Food Waste @ Your Local Co-op

Co-operative Food stores are highlighting food waste in Dunbar, at their main store at Friar’s Croft, which incidentally has easy parking and recycling facilities. Working on Waste (WOW) supports companies to help their customers reduce food waste and October 2014 is a month of co-ordinated food retailer action. The Co-operative is asking customers to take a…

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Dunbar goes for Zero Waste

Could “Zero Waste Town” become a common-place accolade in Scotland? Given Scottish Government’s ambitions in its Zero Waste Plan, we certainly think that a community led approach may be a game changer. This plan describes a Scotland where all waste is seen as a resource; Waste is minimised; valuable resources are not disposed of in landfills, and most waste…

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Waste not – if you can recycle it

Householders will by now be receiving news through their letterbox that changes in waste collections are in the pipeline. This has to be a welcome move as waste is costly to dispose of, while recycling pays. As Tom Reid, ELC’s Waste Services Manager says to the reporter over at the East Lothian News website there’s considerable…

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How does Flanders achieve a 73% diversion rate?

Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town. This is the fourth of 5 case studies from across the globe Arguably, Flanders has one of the best recycling and prevention programmes in Europe. The Flemish region is one 6 in Belgium, with a population of 6.2m…

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Vegetable Waste La Pintana, Chile

Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town. This is the third of 5 case studies from across the globe The Chilean community of La Pintana – one of the poorest in the country – has found that recycling their largest waste segment – vegetable waste…

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San Francisco can do it – so can we?

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town. This is the second of 5 case studies from across the globe San Francisco is a global leader in waste management. Their Zero Waste practices have been adopted in cities across the world. The city is cosmopolitan with…

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Case Study: Mumbai co-operatives help decentralise recycling

Grainne McIntyre, consultant, lives locally and reflects on what might help Dunbar become a Zero Waste Town through the first of 5 case studies from across the globe The Indian city of Mumbai, population 12.5m, is divided into 24 wards, each with individual budgets and waste management responsibility. The city government operates a communal waste…

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The Food Waste Collection

John Gilroy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve heard a lot of people tell me in the last few weeks that the new waste regulations are a load of rubbish, pun intended. I can’t and won’t repeat some of the ruder things people have said. But not everyone sees it that way. Below, in the videos, are some examples of how food…

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Love Food – Hate Waste

The old motherly advice that you should leave the table feeling hungry has many different meanings in today’s world, where an increasing number don’t have enough to eat and many of us too much. Making the most of what’s left in the fridge can be a challenge, but it can also be fun too. Here’s…

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