Dive Brief:

• Rob Greenfield rides a bike across the country and eats his meals from waste bins along the way in order to spotlight on food waste. Greenfield hopes to make citizens aware of the amount of food discarded in bins because it is expired or damaged.
• Greenfield said he thinks large stores are major food wasters because they are “lazy.” He mentions a 1996 law that shields good faith food donors from liability, but said there are no systems in place to redistribute such organic materials.
• While Greenfield is diving for food, a food-waste-diversion startup in Durham, NC is making the rounds to restaurants, collecting organics that would otherwise end up in the dumpsters that house Greenfield's meals. Food FWD exists because, like Greenfield, Durham's Noah Marsh was aware and alarmed about the volume of food waste eateries discarded daily. 

Dive Insight:

Marsh managed a restaurant in North Carolina when he noticed the wasted food that would pile up each day. He acquired a collection truck to haul the waste, and he transports organics collected from various eateries in the area to the composting facility at Brooks Contractor in Goldston, NC. It takes the waste eight months to transform from food into compost. 

The director of Durham’s solid waste management department, Donald Long, said that the food waste collection service that Food FWD provides is a “double-edged sword.” He said that diverting food waste leads to “a drop in our revenue.” 

Greenfield’s trek across the U.S. in search of mountains of tossed food can be witnessed by all on RobGreenfield.TV.