Can a Grocery Store Really Create Zero Waste? This One Can.
Detailing the waste (or lack thereof) from half a year of business (Image: in.gredients)
After six months in business, Austin, TX’s innovative grocer, in.gredients, is taking stock of its progress. In a detailed infographic, the TakePart Tastemaker cites some impressive numbers in terms of local ingredient-sourcing and food production, impressive building-efficiency stats, and other laudable numbers.
But here’s what really sticks out: The store is sending less than one pound of garbage to the landfill each month. Furthermore, in.gredients hasn’t sent any food waste to the landfill since it opened.
Zero pounds.
Food Waste Has Got to Stop! |
According to the World Food Programme, there are 870 million undernourished people worldwide, and yet Americans throw out almost 50% of their food.
According to the World Food Programme, there are 870 million undernourished people worldwide, and yet Americans throw out almost 50% of their food.
This wasted food equals precious water and natural resources thrown away. Take the pledge below and your simple actions can save thousands of pounds of food each year!
WATCH:
I pledge to take the following steps to stop wasting food:
- Shop smarter: Create a meal plan at the beginning of the week and stick to it. Go the grocery store more frequently and buy less when you do.
- Keep those left overs: Don’t forget to whip out the Tupperware after a meal or bring a doggy bag home from a dinner out.
- Check your portions: Don't take more food than you can eat. And when you have guests over, let them serve themselves.
- Be creative: Create new dishes from leftovers.
- Donate: Find a local food bank to donate your non-perishables.
You can also find more information on how to cut down on food waste on TakePart.com.
Even without context, that’s an impressive statistic. If you aren’t being careful, you could easily toss a pound of food in the trash just by prepping dinner. And when you consider food retailers’ lousy track record on this front, the significance of in.gredients’ achievement become even more clear: The industry’s in-store food losses amounted to 43 billion pounds in 2008, according to a 2012 report from the National Resources Defense Council. That’s equivalent to ten percent of the total retail food supply.
“There’s no waste in nature. Waste is a human invention,” reads the store’s “Ethos” page. So in that sense, in.gredients is working to map nature onto a retail model. Zero packaging and zero waste is the ultimate goal for the shop, and six months in, it appears to be quickly moving in that direction.
As a consultant told the NRDC, approximately one in seven truckloads of perishable goods headed for supermarkets is thrown away. Clearly, a new, wasteless model would be a welcome development.
Related stories on TakePart:
• Americans Throw Away Almost Half of All Food, Waste $165 Billion
• The U.N. Wants Clean Plates and Less Food Waste
• Should We Be Eating More ‘Expired’ Foods? A Former Trader Joe’s Exec. Thinks So
Willy Blackmore is the food editor at TakePart. He has also written about food, art, and agriculture for such publications as TastingTable, Los Angeles Magazine, The Awl, GOOD, LA Weekly, The New Inquiry, and BlackBook. Email Willy | TakePart.com
