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South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

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Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#111

Norway: 50% of food, 77% of energy in waste, and 97% of toxic waste is recycled. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&... We are also rebuilding some of our plants to sort waste with machine learning. The initial tests are really promising. Several of them are already sorting out most plastic using spectrometer-sensors, so we don’t need to do it manually. In combination with the machine learnin…

OK but what does this have to do with the original article other than the usual "Europe does it better". That's right, absolutely nothing.

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#112
post #82
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that as a result of overproduction or just wastefulness?

At every point in the supply chain (grow, pick, sort, package, deliver...) a % of produce becomes more expensive to keep than to throw. So it being dropped.

I'd think that most such waste are still used efficiently. They may not be fit for the stresses of being shipped and stored the full distance to the supermarket and in your home, but much can still be used for animal feed and compost.

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#113
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cure for obesity is making better choices at the store, not at home.

Poor portion control plays a large role in it. A great many people simply eat way too much.

Portion control means making and serving smaller portions. Not throwing out half the food on your plate.

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#114
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived with a variety of random people in shared circumstances, and it seems quite common for people to pack a refrigerator with perishables either in the form of leftovers or new groceries then forget it exists while continuing to eat the most convenient stuff at restaurants/the office. Refrigeration in general encourages the behavior, without delivering on convenience since you generally have to reheat or parti…

I can't understand "feeling accomplished" by getting a doggy bag.

In the more superficial of my peers, just maintaining an appearance of someone that isn't wasteful is an accomplishment. They live incredibly wasteful lives, but especially on the west coast, it's very hip to appear like you care about the environment and aren't being wasteful.

Then if you throw some sociopathy into the mix, there's an even greater sense of accomplishment in knowing what you're doing is actually increasing the waste by pointlessly packaging up the food destined for the landfill because you'll never actually eat it. Inconveniencing the staff to package your leftovers on top of it is just gravy.

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor portion control plays a large role in it. A great many people simply eat way too much.

Portion control means making and serving smaller portions. Not throwing out half the food on your plate.

Portion control means serving yourself less, but failing that, it means stopping when you're full, not continuing to eat what you've served yourself in the name of preventing food waste. Once you start doing that, you reinforce the behavior of serving yourself too much and eventually begin to crave more food than you should be eating. Portion control is unrelated to how much food you make, assuming you have a refrigerator and don't think yourself too good for leftovers...

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#116

Norway: 50% of food, 77% of energy in waste, and 97% of toxic waste is recycled. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&... We are also rebuilding some of our plants to sort waste with machine learning. The initial tests are really promising. Several of them are already sorting out most plastic using spectrometer-sensors, so we don’t need to do it manually. In combination with the machine learnin…

Recycling doesn't help much as long as Norwegians throw away 40-50 kg of food per person each year. :(

Vs how much per capita for other countries?

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#117
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At every point in the supply chain (grow, pick, sort, package, deliver...) a % of produce becomes more expensive to keep than to throw. So it being dropped.

Shouldn’t that be exported to underfed populations?

At what energy cost?

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#118
post #85
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At every point in the supply chain (grow, pick, sort, package, deliver...) a % of produce becomes more expensive to keep than to throw. So it being dropped.

Is that not overproduction in a sense?

Food shortages are really really bad even for small amount of time which is why food is over produced in excess.

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#119
post #8

"per capita food waste in Europe and North America is 95kg to 105kg a year" That's a massive amount, and that is just waste in the household, not waste in the farm or factory. I can understand some wastage of salad and berries etc, but they're all lighter stuff. How can the average westerner waste 2kg food a week???

Many people don't eat leftovers. In some cases it's cheaper to buy 5 lbs of something and throw out 2 pounds than to pay for 3 1-lb packages. Have you ever been to a restaurant? Most people throw out over 25% of the food on their plates. This is all a symptom of a distorted market place. Food's too cheap thanks to subsidized farming.

> Have you ever been to a restaurant? Most people throw out over 25% of the food on their plates.

It is easy to order a smaller portion of most meals. The problem lies on the client in this case.

Re: South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Portion control means making and serving smaller portions. Not throwing out half the food on your plate.

Portion control means serving yourself less, but failing that, it means stopping when you're full, not continuing to eat what you've served yourself in the name of preventing food waste. Once you start doing that, you reinforce the behavior of serving yourself too much and eventually begin to crave more food than you should be eating. Portion control is unrelated to how much food you make, assuming you have a refrige…

> not continuing to eat what you've served yourself in the name of preventing food waste

You could also cover your plate and put it in the fridge. Doing that requires the same amount of self-control as your prescription of clearing your plate in the trash once you're full. Both are hard for many people to do.

It's easier to exercise restraint when serving than when eating. For example, Google successfully reduced food consumption and food waste by reducing the plate size in cafes. [1]

> Portion control is unrelated to how much food you make

Not entirely. Even in the fridge, food will only stay good for a certain amount of time. Most people won't want to eat the same thing more than 3 meals in a row. These are also reasons for overeating or throwing food out.

1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-i-lost-30-pounds-over-two...

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