Waste

International Conference on Food Loss and Waste to be held in Jinan from Sept. 9 to 11

Food loss and waste has been identified as a shared challenge of the international community. While seeking solutions to this issue, the world continues to suffer from the impact of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and faces frequent extreme natural disasters caused by climate change. In this context, the holding of an international conference on food loss and waste was proposed.

According to Li Meng, vice governor of Shandong province, the conference will be held both online and on site, with an on-site visit activity held in the morning of September 10 and the opening ceremony of the conference held in the afternoon, inviting relevant leaders and representatives of countries and international organizations to give a speech. Three thematic forums are scheduled to be held on September 11 focusing respectively on reducing food loss in production, reducing post-harvest food loss, and reducing food waste in consumption. It is expected that “Jinan Initiative on International Food Loss and Waste” will be released during the conference, and Shandong Provincial Action on Food Loss and Waste will be launched.

The conference will be addressed online by the agricultural ministers of Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Indonesia, and other G20 member states, the special envoy of the United Nations Food Systems Summit, the director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The conference will be attended by ambassadors to China from 15 countries.

SOURCE Information Office of the People’s Government of Shandong Province

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Diverting Central Florida‘s food waste grows from one-man mission to team effort

ORLANDO, Fla. – One man with a truck and a pitchfork — that’s how Charlie Pioli described O-Town Compost when he started the business a little more than a year and a half ago. Now, he has a team of workers and a workspace in an Orlando warehouse.

O-Town Compost is a subscription service where Pioli and his team give customers a bucket lined with a compostable bag. The customers then fill that bucket with their food and organic waste. O-Town Compost collects the bucket for composting and leaves a fresh bucket in its place. Twice per year, the company delivers a 20-pound bucket of compost, which Pioli calls “black gold,” back to their customers.

Finished compost, inside a recycled Publix frosting container, ready to be delivered to O-Town customers (Copyright 2021 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)

“We have one composting site out in Winter Garden that can handle a significant amount — may be eight tons of food waste per week. And then we have a composting site being constructed on the 4Roots Farm Campus and that also can handle a similar volume,” Pioli said.

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Part of O-Town Compost’s growth comes from Pioli’s partnership with John Rivers and his 4Roots nonprofit. Pioli and Rivers met through a business accelerator program at Rollins College, which the composter enrolled in during the pandemic. Rivers served as a mentor to Pioli. The warehouse the O-Town Compost now operates

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Trending: Could Food Waste Be the Future of Fashion?

A recent study analyzes agricultural waste streams in Asia and charts a roadmap for establishing alternative textile value streams at scale; while Lenzing puts this into practice with a lyocell fiber made from orange pulp and wood
fibers.

Ag waste-based textiles a sustainable fashion solution poised for growth


A farmer gathers rice straw | Image credit: DoDo Phanthamaly/Pexels

As the circular apparel market is projected to reach $77
billion
in the next five years and new circular textile
innovations
seem to pop up weekly, a recent study shows that there are enough usable
agricultural residue streams from South and Southeast Asia alone for
widescale production of upcycled natural fiber textiles.

Spinning Future
Threads
— a joint report from the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the World
Resources Institute (WRI) and Wageningen University and Research
(WUR), commissioned by the Laudes Foundation — analyzed large quantities
of agricultural residues in eight countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia,
India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and
Vietnam. The research focused on South and Southeast Asia, because these
regions are known for both their production of crop waste and textiles.

As the report points out, current textile production processes have disastrous
effects on the environment. More than 60 percent of fibers used in apparel are
oil-based and place a burden on natural resources due to unchecked,
unsustainable production. Similarly, natural fibers such as conventional
cotton
— the second-most widely used textile fiber — rely on intensive agrochemical

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