Dive Brief:
- The US Department of Agriculture is promoting its popular challenge program designed to encourage people to reduce and recover food waste.
- The program is an effort to increase the momentum surrounding proper disposal of organic waste materials, while at the same time diminishing the volume of food waste produced across the U.S.
- Participating organizations, businesses and institutions will receive recognition for establishing and implementing waste reduction and recycling techniques. The USDA will place their names on a list for the U.S. Food Waste Challenge.
Dive Insight:
The USDA will showcase each organization and the activities created for the project. Past participants have included sports teams, schools and businesses. As food waste awareness gains traction through education and the implementation of new laws, May saw the EPA adding ten new institutions to its roster, all of them based in the state of Massachusetts. Massachusetts is gearing up for a food ban set to begin on October 1, 2014. A statewide law passed in the spring of this year, effectively preventing commercial food waste from entering landfills.
Other recycling campaigns take the form of challenges. College and university students can compete in RecycleMania, an annual tournament that encourages students to increase recycling and reduce the production of waste.
