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Visual Aid: Table Scraps — Taking on Food Waste in Greater Phoenix

Thursday, January 28, 2021 at 9 a.m.

Lauren Cusimano The designated tortoise scraps bin at The Farish House — a romantic yet sustainable restaurant in downtown Phoenix. 1/99

Lauren Cusimano The Restaurant Progress crew is “driven by awareness and responsibility.” 2/99

Jackie Mercandetti Photo Chef Ivan Jacobo's Anhelo is big on the old Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. 3/99

Mr Mesquite Mr Mesquite plans to phase out plastic by 2022 — containers, cups, bags, straws, and packaging. 4/99

Jed Owen/Unsplash Here's how to keep down the holiday meal-related waste. 5/99

Charles Deluvio/Unsplash The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has something of an obvious tip: “Encourage friends and family to take leftovers home.” This should be easy because leftovers are great. 6/99

Lucas Santos/Unsplash It truly starts with grocery stores, which are hectic terrorscapes at the moment, thanks to the season and a deadly virus. But you can still shop smarter — and in doing so, waste less. 7/99

Ello/Unsplash If you still have a ton of food after your family has bailed, there are specific ways to store it to reduce waste. 8/99

Patricia Valério/Unsplash Finally, compost everything else. It's easier than you think. 9/99

Kelly Kalmbach Arizona Desert Shrimp — it's the prawn of a new era. 10/99

Kelly Kalmbach At Arizona Desert Shrimp, even the shrimp feed is designed with sustainability in mind. 11/99

Kelly Kalmbach Arizona Desert Shrimp harvesting shrimp from the (temporary) ponds in Gila Bend. 12/99

Lauren Cusimano The Breadfruit team handed out cups of spicy, Arizona Desert Shrimp ceviche on Election Day. 13/99

Food Not Bombs Phoenix Food Not Bombs Phoenix believes in solidarity, not charity. 14/99

Food Not Bombs Phoenix Food Not Bombs is a group in Phoenix serving meals to the community using surplus food. 15/99

Food Not Bombs Phoenix A pre-COVID potluck at Civic Space Park. 16/99

Food Not Bombs Phoenix Food Not Bombs dates back to 1980. The Phoenix chapter? No idea. 17/99

Food Not Bombs Phoenix An example of a Sunday-night spread. 18/99

Shaun He/Unsplash What's your steak in this? 19/99

David Dolenc/Unsplash It comes down to livestock. 20/99

Nick Windsor/Unsplash Who, me? 21/99

Lauren Cusimano Efforts made by three Arizona food-selling business when it comes to food waste and keeping it sustainable. 22/99

Lauren Cusimano What's Sprouts' deal? We'll tell you. 23/99

Lauren Cusimano Learn all about the Zero Hunger | Zero Waste plan. 24/99

Lauren Cusimano The Bashas’ Family of Stores keeps it simple. 25/99

Drew Dempsey/Unsplash Online classes, docuseries, and podcasts all about food waste and sustainability — and how those two overlap. 26/99

Cygnusloop99/Wikipedia ASU's School of Sustainability has online classes so you don't have to go anywhere near Tempe. 27/99

Peg Leg Films Just Eat It is a whole food waste story. 28/99

Hadis Malekie/Unsplash 29/99

David Levêque/Unsplash As Columbia University’s Earth Institute stated last year: “The only surefire way to be truly eco-friendly about trash bags is to create less trash, so you don’t need as many!” 30/99

Edward Howell/Unsplash Either garbage bags need to calm down or we do. 31/99

Harry Grout/Unsplash Make the kitchen your water conserving station. 32/99

Jason Dent/Unsplash Toss limes in with the garbage. (You can do this with lemons or citrus peels as well.) The juice adds a citrusy scent to the can, or it at least neutralizes the intensity of the garbage smell (or prevents it from getting to that point). 33/99

Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash Roughly one million housekeeping websites advise treating your less-than-fresh garbage with a few drops of extract or essential oil. 34/99

Lauren Cusimano Think about the way you do dishes. Maybe get this book. 35/99

Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash There's a way to do it. And a way to overdo it. 36/99

Elizabeth Whitman You know, because water's a little tight out in the desert. 37/99

Catt Liu/Unsplash Worried about kitchen waste? Water is part of that. 38/99

Postmates A Postmate will show up to your restaurant within 20 minutes to pick up excess food donations. 39/99

Musically Fed Food waste is still being fought during the pandemic. 40/99

Musically Fed Musically Fed normally looks to music venues, but now, the local organization is turning to restaurants to feed those in need. 41/99

Danielle Leoni Danielle Leoni, co-owner and chef of The Breadfruit & Rum Bar, is a pillar of sustainable restauranting. 42/99

Steven Lasry/Unsplash A beautiful head of Romanesco. 43/99

Chris Malloy If you call yourself a chef or culinarian, it means that you are creative. 44/99

Chris Malloy Think: Which part of this don’t I have a plan for? 45/99

Chris Malloy If you know the story, you may be less quick to toss. 46/99

Lauren Cusimano Pour some rum on it for the love of it. 47/99

R. City The Valley's own R. City is a a food waste pickup service that uses your food waste and compostables for to rejuvenate farmland in south Phoenix. 48/99

Lauren Cusimano An R. City food waste receptacle at Phoenix City Hall. 49/99

Lauren Cusimano If you've been cut off from your away-from-home compost receptacle, ShareWaste can help. 50/99

Lauren Cusimano Food waste collection instructions at Phoenix City Hall. 51/99

Lauren Cusimano We get it. You can't have this setup in an apartment. Good thing there's a food waste pickup service in Phoenix. 52/99

Dylan de Jonge/Unsplash It's all about Farmland for the Future. 53/99

R. City 54/99

R. City A look at that five-gallon bucket. 55/99

Tyler Wesson Don't heed the call of the cups. 56/99

Lauren Cusimano Yes, there are alternatives. 57/99

Lauren Cusimano Yes, there are recycling options now — if you do it. Do you? 58/99

Lauren Cusimano Are these machines all that durable? 59/99

Lucas Benjamin/Unsplash How to be smarter about storing food about the kitchen. Stay true to the first in, first out, routine. 60/99

Ella Olsson/Unsplash Are there better ways to store our produce till that test run or family dinner? 61/99

Dev Benjamin / Unsplash Start jamming your fruits and veggies in the freezer. 62/99

Lauren Cusimano A cilantro bouquet. 63/99

Lauren Cusimano I audibly gasped at a Target the first time I saw Igloo’s Recool model. 64/99

Eco with Em And there are all sorts of ways to not use plastic. 65/99

Lauren Cusimano How can shopping smart reduce your household food waste? First, don't overbuy. 66/99

Lauren Cusimano We could all shop a little smarter and waste a little less. 67/99

Lauren Cusimano Keep like 10 of these in your car. 68/99

Santeri Viinamäki/Wikipedia Making a list is one of the best ways to avoid overbuying. 69/99

Massimo Rivenci/Unsplash Ugly carrots are carrots, too. 70/99

Chatnarin Pramnapan on Unsplash You can certainly feed some animals food scraps — if it’s done safely and lawfully. 71/99

Lauren Cusimano The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Food Recovery Project has something to say about all this. 72/99

Lauren Cusimano Check out the handy AFGFD guide on captive desert tortoise diets. 73/99

Lauren Cusimano The designated tortoise scraps bin at The Farish House in downtown Phoenix. 74/99

Christopher Carson on Unsplash These little guys come with their own protection act. 75/99

Lauren Cusimano Chuck, a friendly neighborhood goat in Mesa, is treated to some bread scraps. 76/99

nrd on Unsplash The tale of the leftover. 77/99

Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash Leftovers can help us fight food waste. 78/99

Wrigley Mansion Geordie’s chef de cuisine Ashley Goddard has a special relationship with leftovers. 79/99

Monika Grabkowska on Unsplash Leftovers have come a long way. 80/99

Waste NOT Waste NOT is a delivery service in Phoenix taking food to those in need that would otherwise be discarded. 81/99

Waste NOT Last year, Waste NOT diverted 1,750 tons of food from local landfills. 82/99

Waste NOT Seeing the other side. 83/99

Waste NOT Executive director Kate Thoene with children on Phoenix Day. 84/99

Lauren Cusimano Sure, a 3 p.m. pick-me-up is needed, but there has to be another way. 85/99

Andrew Pielage The drive-thru window is nice, but in some cases, there's more harm than convenience. 86/99

Lauren Cusimano But, it's not all bad. "We can actually see decreases in air pollution throughout the city.” 87/99

Lauren Cusimano Tales from the inaugural Sustainable Packaging Expo. 88/99

Lauren Cusimano The Sustainable Packaging Expo was held at the appropriate Arizona Heritage Center. 89/99

Lauren Cusimano Two local bakers looking for sustainable packaging options. 90/99

Lauren Cusimano Going beyond the wrapper to tackle food packaging waste. 91/99

Lauren Cusimano It's just a communication, not an expiration. 92/99

Lauren Cusimano Expiration dates — what does this shit even mean? 93/99

Courtesy of Christopher Wharton Christopher Wharton, an Arizona State University associate professor of nutrition and assistant dean of innovation and strategic initiatives. 94/99

Lauren Cusimano A beginner's guide to DIY composting. 95/99

Lauren Cusimano All of this can go in your compost pile. 96/99

Courtesy of The Urban Farm Completed compost, or "black gold." 97/99

Lauren Cusimano Entrance to the 27th Avenue Transfer Station. 98/99

Lauren Cusimano The compost bins available at the 27th Avenue Transfer Station. 99/99

Visual Aid: Table Scraps — Taking on Food Waste in Greater Phoenix

Welcome to Table Scraps — visual edition. This roundup is from our online series on the growing issue of food waste and what some Phoenix-area eateries, organizations, and everyday people are doing right.

But there’s something we want to be clear about from the start — this isn’t a guilt trip. This is my way of unpacking initiatives attempting to reduce kitchen waste and food loss.

We’ve explored backyard composting to food packaging, nonprofits and local groups to etiquette history, and a few other topics relating to this global issue — including some drive-thru shaming (sorry).

So, heat up those leftovers and settle in. Here’s an entire slideshow of all the Table Scraps stories so far.

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