Simple Steps’ Wendy Gordon & Recycling Today’s Jim Keefe

Wendy Gordon, editor of SimpleSteps.org and an executive at the NRDC, comes to “Green is Good” to discuss food waste. Surprisingly, the average family of four throws out 122 pounds of edible food per month — that’s 13% of our solid waste, or 30 million tons per year!

The food chain encompasses everyone — from farmers, to markets, to consumers, to restaurants and everywhere in between. We are all guilty of wasting. The ripple effect of all of the resources used to make these foods goes to waste as well — water, fossil fuels and energy chief among them.

“There is a lot we can do to cut down our waste,” Gordon says. “Get back in the kitchen, plan your meals for a week out and start from scratch — start with fresh, organic ingredients.”

On the second half of the show, John and Mike chat with Jim Keefe, Publisher of Recycling Today magazine. Keefe says recycling is so easy that everyone can do it — the most important thing to keep in mind is remembering that recycling makes future consumer goods, saving the consumer money without compromising quality.

“If you want to purchase recycled products, think about what you’re putting into the recycling stream, so the cost to reclaim and reprocess that material can stay on a par with virgin materials,” Keefe says.

Recycling Today has been around for decades, main reason being that the publication continues to evolve with the improvements in recycling practices.

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