Wasted food for residents

Want to do more to reduce food waste? Visit WasteWise Lane County's Eat Smart Waste Less site to sign up for tips on reducing food waste and saving money!

Composting is easy & impactful
Want to compost? Residents of Eugene, Springfield and Veneta can add food waste to their yard waste bins!

Are you afraid compost is too stinky? Or maybe you don't want vermin digging into your leftovers in your yard waste bin? Or you just don't think you have enough space on your counter? Check out these great ideas to address these common barriers. 

If you are seeking ways to address the climate crisis and save landfill space, composting is among the most effective and easy things you can do starting today.

Wasted food for businesses

Food service businesses can take simple but effective steps to reduce food waste and improve the bottom line.

We’re here to help!

We provide hands-on assistance and learn about your business so we can get you just the information you need. Give us a call at 541-682-4339, send us an email.

Food service businesses can take simple but effective steps to reduce food waste and improve the bottom line.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s “Wasted Food Wasted Money” campaign provides resources and information that can help food service businesses take meaningful steps to reduce their food waste and save money.

Hotel Kitchen also provides a toolkit to help employees of food service businesses reduce waste at various stages in the preparation and serving of food.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also provides tools to help businesses prevent and divert wasted food. These tools include guides for assessing and analyzing where food waste occurs, calculators for measuring the cost competitiveness of alternatives to food waste disposal, training webinars and other resources.




Download the above image as a PDF to access the links.

Hear from your peers: Read how eight different restaurants, bakeries and breweries have found ways to minimize food waste through tracking, transforming trim into new ingredients, and educating customers.

• Commercial Food Service Resource Guide
• Restaurant Resource Guide
• Wasted Food Posters
• Fighting Food Waste in Hotels

Lane County Waste Management applied to become a Food Matters partner with the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC). NRDC helped the county to model food waste generated by sector in the City of Eugene, the City of Springfield, and across the whole county.

• Food Waste & Rescue Potential in Lane County
• Food Waste & Rescue Potential in Eugene
• Food Waste & Rescue Potential in Springfield
  

Help keep food scraps out of garbage, protect the environment, and put food scraps to better use creating compost and energy.



While there is much that can be done to prevent food waste through careful planning, purchasing, and preparation, there are always food scraps that cannot be prevented but have better uses than being tossed into the garbage.

Each year Lane County throws away 91 million pounds of food waste. Eugene and Springfield businesses can do their part to make sure food scraps get composted.

Visit Love Food Not Waste to learn more, or visit Sanipac's new commercial compost program. 




NOTICE: Read nine reasons why Oregon-based composting facilities Do NOT want "compostable" packaging and serviceware in food waste. Learn how these materials are compromising the health of compost and reducing the environmental benefits of creating nutrient-rich, quality product.

Join the many area grocers, restaurants, caterers and food service companies that are helping people who experience hunger.

• A simple guide to saving your business money by reducing food waste

• Una guía simple para ahorrar dinero en su negocio mediante la reducción de desechos de alimentos










While steps can be taken to plan and prepare food carefully, sometimes leftovers and unused ingredients are inevitable. Food banks, pantries and meal sites can take some donations.

- To donate food to Food for Lane County, email here.

- To donate food to Burrito Brigade, email here.

- To donate to The Eugene Mission, click here.

Lane County Waste Management has been awarded a USDA grant to support the distribution of FREE food-waste compost to the community. The free Community Compost program aims to serve all Lane County residents and agricultural producers, with a focus on disadvantaged communities. Individuals, businesses, nonprofits, community gardens, churches and schools seeking high-quality compost can reach out to Lane County for free compost.

It will provide up to 5,000 tons of free compost to Lane County residents and agricultural producers and host four Free Compost Day events each year (8 events total).

Food-waste compost can be used as an alternative top dress for flower and planting beds, a seed cover for new lawns, and natural soil amendment for newly planted gardens. Use compost for preparing soil in flower beds, vegetable gardens, and landscaping areas for planting. Learn more at the Community Compost program page.

* Food-waste compost contains trace amounts of plastics, but always below the maximum allowable standard set by the US Composting Council.