| Dear
EarthTalk: I work at a fast food place and I am appalled
by the amount of unpurchased food we throw away. The boss
says we can’t give it away for legal reasons. Where
can I turn for help on this, so the food could instead go
to people in need?
-- Ryan Jones,
Richland, WA
| |
Many
U.S. food businesses will not donate excess food to
those in need due to liability concerns. However,
it is an unfounded fear because laws in all 50 states
protect food donors from civil and criminal liability
for good faith donations of 'apparently wholesome
food.
© Brand X Pictures |
Many
restaurants, fast food or otherwise, are hesitant to donate
unused food due to concerns about liability if people get
sick after eating it—especially because once any such
food is out of the restaurant’s hands, who knows how
long it might be before it is served again. But whether
these restaurants know it or not, they cannot be held liable
for food donated to organizations, and sometimes all it
might take to change company policy would be a little advocacy
from concerned employees.
A 1995 survey
found that over 80 percent of food businesses in the U.S.
did not donate excess food due to liability concerns. In
response, Congress passed the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan
Act, which releases restaurants and other food organizations
from liability associated with the donation of food waste
to nonprofits assisting individuals in need. The Act protects
donors in all 50 states from civil and criminal liability
for good faith donations of “apparently wholesome food”—defined
as meeting “all quality and labeling standards imposed
by Federal, State and local laws and regulations even though
the food may not be readily marketable due to appearance,
age, freshness, grade, size, surplus or other condition.”
While homeless
shelters, elder care organizations and boys and girls clubs
are frequent beneficiaries of food donations, the most common
recipients are food banks and food rescue programs. Food
banks, according to California’s CalRecycle website,
“collect food from a variety of sources, save the food
in a warehouse, then distribute it to hungry families and
individuals through local human service agencies.”
They usually collect less perishable items like canned goods,
which can be stored and used any time. In contrast, food
rescue programs typically trade in perishable and prepared
foods, distributing it to agencies that feed hungry people,
usually later that same day. Mama’s Health, a leading
health education website, maintains an extensive free database
of food banks and food rescue programs state-by-state.
Unused or even
partially eaten food waste can also be utilized even if
it’s not edible by human standards. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture approves of food businesses giving or selling
food waste to local farmers for use in composting or as
animal feed. If such food contains or has come into contact
with meat, it should be boiled for 30 minutes to reduce
the risk of bacterial infections in the animals that eat
it. Many states have complementary laws on the books regulating
the donation of food waste at the local level.
Many cities and
town are now expanding curbside pickup programs to include
kitchen scraps and yard waste and then diverting the food
waste into profitable compost. Still, some 6.7 percent of
the solid waste going into landfills consists of food discards,
reports the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention
and Environmental Assistance. Diverting food waste to feed
hungry people or for animal feed or compost is a winning
scenario for all concerned parties as it not only provides
relief to overburdened landfills but also helps meet social
welfare, agricultural and environmental needs. Also, those
restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses that donate
food will likely reap the additional reward of saving money
on their actual waste removal bill as their trash bins and
dumpsters won’t be filling up quite so fast.
CONTACTS:
CalRecycle;
Mama’s
Health; North
Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental
Assistance.
Dear EarthTalk:
I am looking for a small, modular home to put on a piece
of vacation property. What’s available that could meet
my needs and be easier on the environment than building
a traditional house from scratch?
-- Rob Sherman,
Minneapolis, MN
| |
Self-contained
modular homes that can be partially or even fully
fabricated in advance are now all the rage among green
architects and those committed to more sustainable
living. Pictured: the exterior and interior of a modular
home from the Latvian firm Esclice.
© Esclice |
First utilized
by relief and aid missions around the world to house workers
or refugees, self-contained modular homes that can be partially
or even fully fabricated in advance are now all the rage
among green architects and those committed to more sustainable
living—and they’re beginning to pop all across
North America and beyond, mostly for use as guest houses
and vacation cabins. The benefits of such homes versus their
larger traditional counterparts are many. In theory, prefabrication
generates less waste, uses less energy, and provides more
opportunities for the incorporation of greener construction
methods and technologies. Most such buildings are also less
demanding on the home site of choice.
One of the leaders
in this fast-growing sector of residential construction
is Toronto’s Sustain Design Studio, which has been
building on its miniHome concept for almost a decade. The
firm’s miniHomes range from single- to double-wide
sizes and can fit into trailer parks or small urban lots
accordingly, but are also optimized for off-grid self-sufficiency
in wide open or wilderness areas. The buildings, which are
mostly prefabricated at Sustain’s Toronto build facility,
combine energy efficient systems with beautiful finishes
that make owners feel like they are indulging yet remaining
true to their green ideals.
Sustain’s
California miniHome, for example, comes complete with all
millwork, cabinets, plumbing fixtures and appliances, as
well as high efficiency lighting circuits, plug-and-play
connections to renewable power sources, sustainably sourced
woods, and a built-in HVAC/water system that generates 20
times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a conventional
home—all for under $150,000.
Another player
is the Latvian firm Esclice, whose buildings can be installed
on-site by two workers in two hours once foundation posts,
water and wastewater hook-ups and electricity are in place.
Other design studios building similar homes include Quikhouse,
Zerocabin, Method Homes and Stem Design Works.
Of course, potential
buyers should keep in mind that a home’s construction
is just a fraction of its life-cycle carbon footprint—small
pre-fab houses are built by people who also drive to work,
watch TV and sometimes take long showers—plus, producing
and shipping steel, concrete and other building materials
are the major drivers behind any building’s carbon
and energy footprint, wherever it’s manufactured.
Bearing that
in mind, Seattle-based HyBrid Architecture has come up with
an interesting slice on the sustainable small home idea:
“cargotecture,” which describes the buildings
it creates out of empty ISO shipping containers (those large
boxes used for long-distance international shipping that
one sees stacked atop giant cargo ships). Since many of
these containers make just one-way trips from China, HyBrid
has a lot of raw material to choose from. A single 8’
x 20’ container yields 160 square feet of living space,
and the structures can be placed side-by-side or stacked
up to eight high for more interior square footage. And while
no one wants to live in a shipping container, HyBrid cuts
doors and windows out of them and finishes them outside
so that they look like modern yet nevertheless somewhat
traditional buildings.
CONTACTS:
Sustain;
Esclice;
Quikhouse;
Stem
Design Works; Zerocabin;
Method
Homes; HyBrid
Architecture. |
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