Recycling the Leftovers
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This past weekend the New York Times had a piece about recycling food waste from restaurants, college dining areas, and other businesses associated with food production. The article focused on efforts to reduce food waste through composting, or donating leftovers to food banks. Cities, such as Austin, Texas, and colleges, such as Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, are participating in programs where food waste is being recycled into compost for fertilizer. Dickinson is unique in that it owns and operates a college farm, where waste from dining services can be composted and used to fertilize crops (which are then used in the school cafeteria).
Using food waste for compost, or donating leftovers to food banks, can reduce the millions of tons of waste sent to American landfills each year from restaurants, households, and the food production industry.
Chesapeake Bay environment and water quality blog 