[help] getting food waste from restaurants

[Vata Raven]

I've been calling family owned restaurants for their food waste. Even explained that it's for composting, but they all denied me their food waste. Said it's against the law? Smells like BS to me.

I feel like I need to go duster diving for such a simple resource.

What else can I do?

 

[nuthatched]

It is against the law in some areas, they don't want someone to lie and eat it, get sick and sue them.
And it's an extra step and extra bin to seperate the fruit and veggie scraps from normal scraps and trash so most kitchen codes won't allow it.

 

[Vata Raven]

And it's an extra step and extra bin to seperate the fruit and veggie scraps from normal scraps and trash so most kitchen codes won't allow it.

So I just gotta... get it after they close at night? Or make a fake business? Get something in writing saying I won't sue?

 

[Percheron chick]

Not BS. I used to work at a MLB stadium and we would donate all the left over cooked food to local homeless shelters and food banks. They were threatened with a lawsuit over a case of food poisoning even though there was not any hard proof. So their response was to no longer repurpose the food (I'm talking thousands of pounds of perfectly good cooked foods and produce per home stand) and give it to a pig farm. Also the labor to separate the food from the trash and the storage is a full time nightmare of a job that costs the business to implement. They are just CYA.
Depending if your municipality has a recycling program for homes and businesses there is plenty out there for the diving. I volunteered at a food bank and would take home fruits and vegetables that were past due for my chickens and geese all the time. We had pig bins behind the store and sometimes I would go "shopping" for their favorite treats.

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

I've been calling family owned restaurants for their food waste. Even explained that it's for composting, but they all denied me their food waste. Said it's against the law? Smells like BS to me.

I feel like I need to go duster diving for such a simple resource.

What else can I do?

Stop asking. Dumpster diving is legal and most restaurants have separate trash cans for kitchen waste and garbage.

 

[nuthatched]

Stuff from dumpsters could be poisoned for pests, it's not worth it.

 

[Vata Raven]

Not BS. I used to work at a MLB stadium and we would donate all the left over cooked food to local homeless shelters and food banks. They were threatened with a lawsuit over a case of food poisoning even though there was not any hard proof. So their response was to no longer repurpose the food (I'm talking thousands of pounds of perfectly good cooked foods and produce per home stand) and give it to a pig farm. Also the labor to separate the food from the trash and the storage is a full time nightmare of a job that costs the business to implement. They are just CYA.
Depending if your municipality has a recycling program for homes and businesses there is plenty out there for the diving. I volunteered at a food bank and would take home fruits and vegetables that were past due for my chickens and geese all the time. We had pig bins behind the store and sometimes I would go "shopping" for their favorite treats.

That sucks about the lawsuit, but they still ended up giving it as animal fed?

What is CYA?

Also, the local food bank told me no, too.

 

[Vata Raven]

Stop asking. Dumpster diving is legal and most restaurants have separate trash cans for kitchen waste and garbage.

So just do it? Wasn't sure if the cops would be called on me, lol.

 

[Vata Raven]

I thought it was agin' the law for a pig farmer to take restaurant waste as well.

https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/reduce-wasted-food-feeding-animals

Looks like it varies by state.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

First thing you have to remember is people are people. foreign objects, glass, plastic and a multitude of other "garbage" ends up in the mix.