With as much as 40% of food produced worldwide ending up as waste, can we look to cows to provide a way to bring it back into the food chain?
Most food waste in the US is disposed of in landfill – about 33 million tons. As well as the wasted CO2 emissions incurred in its production, there are those caused by its disposal. Wasted food has a double-hit for the environment.
So how do we avoid sending it to landfill? There are a number of ways. It can be turned into biofuel or fertiliser, and perhaps most efficiently, animal feed.
Animal feed is arguably the most efficient way because it turns food waste into protein-rich food with very low infrastructure costs.
According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 30% of what’s fed to livestock worldwide is already either waste from food supply chains or by-products from growing and processing food.
The US already manages to send 10% of surplus food to feed animals and most of this comes from manufacturers or grocery stores. But that still leaves 14.7 million tons of food waste that could be safely used for animal feed. And this is mostly sent to landfill which produces methane.
The WWF says all food-waste-to-feed ingredient production had positive impact on land use – using waste options could help to avoid additional land conversion for growing feed crops.
Recent estimates state the production, transportation and rotting of wasted food contributes up to 10% of global greenhouse gasses. All for no reason. The sooner this waste is cut or repurposed, the better for us AND the planet.
Think small is where RLSD takes a look at some of the smaller companies around the world that we think are doing the right thing with leather. This is a greenwashing free zone – no matter what they produce, sustainability is at the heart of what they do.
Taiwan Region’s third annual Real Leather. Stay Different. Student Design Competition has completed its first round of judging after receiving 460 entries from students from 18 colleges and universities.
We all know about plastic pollution—the microplastics that are shed and the general waste caused. And we know how difficult it is to recycle a product that takes 500 years to biodegrade. But the harm plastics do starts’ even before they are made.
Meet Celina Smith, a 24-year old Fashion Design student at USW and this year’s ‘Accessory’ category winner with her unique leather bag.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Stay different with our monthly roundup, which includes the latest on leather fashion and sustainable features, competition news and more.
