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

By Lauren Cusimano

Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 9 a.m.

Lauren Cusimano A beginner's guide to DIY composting. 1/33

Lauren Cusimano All of this can go in your compost pile. 2/33

Courtesy of The Urban Farm Completed compost, or "black gold." 3/33

Lauren Cusimano Entrance to the 27th Avenue Transfer Station. 4/33

Lauren Cusimano The compost bins available at the 27th Avenue Transfer Station. 5/33

Lauren Cusimano Expiration dates — what does this shit even mean? 6/33

Courtesy of Christopher Wharton Christopher Wharton, an Arizona State University associate professor of nutrition and assistant dean of innovation and strategic initiatives. 7/33

Lauren Cusimano It's just a communication, not an expiration. 8/33

Lauren Cusimano Tales from the inaugural Sustainable Packaging Expo. 9/33

Lauren Cusimano The Sustainable Packaging Expo was held at the appropriate Arizona Heritage Center. 10/33

Lauren Cusimano Two local bakers looking for sustainable packaging options. 11/33

Lauren Cusimano Going beyond the wrapper to tackle food packaging waste. 12/33

Andrew Pielage The drive-thru window is nice, but in some cases, there's more harm than convenience. 13/33

Lauren Cusimano Sure, a 3 p.m. pick-me-up is needed, but there has to be another way. 14/33

Lauren Cusimano But, it's not all bad. "We can actually see decreases in air pollution throughout the city.” 15/33

Waste NOT Waste NOT is a delivery service in Phoenix taking food to those in need that would otherwise be discarded. 16/33

Waste NOT Last year, Waste NOT diverted 1,750 tons of food from local landfills. 17/33

Waste NOT Seeing the other side. 18/33

Waste NOT Executive director Kate Thoene with children on Phoenix Day. 19/33

nrd on Unsplash The tale of the leftover. 20/33

Monika Grabkowska on Unsplash Leftovers have come a long way. 21/33

Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash Leftovers can help us fight food waste. 22/33

Wrigley Mansion Geordie’s chef de cuisine Ashley Goddard has a special relationship with leftovers. 23/33

Chatnarin Pramnapan on Unsplash You can certainly feed some animals food scraps — if it’s done safely and lawfully. 24/33

Lauren Cusimano The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Food Recovery Project has something to say about all this. 25/33

Lauren Cusimano Check out the handy AFGFD guide on captive desert tortoise diets. 26/33

Lauren Cusimano The designated tortoise scraps bin at The Farish House in downtown Phoenix. 27/33

Christopher Carson on Unsplash These little guys come with their own protection act. 28/33

Lauren Cusimano Chuck, a friendly neighborhood goat in Mesa, is treated to some bread scraps. 29/33

Lauren Cusimano We could all shop a little smarter and waste a little less. 30/33

Lauren Cusimano Keep like 10 of these in your car. 31/33

Santeri Viinamäki/Wikipedia Making a list is one of the best ways to avoid overbuying. 32/33

Massimo Rivenci/Unsplash Ugly carrots are carrots, too. 33/33

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

Maybe you’re a regular reader. Maybe this is your first go-around. Either way, welcome to Table Scraps. This roundup is from my 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 I 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 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 — to accompany the condensed collection — of all the Table Scraps stories so far.

_{Up Next:}