Photo: Dreamstime
The Closed Loop Foundation, the 501(c)(3) arm of Closed Loop Partners, New York, has announced eight recipients that will receive a total of $350,000 to aid in food waste reduction efforts. The organization says it spent nine months searching for the most innovative, viable and replicable solutions to reduce food waste in the U.S. With financial support from the Walmart Foundation and additional support from the city of Phoenix, Closed Loop Foundation reviewed more than 150 proposals for the reduction,
Rob Kaplan, managing director of Closed Loop Partners, says, “We were surprised and impressed with both the quantity and quality of the proposals we saw. We worked with expert advisors from across the industry to help us narrow the pool down to the final recipients.”
Chris Cochran, executive director of ReFed, says, “Though we now waste 63 million tons of food in the U.S. annually, as ReFed’s Roadmap report demonstrates, innovation and philanthropic investment can dramatically accelerate the implementation of solutions.”
Eileen Hyde, director of the Walmart Giving team, says, “The Walmart Foundation is happy to support the Closed Loop Foundation on this initiative as part of their strategy to address the issue of waste and advance the pursuit of a circular economy. This initiative identified innovators that are creating new models for reducing food waste, and we are excited to lend our support to accelerate progress on addressing this critical issue.”
The award recipients are:
| Project | Location | Problem Solved | Innovation Overview |
| ALL IN Alameda: The New War on Poverty | Alameda County, CA | Complicated logistics make recovery challenging economically | Comprehensive social enterprise to efficiently recover wasted food from retail |
| BioWorks Energy & city of Flint, MI
| Flint, MI | Municipalities have capacity with waste water digesters but require processing to include food waste | Technology to make food waste into a sludge that can be incorporated into waste water digesters |
| Full Cycle Bioplastics | Richmond, CA | Making upcycling of food waste financially viable and improving end of life options for plastic food packaging | Circular economy solution for food waste and plastic pollution that converts postconsumer food waste into a compostable bioplastic |
| Georgia Tech | Atlanta, GA | Algae-fueled aquaponic systems find value in food waste | Add value to food waste nutrients by converting these nutrients into algal meal fish feed for aquaponic urban farming systems positioned at schools |
| Hold That Tray! | Spokane, WA | Create model for engineered food diversion system and beneficial use with small-scale anaerobic digestion and composting in a university setting | Education, diversion and combined anaerobic digestion/composting to highlight the value in food not served or wasted |
| Indiana Recycling Coalition | Indianapolis, IN | Collection and processing of food waste | Building a system solution for restaurant and retail composting by building a collection and processing system |
| Renewal Mill | Oakland, CA | Food waste is a headache for food manufacturers and there is limited bandwidth from these companies to create value from byproducts currently treated as waste | Harvests undervalued byproducts from current food production processes and upcycles them into nutritious and wholesome products |
| Vermont Natural Ag Products | Middlebury, VT | Creating cost and energy efficiency in compost system to improve economics of the system | Recapture renewable thermal energy created in its compost system to reduce energy consumption, time and therefore cost of creating the compost product |
To learn more about the solution search and recipients, visit www.closedlooppartners.com/food-waste-solution-search.
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