RE: [greenyes] Encouraging Reuse while addressing safety & liabil ity related to scavenging

["Brennan, Terry" <tbrennan@no.address>]

Mr. Wood,

I would encourage you to include food banking and prepared food rescue
programs in your success stories.  These programs offer a valuable needed
service and reuse a significant amount of material that would otherwise be
in the waste stream.  Unfortunately, in the United States there has been an
increasing demand for these services for more than the past two decades, and
scavenging for food still happens - a much riskier practice than utilizing
more professional food recovery programs.  Food banks, at least here in
California, are commonly inspected more often than our supermarkets. 

A significant amount of recoverable food still ends up in the landfill, and
some that is suitable for human consumption goes to animal feed or
composting, which, while better than landfilling, are not necessarily better
than the primary purpose of food production. In the United States, donors to
food banks are protected from liability by the Good Samaritan Act
(http://www.usda.gov/news/pubs/gleaning/appc.htm), and can even receive tax
benefits.

I hope this is helpful.

Terry S. Brennan
Integrated Waste Management Specialist
California Integrated Waste Management Board
phone (916) 341-6578 
fax (916) 319-7474 
e-mail tbrennan@no.address 
website: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/foodwaste

Zero Waste - You make it happen!