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Just in time for Thanksgiving Day: Food waste webpage with tips makes debut
November 23, 2021
Holiday time means people are cooking more at home. And more cooking means more leftovers and food scraps. That "waste" could be used with some smart meal planning or composted instead of thrown in the trash where it's bound for a landfill to contribute to the production of greenhouse gases.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has unveiled a new webpage to help people prevent and divert food waste to its highest and best use.
Aaron Hiday, EGLE's statewide Composting Coordinator, notes that an estimated one-third of all the food produced in the world goes to waste. That means either these products never leave the farm, get lost or spoiled during distribution, or are thrown away once purchased.
Reducing food waste can mean saving money, feeding more people and animals, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by keeping food waste out of landfills. That effort will help Michigan reach its goal to be carbon neutral by 2050.
EGLE's new Food Waste webpage provides more information and offers tips for individuals, homeowners, communities, agriculture and manufacturing, commercial businesses and landfills. Check out the new resources at Michigan.gov/FoodWaste and Michigan.gov/EGLECompost.
Caption: Food recovery hierarchy.
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