Focus on Food Waste: Donations Encouraged by New IL Law

The latest edition of the Illinois Environmental Council newsletter contained good news for those concerned with food waste reduction in K-12 schools and public agencies:

 

HB5530 was signed on July 15 and is immediately effective. This law prohibits schools and public agencies from signing contracts that restrict unused food from being donated to food pantries or soup kitchens.” (emphasis added)

 

Photo from USDA
Photo from USDA.

 

As mentioned in a previous post, federal law, in the form of the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, protects citizens, businesses, and institutions from liability when food items are donated in good faith. Despite the existence of this law, there is widespread lack of understanding related to the legality and liability associated with food donation, and it is not uncommon to encounter people who work with food who genuinely believe that food donation should thus be avoided.

 

Indeed, in a report from the Illinois Radio Network, Jen Walling, Executive Director of the Illinois Environmental Council, expressed surprise that public entities in Illinois would require encouragement to donate unused food to food banks, pantries or shelters. But her own interactions with food service workers illustrated a belief among them that food donation was “banned.”  Some of this confusion may stem from language in contracts with food service providers at the school or district level. So the new state legislation clarifies the legality of food donation, and encourages it, by preventing schools and public agencies from signing contracts with such restrictive language. This legislation touches upon economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainability by helping schools and agencies divert waste from landfill and thus save money in terms of waste hauling, by helping provide nutrition to community members struggling with food insecurity, and through avoidance of wasting resources embedded in the production of food, such as water and energy.

 

To learn more about food donation in schools, view the video and slides from the “Food Donation for Schools” webinar on ISTC’s Green Lunchroom Challenge web site, available at https://www.greenlunchroom.org/archivedWebinars.cfm. See also the presentation on “Using Zero Percent to Donate Surplus Food” from Raj Karmani, available at https://www.greenlunchroom.org/kickoffMaterials.cfm. The Green Lunchroom Challenge activity on establishing a food donation policy has some useful links to help find food banks and pantries in your area. For more ideas on how to reduce and prevent food waste at your school or organization, see https://www.greenlunchroom.org/activities.cfm.

Focus on Food Waste: Product Label Date Dilemma

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, up to 40% of food in the US goes uneaten. This astonishing figure carries even more impact when you consider that food production accounts for 10% of the total US energy budget, 50% of US land use, and 80% of our fresh water consumption. Additionally, according to Feeding America, in 2014 48.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households (including 32.8 million adults and 15.3 million children). Consider further that our discussion hasn’t yet ventured beyond our own country’s borders. The Rockefeller Foundation estimates that “one-third of the world’s available food either spoils or gets thrown away before it ever reaches a plate—that’s enough to feed everyone in the world for two months.”

 

A tag sealing a bag of hot dog buns displays a best before date of February 29.
A tag sealing a bag of hot dog buns displays a best before date of February 29. From original file by Bando26, CC BY-SA 3.0.

 

There are a multitude of reasons why food waste occurs along the entire supply chain from farm to kitchen, but one of the most confusing issues for consumers has been the lack of consistency and clarity surrounding dates printed on food packaging. We have all probably encountered at least one person who will not dare consume something beyond the “use by” or “sell by” date printed on its label for fear of food-borne illness. However, as the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service points out, these calendar dates are not actually associated with food safety. In fact, the only food product which is required by federal law to have a product date on its label is infant formula. And the “use-by” dates on formula packaging are there to ensure the product conveys the level of nutrition advertised on its label, and that the product’s consistency will still allow it to pass through an ordinary bottle nipple–not to prevent transmission of food-borne disease.

 

As stated on the USDA web site, the following types of “open” or printed calendar dates may appear on food labels. These dates are tied to peak quality, not food safety. And that level of quality is usually determined by a manufacturer or producer. Different manufacturers may have different ideas of what “peak quality” means.

  • “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale.
  • “Best if Used By (or Before)” date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
  • “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.

Additionally, “Closed or coded dates” may appear as packing numbers for use by the manufacturer, primarily on canned foods. These would not be recognizable to a consumer as a calendar date, and they’re used to help manufacturers with rotation of stock and identifying products in case of a recall.

 

The perception that food products older than those stamped dates might somehow no longer be wholesome is the reason why so much perfectly useful food ends up in dumpster and trash cans. It’s why your local supermarket might offer deep discounts on items which have a fast approaching date stamped on them, and why so many retailers and organizations hesitate to donate items to food banks and pantries, despite a federal law that protects them from liability if someone becomes ill after consumption of an item donated in good faith. That law is called the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act; you can read more about it, including the actual text of the legislation, on the Feeding America web site.

 

To be sure, food does go bad, and a smart consumer trusts his or her senses when it comes to such things. Simple cues, such as the smell, look, and feel of a foodstuff are much more informative about food safety than any calendar date stamped upon food packaging. The aforementioned USDA site includes some good guidelines related to actual safety. The Business Insider article “Expiration dates are bogus — here’s the best way to tell if a food’s gone bad,” also provides some useful tips. Other useful sites include StillTasty, EatByDate, and SaveTheFood.com.

 

In response to increased awareness related to food label date confusion, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine introduced a bill earlier this year aimed at creating a uniform national date labeling system, with an eye toward greater clarity for consumers and companies, as well as waste reduction. You can read the text of the proposed Food Date Labeling Act of 2016, and track its progress, on Congress.gov. See also “Consumer Perceptions of Date Labels: National Survey.”

 

To learn more about other food waste related issues, check out the Huffington Post’s Reclaim project. To raise awareness of food waste issues among students and help K-12 schools and districts reduce and prevent food waste, check out ISTC’s Green Lunchroom Challenge.

Illini Gadget Garage Closing Physical Location for Renovations, Hosting Pop-Up Clinics

This post originally appeared on the Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI) Blog.

 

The Illini Gadget Garage, a collaborative repair center for student and staff owned electronic devices, will be closing its physical location (INHS Storage Building 3) for the summer on Monday, July 11, to allow for renovations associated with making the site compliant with ADA requirements. Renovations should be complete prior to the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester, and there will be a grand opening of the site at that time. Be sure to check the new Illini Gadget Garage web site, as well as its Twitter and Facebook accounts for details of the grand opening later in the summer.

 

We appreciate the ‘test pilots” who have come in this summer to work with us on their devices! To continue to serve the campus community during the renovation process, we will host pop-up clinics at various locations until the physical location is open for the public. Pop-up clinics will continue, even after the physical location is open, to make it more convenient for the campus community to practice sustainability through electronic product stewardship.

 

Two pop-up clinics are scheduled at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC; 1 Hazelwood Drive in Champaign), in the Stephen J. Warner Conference room:

  • Monday, July 11, from noon to 5 pm
  • Monday, July 18, from noon to 5 pm (Note: a Sustainable Electronics Campus Consortium meeting will occur in the conference room from 1:30-2:30 PM; feel free to come early or stay after the meeting to work on your devices!)

If you plan to come to either of these clinics, we suggest you fill out our online diagnostic form ahead of time. This will allow volunteers to do some preliminary research on the problem you’re facing, and make use of your one-on-one time more efficient.

 

If your department, residence hall, or student organization would like to host a pop-up repair clinic, please fill out the “Host a Pop-Up Clinic” form to express your interest. We’ll be in touch to work out the details.

 

Students, faculty, and staff with any degree of technical skill–including none whatsoever–are invited to sign up as Illini Gadget Garage volunteers. We want to empower everyone to feel comfortable with the idea of troubleshooting and repairing the electronics they own, to keep them in service longer and thus, out of the waste stream. Even if you’ve never fixed anything before, you can be part of our process of coming together to solve problems. We also could use help with marketing, social media, arranging pop-up clinics, developing educational programs, and other tasks, so if this project intrigues you, come be part of it! Stop by one of the pop-up clinics, or fill out our contact form and we’ll be in touch.

Illinois Composting Policy Forum July 11 in Chicago

IFSC Policy forum information

 

Seven Generations Ahead, the Illinois Environmental Council and the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition (IFSC) invite you to participate in an Illinois Composting Policy Forum on July 11, 2016 from 1 to 3 PM at the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago, IL. This will be the first in a series of four forums exploring the potential policy solutions proposed in IFSC’s 2015 report, Food Scrap Composting Challenges and Solutions in Illinois.

 

The forum will provide updates on the composting policy and infrastructure work of the IFSC and the Illinois Environmental Council. Attendees will learn about states that have a Universal Recycling Law and the impact of these laws, and will participate in a deep dive discussion of the impact such a law would have in Illinois.

 

Register online at this link. Funding for this free forum is provided by the Searle Funds of the Chicago Community Trust.

 

For questions about this forum, please contact admin@sevengenerationsahead.org.

Zero Waste in Champaign County Illinois

Are you spring cleaning? Do you have old motor oil? What about all that craft supplies you never got around to making anything with? The Champaign-Urbana area offers more than just standard curbside recycling options. So don’t wait for the one day collections, many places take household hazardous waste and unwanted medicines year-round. Check out the wide selection of options for all your unwanted consumer items on the City of Urbana’s web page: “Where Do I Recycle It?” or on City of Champaign’s web page: “Where Do I Recycle It?” You can learn more about recycling in Illinois via the Illinois EPA’s 2010 report: “Waste and Recycling in Illinois: Illinois communities cope with waste in different ways” and their webpage: “Waste Management.”

 

Have a business and want to start a zero waste program?

Learn more about how ISTC’s team of professionals might help your organization approach zero waste by visiting our website to view our recent success stories. Then, sign up for a free site visit. There is no obligation on your part to work with us beyond the free initial visit, and that first conversation may reveal opportunities to achieve greater sustainability within your organization.

 

Have questions? Contact us at istc-zerowaste@illinois.edu.

 

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Illini Gadget Garage Summer 2016 Hours and Volunteer Opportunities

The Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI), a project of ISTC, is pleased to announce that the collaborative electronics repair center, the Illini Gadget Garage, will be open over the summer to assist “test pilots” with troubleshooting and repair for your small electronics and appliances with electronic components. Open hours for the summer are:

 

  • Tuesdays 11 AM – 2 PM
  • Wednesdays 5 PM – 8 PM
  • Fridays 12 PM – 3 PM

 

The Illini Gadget Garage is housed within the Illinois Natural History Survey Storage Building #3 (SB3); see this Google Map for directions.

 

Since SB3 is not yet ADA compliant, the space is open only so student staff and volunteers can work with “test pilots” –those who do not require accommodations for accessibility–so that they can gain experience with working with members of the public on troubleshooting and repair. If you require accommodation and would like to work with the Gadget Garage to repair a device, please email staff at illinigadgetgarage@gmail.com to arrange for an appointment in another accessible public space.

 

We will also be hosting “pop-up clinics” in accessible spaces around campus to better serve the community until our physical location has been renovated for accessibility. Be sure to follow the Gadget Garage on Facebook or Twitter to see announcements of pop-up clinics. If your department, RSO, or residence hall would like to host a pop-up clinic, please fill out our form to indicate your interest.

 

Whether you’re stopping by SB3 during open hours, or attending a pop-up clinic, you might want to take a few minutes to fill out our diagnostic form. This provides staff with some basic information about your device and the issues you’re experiencing, so they can do a little research ahead of time, hopefully making your one-on-one time more productive.

 

Whether you’re a student on campus for research or summer classes, or a faculty or staff member that enjoys tinkering, we hope you’ll consider volunteering with us! If you’re interested, fill out our contact form. If you’re technically inclined, your expertise can benefit others in our community! If you’re not at all technically inclined, but interested in sustainability and can help out with social media, networking, writing blogs or resource guides, etc., then you should also consider volunteering. The Gadget Garage is NOT just a project for techies! We want to empower everyone to feel comfortable with maintenance and repair of their devices, and to use and dispose of electronics more responsibly. So join us in this effort!

Tentative Illini Gadget Garage identifying mark

Calling All Parks! Get Your Green On

remain green and carry onISTC loves recycling. Last year our Zero Waste Program turned Forest Preserves of Cook County on to a great opportunity with the Keep America Beautiful / Dr. Pepper Snapple Park Recycling Infrastructure Grants. It was a nice boost to a Chicago parks program that had already made sustainability a high art form.

 

Keep America Beautiful is offering the grants again to parks, athletic fields, nature trails and public beaches. Hurry though! You need to apply by June 10.

 

Another fabulous KAB opportunty is their Anheuser-Busch Community Restoration Grants Program. When natural disasters affect public areas, this program can assist in restoration.

Celebrate International Compost Awareness Week

In the US, the beginning of May has people thinking of several celebrations, including Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, and even Star Wars Day (May the 4th, as in “May the Fourth Be With You”). But did you know the first week of May is also celebrated annually as International Compost Awareness Week?

 

Composting allows organic materials, such as food scraps and yard waste, to break down naturally into a nutrient rich resource that can be used in gardening and landscaping in place of commercially available fertilizers. Application of compost reduces erosion, and can help your soil retain water, reducing costs associated with watering and contributing to water conservation. Composting can also reduce waste hauling costs, as well as greenhouse gas emissions associated with the breakdown of organic materials in landfills in the absence of oxygen.

 

If you’d like to learn more about composting, check out the following resources:

 

If you’re a college or university student interested in pursuing research related to composting, check out the CCREF Young Investigator Scholarship.

Now There Is an ‘I’ in Green, Art, and Krannert

“Are you responsible for this?” asked a man hurrying by and pointing to a massive Block-I sculpture in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts lobby. “Great job!”

Architecture and engineering students Hursh Hazari and Nahid Akarm teamed up to create the great Block-I sculpture installed for Earth Week in the lobby at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Architecture and engineering students Hursh Hazari (left) and Nahid Akram (right) teamed up to create the great Block-I sculpture installed for Earth Week in the lobby at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Hursh Hazari and Nahid Akram, first-time artists of monumental found object sculpture, beamed and waved in acknowledgment.

The two are responsible for the Block-I shaped from campus’ own early spring supply of empty beverage bottles. The sculpture is an Earth Week gift of ISTC and the Student Sustainability Committee as an impossible-to-miss reminder of the importance of recycling or repurposing the mountains of waste we produce.

Nahid is in the first year of a master’s of architecture program. His designs for buildings are already built in his native Bangladesh. After completing his undergraduate training at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology he worked at an architectural firm for four years.

Hursh studied polymer science as an undergrad at Dehli Technological University in New Dehli, but his interests turned to renewable solar and wind energy, so he enrolled at the U of I to study power and energy systems. He plans to promote sustainable energy use in India, where unreliable power grids make grassroots wind and solar installations very popular.

Hursh Hazari is an engineering graduate student from India. Nahid Akarm is a graduate student in architecture from Bangladesh.
Hursh Hazari (left) is an engineering graduate student from India. Nahid Akram (right) is a graduate student in architecture from Bangladesh.

Both spotted the job as sculptors on campus’ virtual job board and saw in it work that advanced their professional interests. They needed all of the 20 oz beverage bottles they could sort at the campus Waste Transfer Station for their design. They were washed and disinfected at ISTC and, over the course of three weeks, they were fitted into their new educational configuration.

ISTC’s Zero Waste Illinois program is noting the metrics from the sculpture project as part of their ongoing campus building waste characterization project here at the U of I. ISTC is helping the University meet its Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) goals with waste audits of individual campus buildings – a big step toward becoming a zero waste campus.

The artwork is on display at Krannert through Saturday, April 23. More on the sculpture.

State Electronics Challenge Recognizes the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) as a 2016 Gold Winner


[Champaign, Illinois April 4, 2016]
The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) today received a Gold award for its achievements in the State Electronics Challenge; a comprehensive nationwide environmental sustainability initiative that currently reaches more than 220,000 employees in 47 states. ISTC was recognized for its accomplishments in green procurement, energy and paper conservation, and responsible recycling of electronic office equipment in 2015.

 

“ISTC’s program is a truly outstanding example of a commitment to environmental leadership,” commented Lynn Rubinstein, State Electronics Challenge Program Manager. “This is the second year in a row that the program has earned a Gold Award.” She added that “ISTC is one of only 12 organizations nationally being recognized this year and the only one in Illinois.”

 

“We’re really pleased to have received recognition again. Participating in the State Electronics Challenge has provided a great framework for our organization to ensure that we’re making better choices in purchasing as well as continuing efforts to limit impacts in the use and end-of-life management phases,” said Joy Scrogum, Emerging Technologies Resource Specialist and coordinator of ISTC’s Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI).

 

As a result of these environmental initiatives, in 2015 ISTC saved enough energy to power 6 households per year, avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 8 cars from the road per year, as well as avoiding the generation of more than 50 pounds of hazardous waste – equivalent to the weight of a refrigerator.

 

ISTC has committed to purchasing computer and imaging equipment that is qualified by the Electronic Procurement Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT®) standard.  EPEAT is an internationally recognized system that identifies office equipment that meets specified environmental performance criteria.  It also uses power management and requires double-sided printing to decrease energy and paper usage, and ensures that at the end-of-life, equipment is recycled by a third-party certified electronics recycler – Secure Recycling Services & Secure Processors.

 

“ISTC was the first Illinois organization to participate in the State Electronics Challenge, joining back in 2011. We only began applying for recognition in recent years, after we took the time to write a specific policy that captured what we were already doing to make our electronics-related operations more sustainable, as well as setting forth purchasing standards. The written policy will help us stay on target and continuously improve in the coming years, through revisions as our goals change. ISTC provides technical assistance to organizations and businesses throughout the state, and we’ve been able to point clients and other University of Illinois departments to the SEC checklist and resources as a way of helping them tackle sustainable electronics issues in simple, manageable ways,” Ms. Scrogum stated.

 

The State Electronics Challenge offers its participants annual opportunities to document their achievements and receive recognition for those accomplishments.  In 2015, the reported actions of 31 participants in green purchasing of electronic office equipment, power management, and responsible recycling resulted in a total of more than 1,250 tons of electronics being recycled, which, along with power management and green procurement:

 

  • Prevented the release of almost 12,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E). This reduction in greenhouse gases is equivalent to the annual emissions from 8,612 passenger cars.
  • Saved enough energy to supply 7,845 homes per year
  • Avoided the disposal of hazardous waste equivalent to the weight of 2,120 refrigerators
  • Avoided the disposal of solid waste – garbage – equivalent to the amount generated by 388 households/year.

 

A full list of winners and their environmental accomplishments can be found on the State Electronics Challenge website (www.stateelectronicschallenge.net).

 

“The State Electronics Challenge provides state, tribal, regional and local agencies, as well as schools, colleges and universities and non-profit organizations with a great opportunity to integrate concepts of sustainability and waste reduction into their operations,” added Ms. Rubinstein.  “It’s inspiring to see programs such as the one developed and implement by the ISTC to ensure that the highest environmental practices are met through the lifecycle of office equipment.“

 

The State Electronics Challenge awards were made possible through donations from Samsung, Panasonic, and the R2/RIOS Program.

 

About ISTC

ISTC is a division of the Prairie Research Institute on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Its mission is to encourage and assist citizens, businesses, and government agencies to prevent pollution, conserve natural resources, and reduce waste to protect human health and the environment of Illinois and beyond. It promotes more sustainable technologies, processes, and practices through an integrated program of research, demonstration projects, technical assistance, and outreach. Learn more at www.istc.illinois.edu.

 

About the State Electronics Challenge

The State Electronics Challenge assists state, regional, tribal, and local governments to reduce the environmental impact of their office equipment.  It annually recognizes the accomplishments of Partner organizations. The Challenge is administered by the Northeast Recycling Council (www.nerc.org). Currently, 157 state, tribal, regional, colleges, schools, universities, and local government agencies, and non-profit organizations, representing more than 212,600 employees, have joined the SEC as Partners.  For more information on the SEC, including a list of current Partner organizations, visit www.stateelectronicschallenge.net.

 

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