirely based on one single ingredient: dirt. From dirt soup to dirt ice cream, Chef Toshio Tanabe is pulling in the big bucks with the sediment-filled, earthy menu at Ne Quittez Pas (roughly translated: please don’t leave).

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Post tags: coffee ground, compost, Dirt Food, Dirt Restaurant, food waste, food waste use, French Restuarant, Ne Quittez Pas, Strange Ingredients, sustainable food, Toshio Tanabe, unusual food, weird food, weird ingredients

Researchers at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) recently found that between 30 to 50 percent of all food produced – or up to two billion tons – is thrown away each year. The UK-based group claims that over-cautious sell by dates, buy one get one free deals and the western obsession with fruit and vegetables that look perfect are among the culprits of this colossal waste of not only food, but also the water, energy and land required to produce it, The Guardian reports. At the same time, the IME points out that by 2075, there will be nine and a half billion people on the planet – or 2.5 billion more people to feed.

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Post tags: Environment, food waste, Global Food; Waste Not, IME, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, News, population, renewable energy, Want Not, water issues, world hunger

As a species, we waste an amazing amount of food. According to Natural Resources Defense Council, people chuck an incredible 40% of all food we produce. Dumpster divers have long sought to live off of the excess of our inefficient system, scrounging for edibles amongst the trash bin. Going one step further, some enterprising cooks and activists from Austria have created a reality TV show dedicated to cooking exclusively from the trash called “Waste Cooking“.


Read the rest of ‘Waste Cooking’ is a Reality TV Show That Makes Delicious Dishes From Discarded Food

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Post tags: Austria, compost, david gross, days in trash, dumpster diver, food, food waste, freegan, Natural Resources Defense Council, okto, organic waste, reality tv, refuse, tobias judmaier, united states, waste cooking

The Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina has deployed 1.9 million worms to turn a boatload of organic waste into fertilizer. Every day the airport housekeeping department headed by Bob Lucas processes 2.5 tons of waste, including plastic, clothing, aluminum and food tossed out by rushed passengers, NPR reports. The recyclables are pulled out from the pile and sold and the organic waste is transferred to a giant composting bin where the army of red wigglers go to work.

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Post tags: Charlotte Douglas International Airport, composting, divert waste from the landfill, Environment, fertilizer, food waste, News, north carolina, recyclables, recycling, Recycling initiatives, red wigglers, usa

Improving food security and availability is increasingly important as temperatures continue to rise, the population continues to grow and water becomes more precious. The focus often falls on techniques to increase crop yield or expand land use, but a recent study in the journal Science of the Total Environment focuses on a different factor: food waste. The study found that if we could just reduce food loss in the production chain by 50%, we could feed another one billion people with no other changes to food production.

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Post tags: Fertilizer use, food production, food supply, food waste, Global Food Chain, hunger, non-renewable resources, Water Resources, water use

Every day, millions of pounds of food are sent to landfills around the world, but one fashion designer has come up with a clever way to remove some of that uneaten food from the waste stream. London-based designer Hoyan IP turns leftover bits of food into belt buckles, buttons, and other useful accessories. The “Bio-Trimmings” line raises awareness about global food waste issues while doing its part to prevent food waste from entering landfills.

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Post tags: bio-trimmings, eco-fashion, food waste, green fashion, Hoyan IP, recycled food waste, sustainable fashions

As Halloween approaches, it’s time to start carving jack o’ lanterns and concocting fabulous costumes. And as we do so, it’s worth remembering why it’s always best to create DIY costumes with materials found around the house or in thrift stores, and use the innards of those pumpkins to cook delicious seasonal treats. The infographic below shows how much waste is generated each year in the UK while celebrating annual holidays like Easter, Halloween, Valentines Day and Christmas. See the full graphic after the jump!

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

Read the rest of INFOGRAPHIC: How Much Waste Is Generated in the UK by Major Holidays?

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Post tags: christmas card, christmas toys, easter eggs, food waste, holiday celebrations, holiday wastage, paper recycling, pumpkins halloween, Recycled Materials, valentines day cards

Lord Smith, the chairman for the Environment Agency in the UK, paid a visit to Europe’s largest Coca-Cola plant this week, and on his tour he underlined the importance of green growth. Speaking about the business merits of green growth, Lord Smith said that the green business practices of the food and drink sector have been one of the “unsung successes” of environmental regulation, furthermore showing how such regulations are helping the UK economy.

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Post tags: Environment, environment agency, environmental regulation, food and drink sector, food waste, green business, green growth, lord smith, water waste

Over the past year, Starbucks has launched a range of initiatives to reduce their footprint, and now in order to tackle their share of the 1.3 billion tons of food that is put into landfills worldwide each year, the coffee giant is working with biorefinery scientists to transform food waste from their stores into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergents and a host of other everyday products.

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Post tags: bio-plastics, biorefinery, coffee giant, food waste, landfills, Recycled Materials, starbucks, starbucks hong kong

Food waste is a serious problem in America – in 2010 alone the US threw away 33 million tons of food! What is even more shocking is that according to the EPA, food waste accounts for almost 14% of the total municipal solid waste stream, of which less than 3% is recycled. Considering the number of people starving in the country, it is an outrage – and this is why a team of Arizona State University students decided to do something about it. They have created an app called FlashFood that connects those with extra food to those in need of food – before it hits the dumpster.

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Post tags: Arizona State University, epa, flashfood, flashfood app, food refuge, food waste, microsoft, social media

Food waste has long been a problem, but it seems a particular foodstuff is more harmful than others. According to a team from Edinburgh University, wasted milk that is poured down the drain can create a carbon footprint that is equivalent to the exhaust fumes of 20,000 cars per year.

Read the rest of Got Milk? Wasted Milk Creates the Equivalent Emissions of 20,000 Cars Annually

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Post tags: food waste, food waste inefficient farming, global waste, greenhouse gases, meat industry emissions, milk waste, milk waste emissions, uk emissions, uk food emissions, university of edinburgh milk waste

Studio Rygalik estimates that all the food thrown away in Vienna could easily feed half the population of the Austrian city of Graz. With this in mind, the studio created a series of furniture pieces — dubbed “Baguette Tables” — made entirely from sturdy, old bread. Designed to raise awareness about food waste, the Warsaw-based creative’s work is anything but stale.

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Post tags: "green furniture", Art, Baguette Tables, bread, bread furniture, food, food waste, graz, old food, Polish design, recycling / compost, Studio Rygalik, vienna, Vienna Design Week, warsaw

A report issued yesterday charges that $500 million of American food assistance — a large part of our foreign policy — is wasted annually due to red tape and American agribusiness profit. According to Oxfam America and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), an additional 17 million hungry people could have been fed by U.S. food assistance programs in 2010, alone. This is aid that would have been offered at no extra cost to taxpayers.

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Post tags: agribusiness, American Jewish World Service, developing countries, Eric Munoz, farming subsidies, food waste, foreign food assistance, local food, Oxfam America, us food assistance, us foreign policy

Go Halfsies is a brilliant social initiative in Texas that solves the tripartite problem of obesity, food waste, and hunger in one fell swoop. When diners visit participating restaurants in Austin, they have the option of signing up for “halfsies”. In so doing, they will pay full price for a meal but receive only half the portion and the other half will be donated to people in the city who do not have enough money to purchase food. Since so many restaurants serve portions that are way larger than we actually need, it often happens that leftover food goes into the rubbish bin – where it becomes ineligible for donation. Halfsies solves that dilemma before it even happens by helping diners make good health decisions before they see the food on their plate.

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Post tags: austin, eco design, food portions, food waste, Go Halfsies, green design, halfsies, hunger, NYC, obesity, sustainable design

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Post tags: eat me first box, eco design, food waste, fridge box, fridge triage, green design, how to make an eat me first fridge box, how to save money on groceries, how to stop wasting food, refrigerator box, stop wasting food, sustainable design

Food waste is a global problem, but in Sweden it is particularly prevalent – it is estimated that one fifth of all food is thrown away. This sparked an idea for the farmers’ cooperative Lantmannen, which has launched a dating website for singles interested in meeting up to create and share dishes made up from leftovers for the greenest possible first date.

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Post tags: farmers cooperative Lantmannen, food recycling, food waste, Lantmannen dating, Lantmannen food waste, Lantmannen food waste dating, Lantmannen social media, Lantmannen website, recycling, sweden food waste

In 2009, more than 30 million tons of food was dumped into landfills, making food the most abundant material there by far. This amounts to roughly 200 pounds a year for every single individual in the United States. Throwing away food means we’re losing money, but more importantly we’re also creating unnecessary waste and greatly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. To curb this nationwide problem, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute are launching a mega-campaign that aims to increase donations to food banks and composting practices in order to decrease the amount of food sent to landfills.

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Post tags: amount of food in landfills, amount of food wasted in america, composting, environmental protection agency, epa, epa food waste, food composting, food industry, food marketing institute, food waste, grocery manufacturers alliance, war against food waste

We’re not sure where to start with this one. The egregious waste of food? The waste of labor? Or the bizarre idolization of Pippa Middleton? Artist Laura Hadland recently created massive portrait of the now world-famous bridesmaid, Pippa. Taking 15,000 crumpets, a 100 jars of spread (including jams and Marmite) and more than a dozen helpers, the artist and her team worked tirelessly for 24 hours to create a collage of breakfast crumpets that measures a sizable 43 feet by 66 feet — the crumpets themselves weighed more than a ton! Hadland chose Pippa as her subject after the Kate’s little sis topped a Beefeater Grill poll looking for the celebrity Britons would most like to ‘wake up to breakfast with’. We just hope that all these crumpets were eventually consumed by someone and not just tossed out.

Via Daily Mail

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Post tags: crumpet art, food art, food waste, Kate Middleton, Laura Hadland, pippa middleton, pippa middleton crumpet portrait, pippa middleton portrait, wasting food