Subject: Re: food waste

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 15:56:35 -0500 (EST)

In a message dated 10/30/97 5:37:47 PM, [email-masked] wrote:

>An excellent opportunity to observe food waste is the rear dumpster area of
>your local super- or hyper-market. At a nearby store, I notice there are
four
>large dumpsters two of which, in the course of an average day, will be
loaded
>with overage and cuttings/trimmings from produce alone. 
>
>It is possible to donate such "waste" to food banks and other organizations
>dedicated to using what is still usable to feed people who probably can't
>afford the local market's prices. 
>
>Asking both ends of that possibility, the markets and the organizations,
>about this wealth of waste put out daily from the markets was a bit of a
>comment on contemporary ways in which evasion of responsibility on one end
is
>matched, to a large degree, with impotence on the other.
>
>The supermarket produce manager whom I queried said that he would feel much
>better if he could indeed make his overage produce available. The
>organization I queried said they would delighted to pick it up. So why not?
>
>The supermarket produce manager said he had orders not to make the overage
>produce readily available because of insurance requirements that all
>foodstuffs sold or put into food channels be certified as edible--which is
>why the overage produce is dumped.
>
>The organization said that their budget had been chopped to the point where
>they had to give up four of their five collection trucks.
>
>Savage capitalism wins. Some way has to be found to trim populations of
>undesirables. Why not starve them to death especially if they are out of
>sight and out of mind.
>
>Meanwhile, the dumptster divers are having a small feast.
>
>And, if you are interested in a major dumpster of worms, spend some time
>looking into atttempts to create larger scale composting organizations which
>could or would collect from the food service and marketing industries to
>compost.
>
>I am old enough to remember that household food waste garbage was collected
>twice or three times a weeks to take to the county farm to feed the pigs.
>Then someone invented the pigs in the sinks which raise conniption with
sewer
>systems and such. 
>Milo Clark
>Berkeley CA USA

Milo & Friends:

Well in the East supermarkets have long since moved toward using compacters
which cannot be entered to dispose of wastes, presumably for liability
reasons.  Also, scroungers can be, well I don't want to offend pigs--slobs, I
guess.

In one case, i was picking up all vegetable wastes from one supermarket in
Northamton Massachusetts, which provided most of my overwintering steer's
diet.  I alluded to this previously.  I was upfront, talked to the people,
and they were thrilled that the material was being used.  However some
---hole started sneaking stakes into boxes of lettuce leaves which his buddy
then picked up for his "rabbits."  End of source.  Instead of prosecuting the
theif, the supermarket took the path of least resistance and stopped making
the waste available.  Sigh.

Another time, and this was quite recently in Georgia, which is still as
humane as much of the country was 30 years ago.  The supermarket in question
had a dumpster with bread, lettuce leaves and other yummy stuff for our
rabbits (as renters you can always get away with rabbits).  But other people
who visited the dumpster made a mess.  The manager came out and several times
that I know about and explained that he couldn't make the stuff available if
people took things they didn't want out of the dumpsters, to get at the
goodies, and didn't pick up after.  Well I started picking up after other
people, but we only hit this dumpster about every other week as it wasn't
often on our route.  One day there was a padlock on the bin.  End of source.
 In this case the Manager has gone out of his way to try to let people know
what minimum courtesy he needed, but no dice.

A few times I  have had supermarket workers order me out of dumpsters.  I
refuse to leave until I get what is worth salvaging.  You don't own what you
throw away, in my view.  Nobody has tried to physically remove me (a relief,
I'm really a sissy hiding in a 6'1' body) and they haven't called the cops.
 One guy threatened to do that and I said fine, but only if they would really
press charges so we could discuss the waste in court where there would be
lots of reporters.  He didn't bother.  (I knew there would be lots of
reporters, because I worked for the local newspaper.)  

The other interesting thing about dumpsters is that very often you will find
the "recycled" plastic bags that you faithfully bring in and stuff in the
barrell in the front of the store dumped into the dumpster in the back of the
store.  Recycled my ass.  At least some stores just put out the barrels for
PR and throw out the bags instead of having them recycled.  

A key point to bear in mind when salvaging nutrients from the dumpster is
that most animals convert between 20 to 40 percent of what they eat and the
rest is manure. So you are really fertilizing your place.  Adding fertility
is a design responsibility--you need to have the animals in systems that can
absorb the added nutrient.  Generally, these are more extensive systems than
usually provided for the animals and you need to spend some of your feed
savings on fencing.  However it is a great way to build up your soil.

Composting something that can be eaten by animals is very, very wasteful in
my view.  There are several cycles that these materials can go through before
they are in a state to return to soil.  Yes, it works.  You can also
fertilize tomatoes with steaks and roasts.  The more you spin-out the
nutrient cycles, and the more interconnecting webs you design, the better use
you make of these materials that are no longer waste, but resource.  Also, in
the process, it is prudent to design systems that absorb and release nutrient
to compensate for the irregular flow from dumpsters, restaurants, and (my
personal favorite), school lunch programs.  I've worked out designs for such
considerations, and also predesigns to move animals into cities were food is
wasted in large quantity to sop it up and convert it to food, fiber, and
manure for urban gardens.  However that is more detail than I have time to go
into today.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  Next live training:  Paraguay, Sept. 1998. Internships
available. Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL
32192 USA  [email-masked]  

We don't have time to rush.