Michigan city presents a blueprint for reducing food waste

Your mom was right: It’s bad to waste food! And the Southeast Michigan community of Southfield has some fresh advice on how to keep from wasting it.

The nonprofit Make Food Not Waste (MFNW) partnered with the city to produce the new “Blueprint to Zero Food Waste in Southfield,” a guide to preventing food waste and keeping it out of landfills.

Why is that a big deal? Because an estimated one-third of the world’s food goes to waste. In the U.S., that amounts to 103 million tons a year of products that either never leave the farm or factory, get lost or spoiled on the way to consumers, or end up in kitchen trash. Not only could saving that amount solve world hunger, but keeping that much waste out of landfills would reduce the amount of climate-changing greenhouse gases (GHG) released into our air. Food waste is estimated to account for 8% of global GHG emissions.

In Michigan, more than two billion pounds of food waste ends up in landfills each year, making food the most disposed-of material. The MI Healthy Climate Plan – Michigan’s roadmap to a prosperous, healthy, sustainable future and 100% carbon neutrality by 2050 – includes a goal of 50% less landfilled food by 2030 from a 2024 baseline.

Southfield residents and businesses alone create an estimated 15,000 tons of food waste a year, according to the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC). The blueprint details strategies to reduce food waste from households, restaurants, grocery stores, and more while promoting food recovery, composting, and responsible waste management. Its focus areas include:

• Community education and engagement: Programs to educate about preventing food waste in commercial, residential, and school settings.
• Food rescue and redistribution: Strengthening understanding of food donation liability protection to redirect surplus food to those facing food insecurity.
• Organics recycling infrastructure: Expanding food scrap processing initiatives to divert organic waste from landfills and support soil health.
• Cost and resource estimates: Clarity and specificity related to implementation of a zero-food-waste-to-landfill plan.

Planners see the blueprint – supported by funding from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) – as an important step toward the state’s 50% reduction goal.

“The food waste elimination strategies highlighted in the Southfield zero-food-waste blueprint complement our Sustainable Southfield initiative,” said city Sustainability Planner Souzan Yousif. “The City of Southfield is proud to be one of the first municipalities to adopt such a plan and hopes to inspire surrounding communities to do the same.”

The city’s blueprint partners include local businesses and community stakeholders Giffels Webster, College for Creative Studies, CO Sustainability, Eastern Michigan University, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, Finite Phoenix, FoodPLUS Detroit, Forgotten Harvest, Harvard University Extension School, Metro Food Rescue, Modish Creative, My Green Michigan, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oakland County, Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, Resource Recycling Solutions, Work Department, and World Wildlife Fund. 

With Southfield’s blueprint complete, Detroit-based MFNW is working on similar blueprints for Southeast Michigan communities Canton, Livonia, Farmington Hills, Westland, and Dearborn. In other Michigan action around food waste:

• The Oakland County city of Wixom – partnering with Spurt Industries, Green for Life, and Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County – started a food scrap program one year ago, collecting residents’ food scraps and yard waste curbside to be composted for use in gardens and city projects.
• March 2024 saw the rollout of the Michigan Food Waste Roadmap. MFNW and the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum led the project, backed by a $100,000 EGLE grant. Stakeholders and experts from farming, food manufacturing, restaurants and grocery stores helped draft the map.
• From April 7-13, more than 790 partners across 49 U.S. states and 22 countries will observe Food Waste Prevention Week, an annual commemoration to educate and inspire cultural change on food waste.
• EGLE’s Catalyst Communities program will host a webinar on hauling and recycling food scraps and other materials from commercial customers at 1 p.m. April 29. Country Oaks Landscape Supply and materials collector CoSustainability will discuss new ways to collect, haul, and process various materials for reuse.

Learn more about reducing food waste at makefoodnotwaste.org and EGLE’s Food Waste and Recovery web page.