A big thanks to One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Em who sent me an article from the L.A. Times, with this description,
“Mavis, I thought you’d be interested in this article on how a grocery store chain is using unsold produce.”
Umm, yes, yes, I am interested. We’ve been collecting “unsold produce” for just over a year now. Each week my daughter and I sort through the fruits and vegetables, keeping some for ourselves and feeding the rest of the quality produce to our chickens. When we come across something that’s past it’s prime, we simply compost it in our backyard. We then work the compost into our soil in late fall after all our crops have been harvested.
But the article Em sent me describes how one store is taking care of their food waste differently.
Ralph’s Food Stores are using their unsold leftovers to convert them into a methane producing sludge that generates power to their 359 stores in Southern California.
There is a lot of detail to the how, but the basic idea is that they take the food they cannot sell {wrappers and all} and put it into a huge composting facility, which turns it into liquid sludge and deprives the sludge of oxygen. Without oxygen, the sludge produces methane gas, which in turn powers the stores.
The whole process appears to have very little waste, because they use the leftover sludge as fertilizer.
What do you think? It is a responsible way to manage food waste?
Do you think there is really one simple solution to food waste in America?
~Mavis
Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past year?
Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.
If you have just stumbled upon this series and are wondering how I got all this food for free, you’ll want to read this story first.
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Tracie says
I think that is one way to deal with it and if it isn’t organic then I think that is an even better use than feeding it to the chickens. But there needs to be more than one way to solve the problem and I am glad they chose to at least find a solution.
Tai Tai Johnson says
Here’s another example of getting creative with food waste … But it is enough??
http://modernfarmer.com/2013/05/whey-too-much-greek-yogurts-dark-side/
Tracie says
Sounds like a great Idea. However, I am not sure about the chemicals that would come from melted composted plastic wrappers as fertilizer for growing food. What do you think?
HSG says
That’s what I was thinking too! I wouldn’t want plastic in the fertilizer either – or the food grown in it!
Sarah M. says
I’m really happy to hear this, and I plan on shopping at Ralphs even more now. I’ve always liked that they sell their bruised produce at a discount. I’ve often been able to get organic bananas for 25 cents a pound, and organic mangoes for 33 cents each. The only reason I don’t shop there exclusively is that their prices are sometimes double that of Sprouts, which is just across the street from them. However, Sprouts throws out all their old produce, so I guess it’s time to use my money to make a statement.
Rachael says
I love it! And its neat to see them tossing in all the packaging, too. Make the process efficient and keeps all of it out of the landfills. It get decomposed way fast this way, I’m sure. (and glass and metals can be recycled). As Tracie mentioned there does end up some odd chemicals from the plastic, but, by and large, I’d guess there isn’t anything that won’t continue to breakdown back into the ‘natural’ state the stuff started in.
exciting times, I do say!
Peggy Stenglein says
You know, I think it’s great that you and your daughter reclaim food that is being thrown away, and commend your grocery store for putting it where you can get to it. That doesn’t happen in my area at all! People are so caught up with expiration dates and being sued for food poisoning, it makes me sick! Also, I think it’s wonderful that the grocery in CA does this, hopefully, they allow people to get some of those veggies to eat, and I would leave the wrappers/packaging out, unless, they just use paper to wrap their produce in. Even if it has kinks that need worked out, it’s forward thinking, and that’s what we need more individuals and businesses to do.
GoGo says
Hmmm. Perhaps that’s why our Kroger stores (sister company to Ralph’s) won’t give their unsold produce away. I have seen that they have large bins in the back room labeled “compostable” but they won’t tell me what they do with it. Interesting.
carol says
I guess it would produce methane, even if it were in the garbage dump, but it does add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to burn it as methane. Also, I wouldn’t want to be around the fumes of burning plastic. Hopefully, they have good scrubbers for what is emitted. Why not give it to a food bank, before it is too far gone? Or like Mavis, have someone pick it up and use it for chicken feed?
Carolyn says
the way things are now I say hell ya I would eat it,better yet cook it and feed some of the poor homeless people that we have here in the US. there is nothing wrong with that food its just won’t sold by a certain date that doesn’t make it bad.
Ursula says
Our worm factory takes care of the leftover fruits,veggies and grains!
Jo Hart says
Hi, I’ve just stumbled across your blog and I love the ways you’re living so frugally! I’ve recently just started trying to live a more frugal life in my home, especially in the kitchen. I discovered at my local supermarket that they do a ‘trolley’ hour generally once a day around 4.30pm where they wheel out trolleys full of imperfect fruit and vegetables and sell them for $3 a bag for as much as you can fit in a produce bag. Some days there’s not much worth getting (lots of bruised tomatoes or limp lettuce), but some days I hit the jackpot and get punnets of strawberries, bunches of bananas, vine-ripened tomatoes, etc. Then all I have to do is work out our weekly menu depending on what I picked up or freeze it. I think it’s a great idea because the supermarket gets to make money on food that would otherwise get thrown in the garbage and those who aren’t too picky get to stock up on cheap fruit and vegies.
Amanda says
Awhile back, I was researching composting and came across an article about a college-aged entrepreneur who made a business out of collecting produce waste from grocery stores, composting it, and selling the bagged compost back to the stores to sell to their customers. Clever, right?!
Mavis says
Very clever!
stacy says
It sounds good. I just wish it could got to hungry people. Doesn’t seem right in this incredibly rich country that we throw perfectly good food away and children go to bed hungry. 🙁