“We see significant amounts of food going to waste all throughout the state and we are looking for solutions to move that product out of the landfill to a higher and better use.”
Aubree Carlisle is a Food Waste Specialist with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, which is hosting the Michigan Sustainability Conference. It focuses on best practices, like connecting communities to food instead of it going to waste in a landfill.
“We see about 15% of Michiganders facing food insecurity and a lot of the food that does go to waste is edible.”
According to the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, over 1.7 billion pounds of edible food are sent to landfills by commercial businesses or remain unharvested from Michigan farms. Combined, it could feed 1.3 million residents each year. Food waste is also responsible for 11.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
“There is not one specific solution, but we need to come at it from multiple directions to be able to really make an impact on this.”
Carlisle says she hopes the conference leads to progress in reducing food waste throughout the state.
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