Reviewing Food Trends | Vol.14 Sorted Food 

Very well explained 👍🏼

Looking at a compost bin in the garden, the turning could be done by installing a simple cranking mechanism. Either wind powered for constant turning, or hand cranked to shift things around slowly.

I was wondering about this, thanks for sharing

This is great info, thanks for sharing. I live in Ontario, Canada where we have a composting system (fill our green bins with food waste in biodegradable bin bags, which is picked up every week with garbage and recycling). But I've always wanted to set up a compost in my backyard similar to something I saw in our primary school. Do you have any advice on how to set up a home compost system? Or am I better off just using the municipality's?

Thank you for your explanation. My first thoughts when I saw the machine, heard the process, and saw the end result was…there has to none or very little nutrients for it’s stated purpose. As an avid gardener in zone 5b-6a, I will continue to compost outside. IMO the price doesn’t justify the product offered.

Exactly! Not to mention the energy required in turning it into the dried format. Also please be mindful of any microplastics in products you might think are "just paper" as some are reinforced with plastic to provide the durability that consumers want (e.g. paper towel, tea bags)

mixing dry and wet compost actually gives the best compost .

I've had a compost bin, with worms, inside my apartment for several years. The only smell was a pleasant, fresh dirt smell (except that once I put cabbage in!). I eventually got rid of it, because it got minute black scavenger flies after about 4 years which I couldn't get rid of, so now I bring my compost to an outdoor compost bin at my work.

How does it overcomplicate when it does less steps than you said? I don't think that machine is necessary but it certainly makes the whole process simpler for people without garden. You literally just put the compostable stuff in and take it out when it's done.

@@GRIMHOOD99 It does more bad than good. Because instead of an energy free process, you now need something that's plugged into the grid, and depending on the percentage of renewables your grid uses, you're likely going to be doing more harm to the environment than good and be paying $400 for it. And think about it, if you don't have a garden, where are you going to put the byproducts? straight back into the trash bin? If it's headed there anyways, why spend money and electricity to do it?

@@ach3909 Not to mention the amount of plastics used to create the thing in the first place.

@@ach3909 The 400€ are also notable, because that's money you could've spent on locally grown food/meat or even donated if you wanted. All of those things having more impact than a machine that doesn't do what it says.

I don’t have the app, so I don’t know if they already have this. But to expand upon this, listing alternatives to some harder-to-find ingredients would be very helpful. That way, the recipes that would otherwise be blacklisted would have a sort of “second chance”.

On that note as well, a small definition of each recipe would be ideal. I notice a lot of "coronation" this and that as well as Indian or other nationality dishes. London is very multicultural metropolitan and my area of the world is far less diverse. Why coronation this or that, what is a biryani or something similar? Also why are so many of your 'salads' so complicated? Salad where I'm from is fresh veg usually with lettuce/spinach and a dressing and maybe some croutons. A small dictionary or something would be similar so we don't have to keep going back and forth between the app and Wikipedia. Thank you!

I use the app and this is not an option. But I have the same situation as you and I just try to replace.. I can't have orzo (gluten), then I use rice. I can't find watercress in my country, then I use baby spinach! But indeed it is hard sometimes and the recipe is not in the end the same. As it is designed to use the same set of ingredients along the three recipes of the week.

I downloaded the app around Christmas but didn’t have the time to actually plan the shopping for it and stick to it. The comments were FULL of replacements and suggestions if you can’t find the British version (at least there were for Americans like me who don’t have some of those things). To be honest though that was one of the things that stopped me from using it- I didn’t want to have to mark down all the replacements and make sure I didn’t need to buy/use a different measurement of them.

It would certainly be helpful if every ingredient had a link to where you could see what it is, what other names it has in different countries, and good substitutes. I remember first coming to Australia from US, and could not figure out why they did not have cilantro anywhere.... Turns out, thats Coriander! In the states we use coriander for the seeds, cilantro for the leaf.

How did I never think of keeping it in the freezer?! Solves the stinky windowsill issue. Great tip!

I bought a caddy that fits in my fridge my flat is just too warm to have it out living on my own I never had too much on the “meat shelf” so it wasn’t an issue for me

I never EVER thought of putting my bucket in the freezer. Thank you so much for the great idea. We do exactly the same thing with a composting pile. Every so often we open the fence which keeps out the raccoons, and allow the chickens to stir everything up. They do a great job. Again, thanks so much for sharing your wonderful idea.

We use an old retired dish pan that gets emptied every couple of days. It can smell a little but it’s great incentive to get exercise by carrying it out to the back of our acre. The trick is to only use raw vegetable scraps. All the other stuff gets put in a garbage bag in the freezer that’s only taken out on trash day to avoid rats, dogs and other varmints raiding the bin

Excellent idea. Why have innever thought of this !!!

The cost is definitely off-putting on this one, and there are cheaper ways you can do it.

I'm not sure where you are but its the same in North Wales, the little green bio bags

We have the same in Glasgow. Think all of Scotland actually has a food waste recycling bin.

Toronto, Ontario has an organic waste collection program. We get a tiny lidded bin that goes under the sink and a large, wildlife proof outdoor bin that's collected weekly.

​@@djpmirris Its the same in Caanda, taxes raised in order to buy bins and create a prgram in which we still have to pay to buy the pales and bags I'm not paying thousands of dollars over my life just to throw banana peels and egg shells in the same coloured garbage while a city bus blows diesel through my window as it drives by

Not everyone can have chickens, unfortunately. I would love some for this exact reason, but city living in most areas prevents this

I agree with this one we have chickens and all of our scraps go to them or on our garden

​@@AuraQueenDraconis I agree. My family used to own chickens and it's not something everyone can do. We live in a rural town and the town ordinance says we can't own roosters...only hens. Also, chickens are social animals, so you're required to buy at least 6 at a time even if you already own chickens. And we're not allowed to let them run around, so my dad built a large coop with a large fenced-in play area around the coop. Plus, a separate, smaller, fenced-in mobile coop to let them roam around the yard a little so we can legally let them explore the yard and eat fresh grass, bugs, etc. The eggs were great, but it's an enormous amount of work. Unfortunately, a raccoon found it's way into the fenced-in coop and we ended up giving away the rest of the chickens to a neighbor's friend who has a farm outside of town limits so they could have a safer life. So, between local ordinances, land access, work, and safety of the chickens...not everyone can own one. And in order to handle the colder Appalachian weather, we had Rhode Island Reds.

@Evi1 M4chine Thats what the garbage disposal is for in US households, chops up bones and flesh and then you just lump it in the compost.

@@ReNeyer What kind of garbage disposal lets you take stuff back out of it? I'm from America and every disposal I've ever seen is in the sink, you drop stuff in, it chops it up, and it goes right down the drain with the waste water.

Also Germany. We have a brown bin and also a compost pile in the garden. Although we *also* have a black labrador and she loves the compost pile a bit too much, so we mostly use the brown bin.

In korea they freeze the food waste as it as it squashes down and then does not smell

Luckily no Grüner-Punkt-Beschiss

It is an investment but for folks in apartments who want to reduce waste, it is definitely worth it. Not debating you, giving you my review after having one for 3 months; for anyone considering it. I love mine. Before I was doing the bokashi method but it was hard because I didn't have yard space. Now I only have to bug someone to bury my compost every 3 or 4 months instead of 3-4 weeks.

I'm wondering whether the environmental impact of the mining of the materials, the making of the machine, the making of the packaging, the shipping of everything, the disposal of the packaging, and the energy use of the machine impact how environmentally friendly it is. This feels like a very over-engineered solution to the problem that might not really be a solution at all.

@@purplecat4977 True, but depending on the life the machine I could see that being offset by the reduction in waste collection. Of course for the to work everyone has to have one, they won't cut down the collection dates just because 'you' have less bags after all, but if its long lasting I could see that being an argument.

@@purplecat4977 it's not environmentally friendly at all. It wastes energy, and only thing it really does is grinds and boils off water from what it ground, and then you'll likely throw it into the waste bin anyway so it just goes into landfill like it would anyway. So you just spent energy to do so. Thunderfoot has a great video about it.

@@Southpaw535 Each machines energy usage equates to roughly 1.3 liter of diesel per month, this will not be offset by slightly reduced waste collection. And as Yukki pointed out, all this machine does is dry and chop your waste - there is 0 composting going on.

👏🏻👍🏼

yes i was so annoyed at that! especially when quorn is in the mix and it's literally a British product

@@D4rkKyur3m The weird stigma around veg*ism seems to rly taint the honest convo we should be having abt the enviro impacts of farming!! so frustrating on an ep where they feature an energy/plastic-wasting composter! Is enviro impact important to y'all or not???

Birds eye fish fingers have the same carbon footprint as plant pioneers vegan fingers. The Plant pioneers have an overall worse environmental score due to soy, and the exploitative practices. Quorn “fish” fingers are the best but then children under 3 can’t have them and this is going to be a large portion of the consumer for fish fingers (and their alternates). Both can have a place in the diet but people need to make good choices with their diet for the planet.

@@kenziescout2343 Why are you censoring veganism like it's a curse word...?

They also seemed to forget that 75% of ocean plastic is fishing gear, as well as the fact that eating fish is still dead animals. Like so many vegans and vegetarians are doing it for the animals aka not killing or harming them. I think they really missed the point on this one

👏🏼 we have already overfished, it’s a known fact, so I don’t ever understand where these “sustainable” fish come from 🤔

@@eloisejrg26 the whole "sustainable" label is just a made up buzzword that big companies pay money to other corporations to put on their packaging. It has literally zero to do with their fishing practices. Much like the "organic" label. It's just meant to make consumers feel better and keep buying stuff.

@@eloisejrg26 Unless they're farmed, they're not going to be sustainable...

This is exactly what I thought! I really like these guys but they’ve clearly not thought that one through and have not educated themselves on that topic.

As I understand it, dried eggshell is not a bioavailable source of calcium unless you break it down a bit with acid like vinegar. Simply dried and ground up it can improve soil but it takes forever to break down and do so. Regardless, I also sometimes do this. ::Shrugs::

Correct. Simply grinding them is not enough to make the soil and plant be able to absorb the calcium. It is a multi step process. Besides I eat way more eggs in a year then I could use egg shells for tomato plants. But it helps a bit I guess.

@@laartje24 If you're familiar with the process, would you mind spelling it out for any who do want to do this? I'm only really aware that there is a process lol.

@@geoffpritchard7298 i think that would depend on crushed vs finely ground eggshells and I imagine it also depends on the pH of your soil. nevertheless, using the no dig approach or 'lasagne' gardening, eggshells would be beneficial in the long run. also good mulch!

Super useful, thank you!

Yeah, it also feels like having an electric powered composter is defeating the point. You're using up potentially fossil fuels to power something which could be done in a garden easy enough without using energy. On the other hand, not everyone has space to compost so it might be good in that situation!

@@jettnash5217 Indeed... The energy required to evaporate the water is a lot, and furthermore you will most likely dispose of the waste into a biobin anyway. I think this whole electric composter hype is a big hoax.

​@@jettnash5217 Not even if you have no space. The point is, what will you do with this dehydrated waste. If you have a compost, put your food waste there. if you have food waste collection system in your town, put it there. If you have the spave to plant things i.e. a balkony, do the above. No need to dehydrate your waste. If you can't do anything of the above, throw it in the bin, where you would put it after dehydration anyways.

I was thinking something right along these lines. You can buy these composting buckets from like Wal-mart for $10 that even can be sealed and come with a filter to keep the smell down, small enough to fit perfectly on the window sill above the sink.

Completely agree with this

THANK YOU! At least a few of us have a couple brain cells to run together to generate an independent thought and can see what a scam that junk is. Many millions of (insert your currency here) have been raised on the same kind of waste dehydrators over the last 30 years, yet people keep falling for it. I made a small, tiered vermicomposter for a friend I'm an apartment. It's the size of a suitcase, just smells like dirt and looks like just the stand for a potted plant. All the kitchen scraps except bones go in (Small amounts of meat, dairy or grease can be added, the advise to the contrary is similar to the advice to not put metal into a microwave oven, that is, "wrong" it's just that you have to understand how, when, why and when/why not.) AND he adds paper/cardboard that would have otherwise contributed to his landfill load. He uses the worms and larvae as fishing bait and gives me the excess, the compost goes to his mother's garden every few months when he visits and he now has even less going to the landfill. It does go dormant for about 3 months of the year but he just saves whatever he has space for in the freezer and doesn't worry about a few weeks of not using it. It uses no electricity, takes little space, has no unpleasant odor and turns 90% of his food waste and some portion of his paper waste into something useful. Total cost: $45 If I can make it, anyone can. If a guy in a 1 bedroom apartment can use it, most people can.

This is what i was gonna say.

Exactly! Really dissapointed they chose to show case such a waste of energy.

Also, how does composting reduce carbon footprint? The organic material is going to decompose the same way whether it is in a compost pile or a landfill. I see that it is useful if you are going to use it as fertilizer, but I fail to see how it is going to reduce waste or pollution.

Not to mention that most vegetarians and vegans don't seek out fake meat products. We typically just find our protein from other sources. These fake meat products are typically more for meat-eaters who want to reduce their footprint.

Yeah they are so out of touch on that point.

@@hannahdancy4508 You must move in healthier circles than I do: plenty of junkfood vegans around still.

@@mikekuppen6256 a lot of the veggies I know don't have the money to regularly buy vegan junk food 😅 we're in a big American city and food is way more expensive here then it is in the UK

@@mikekuppen6256 Yeah, I was still overweight as a vegan because my weaknesses are things like bread (with houmous) and crisps

I was thinking the same thing. I looked at it as a fish alternative - the fishing industry issue didn't really enter my mind as a pro for that product.

My "beef" with all the replacement alternatives is that I consider them not necessary. If you don't want to eat meat or fish, don't. There isn't a single reason to eat meat or fish from a nutritional point of view. If you're a vegetarian and eat the occasional egg or some cheese every now and then you can easily skip all the nutritional supplements and the replacement products. Cheaper and healthier because ironically the nutritional supplements many have to use because they go on a extreme diet are made without any respect for the environment - they're excellent business. I have a creeping suspicion that the food industry loves all the recent vegans who think they save the world - it allows them to produce and sell very expensive replacement products made from very cheap ingredients.

@@uweschroeder nutritionally sure, but just because someone has gone vegetarian doesn't mean they don't enjoy the taste of things like fish and meat, I feel like a lot of people overlook this when they say things like "if you're vegetarian why do you keep looking for things that are like meat" and it's because meat is delicious, they are looking for that taste and texture without having to eat an actual animal

@@chriswilliams-px3ul Well, I always thought that's a really poor argument mostly because there are very few replacements that actually taste like the real deal. The only way why something like BeyondMeat tastes like "Meat" is because the majority of people compare the flavor and texture to really poorly raised industrial feedlot meat - which doesn't even taste good to begin with. The other problem I've always had with replacements is ingredients. Most people who turn vegetarian or vegan do so for environmental or health reasons and/or because they don't want to harm animals. They don't account for the harm they cause by industrial production of a 40 ingredient Mozzarella replacement that tastes remotely like artificially cheese flavored chewing gum. Yes, the environmental damage is less, the harm to animals is less but it would be a lot healthier and a lot less environmental and animal harm if they just ate plant based food that isn't highly processed like half the population of India has done for thousands of years. For me replacement products are like buying an electric car thinking it will make a big impact on the environment. It will not, it just makes you feel better. I call those the "kicking the can down the road" solutions. We replace something that's completely unsustainable with something that's just unsustainable because we don't want to sacrifice any little bit of convenience - or in case of food - flavor and texture. I'd say get used to a different lifestyle and you'll be fooling yourself a lot less.

@@uweschroeder Vegetarian here! I am really glad of the options that are our there. I would say that 80% of my diet consists of non processed foods because it's cheaper, allows a lot of freedom and creativity in cooking, which I enjoy. But sometimes on the weekends, at my parents, or out grilling with friends, or at a restaurant with limited options, I will enjoy a veggie hot dog, burger, schnitzel or what have you. It's a great convenience to have those options available, same as all meat eaters do. If I'm at a dinner with meat eaters, it's a great convenience for them to be able to serve a veggie chicken filet or whatever, instead of having to research a bunch of veggie dishes that take knowledge and time to make. And to say that the vegan/veggie options would impact the environment more than animal products is simply false. Mixing a bunch of fats together with some cheese aroma to create a vegan mozzarella won't have as much of an impact on the environment as feeding a cow with soy for its entire life, giving it litres of water a day to consume, milking it industrially, storing the cheese in a facility etc etc. I know that some people love to bring up the soy/deforestation argument to vegans, but only 7% of the world's soy production goes to human consumption, and the majority is harvested to the feeding of live stock. Take tempeh as another example: frozen tempeh burgers (slightly processed) I sometimes buy have a carbon print of about 0,61 CO2e/kg. Meat, unprocessed, has a footprint of 26 CO2e/kg. So the footprint of the same amount of food is about 42 times higher, even though the meat isn't "processed". Lol sorry about the rant. I really mean no disrespect, and I respect everyone's choice to choose their own diet. But I think that a little bit of education and research into the dietary choices we make can make a big difference on the impact we have.

Especially since many communities (like mine) collect the compost and first use it to produce biogas that local busses run on and after that use the scraps of the scraps to make fertilizer for local farms. (yes, I know I commented 9 months later)

Can't decide whats stupier the "compost" machine or the guy that decided to compost in a bucket in a community kitchen

Honestly i think it would be great, but it needs to be at a larger scale. If it were a bit bigger it would be great for food establishments. Or maybe for an apartment building, one on each floor. Gather scraps into a bowl, drop it into a community compost machine and one person just turns it on at night. It seems like a good idea, but I'm not sure how well it is in practically.

Assuming a bin liner is a trash bag, i have a question. Where i live, the green bin (garden, vegetables recycling etc) doesn't have a liner. The bin stands at the back of our backyard and we put all our biomass waste there and it gets collected every three weeks. Is it normal to have a green bin in your house in Engeland?

@@carlangelo653 Two separate things here. 1) For food establishments - maybe - though there are regular composting heaps and many already use those, but this might be efficient for somewhere working on such a large scale. 2) For buildings - only if they are maintained and kept clean. Otherwise they will attract flies/maggots. I can see a lot of issues. Also they're expensive and could get stolen fairly easily (I've lived in enough rough buildings to know anything left in the open is prone to disappearing). That plus how many people will walk down to the bottom floor every time they finish making food? Also green bins solve this problem on a wider scale without people spending a small fortune on home composters.

@@Coentjemons It depends on your council area and their collection rules but it's not uncommon. We have a green bin, so do my parents, but my previous flat building didn't.

@Thunderf00t on YT does a great job breaking down the math on a NUMBER of these home composters. They're essentially trash ovens/grinders & are awful for the environment, w/o excpetion

I guess my only comment is, I live in a medium rise apartment building. Your solution is great for people with gardens! I'll stick with the municipal compost pickup. The electric compost bin was interesting to me but many for a lazy factor.

@@jessicazaytsoff1494 Yeah, I suppose we do get the most out of the Bokashi as it has the added benefit of generation compost that can be used to fertilize the ground, as well as fertilizer that can be used to water throughout the gardening season. However, I suppose the Bokashi could supplement as a "green bin" in the appartment. The bacteria component does help a bit with the smell, one of the aspects that I find rather nauseating with regular green bins. But I suppose this is more geared towards people who are able to make the most out of the actual compost along with the Bokashi fertilizer "juice". Fair point though about "needing" a garden for it to be a handy solution.

"in our gardening allotment" Ben's secret account detected!

No food waste anymore in Germany since food prices are up 100%.

We have the same thing here in Uppsala, Sweden! Our biogas is used to power our buses, so that's a win-win! You can also get more compostable bags in the fruit and veggies section in all stores here now, so you don't have to get plastic ones :)

This happens in some council zones in Australia but it's up to individual local councils to implement so it's woefully underutilised throughout the country.

Yes... and the size of that costly compost processor isn't great for small kitchens... though must admit was thinking of other uses for it (cooking wise) haha

In my city in Canada, we have a big wheelie green bin. City collects weekly during the warm months, bi-weekly in the winter. From start to finish, it takes 60 days to compost, cure and test the resulting compost before it can be given to the public. Every household is limited to 100 litres of finished compost just to make sure there is enough compost for everybody's garden. This green bin program has reduced landfill waste by 50% so far. I'd say that is a resounding win.

I'm from Toronto and live in a house split between two, unrelated families. We're limited to a single garbage bin every 2 weeks (and tags for extra bags are like $6!). With organic waste being separate, our garbage bin isn't even always full on garbage day. It definitely makes a huge difference.

there was a big scandal in our council as a lot of paper and plastic drink bottle recycling has now gone into landfill as the only value is in glass, metal and plastic milk bottles, they tried to start up a plant to burn it for electricity but its not green so we cant do it

I live in Ontario, as well (Hamilton). My daughter and I are the supers for our 9 unit apartment building, so we put out the garbage and recycling every week. Unfortunately, we have nowhere to use as a composting area, but all the residents are very good about using the green bin, and it's full every week. Everyone in our building is really good about using the blue bins as well. We have six large bins that are always completely full by pickup day, and we rarely have more than 3-4 garbage bags for the whole building. Taking into account that every unit has at least one cat or dog (which means dirty litter from scooping/cleaning litter boxes, and doggie poop bags), and there are 2 families with children in diapers, I think that we all do a good job keeping our garbage waste to a minimum...each unit generates an average of less than half a garbage bag's worth of garbage per week. (To keep things from getting too stinky, we have a separate bin outside, with a charcoal filter, just for litter, poop bags, and diapers.) One way that we cut down on our own garbage was to buy a VERY small trash can for the kitchen....it's seriously tiny. This has made us much more conscious of how we dispose of our waste. Whereas before, we may have gotten lazy, and just thrown a can or box or teabag in the trash, now that we've limited ourselves to one small bag of garbage a week, those things end up in a blue bin or green bin.

Thunderfoot has a good video on theese kind of products

Yeah home composter electrical devices are usually ridiculously expensive, massive power draw and inefficient compared to just a bin.

I can maaaaaybe see a use when a) you live in a tiny apartment and b) don't have green waste pick up or a garden space, but as you say, how much electricity is unnecessarily being used, and how many "bin liners" would you be able to use before you had an equivalent amount of plastic to the machine?

I was going to say the same thing.

^^ This, they are a waste of energy

Same here, in Switzerland. Compostable material is taken for processing. We end up buying it back at the garden centre. I found half a blue, plastic clothes peg in one bag! :)

That's why people had pigs in my childhood: they uses the edibles and after a year you got to re-use the edibles 🙂

In Vienna we have bins for compostable/organic waste, but depending on where you live they might be less accessible to you, some districts have few to none for whatever reason. They're usually with other recycling stations near parks or similar large public spaces. But recycling regulations change every once in a while, and also depend on the federal state.

@@uweschroeder That's one of the benefits of chickens, they produce eggs. (Although we mainly keep them for fun)

@@vidm96 I get my eggs from my neighbor - I hand over some fresh baked sourdough bread and get eggs and the odd chicken in return. Good deal.

Ceasing?

@@chillynewberg2652 it was supposed to be screaming but autofill and zero proofreading got us here

Ahh I thought you meant seizing, like a seizure! Hahaha all good, glad I asked since my assumption was wrong

They're all immune to it now! 😂

@@chillynewberg2652 Oh no no no I'm perfectly fine although I was definitely out of breath from all the laughter 😊

it's similar here, we have food waste tubs that are collected, time of collection really depends on local council though

Sounds good! Here in Germany, "compostable plastic" bags are also sold - but they actually can't be used for organic food waste. They don't compost quick enough for german composting facilities, so they end up in the trash in those facilities. :( So it's a case of false advertising / green washing. Many people use them for their organic waste, thinking they do something good for the environment, only for the bags to end up as additional plastic in the general trash.

It's the same in Denmark 😁 but our green bags is free we get them once a month

@@drakenfolk Yeah, I've also heard those bags can actually gum up the compost chopping and grinding devices, because they're quite stretchy and tough for their thickness. These days we use paper bags for biowaste.

I don’t know why they didn’t mention it but in the uk most councils have provided food waste collection bins to houses that you used the compostable plastic bags in. Possibly because there isn’t complete coverage? I live in a flat and while the area has them they haven’t provided them to flat blocks possibly due to it being more likely you’ll get wild animals scavenging so I collect mine and take it to my mum and dads for their collection. When it gets collected it goes off to be ‘baked’ in a bio waste centre that makes inert soil. The end product isn’t as nutritious as regular compost as the convenience of putting all your table scraps, veg peelings and raw meat trimmings in the one collection means they have to process it to kill the bacteria. It’s useful for landscaping though I made a raised bed and the majority of it was the recycled soil product because it’s cheaper and then I used more nutritious planting soil on the top three inches with home compost mixed in.

Thunderf00t does a great job in a yt vid explaining why even with mass distribution these will ALWAYS result in a net negative for the enviro.

It doesn't even end with gadgets. There are many companies that do this exact thing, like making different useless bits and bobs out of recycled plastic or furniture made of chopsticks for 6x the price and all other things. A simple cheap linen bag does inifinitely more good, by reducing amount of shopping bags one person use, than any of those "prestige" items, made of recycled trash, since they still would use heavy machinery, raw materials or not so great practices in production of their product.

@@doremiancleff1508 Though even those linen bags need to be checked (mathematically) as to whether they are efficient compared to plastic bags. Dunno for linen, but it's quite literally hundreds of uses needed to make a cotton tote and a plastic grocery bag equivalent. So if you don't use them enough they are worse (in terms of lifetime CO2), obv landfill volume and spread of waste is a separate issue. certainly, a repurposed bag you already had is always a good choice. lol lots of animal feed bags turned totes over here.

​@@faithnfire4769 I am not making a mathematical point of "which produce less" as more of a "less plastic = more good" with linen, canvas or what not being not that much more expensive to produce, while also being much less enviromentally harmful post use. It's a fairly low cost input, for an item that is practically useful and at very least reduces personal use of plastic or other potentially harmful for enviroment materials. As in comparison to purchasing a power hungry device that smells like hot decomposing garbage, which you still have to empty out into a trash bin, if you don't own a garden.

@@doremiancleff1508 Sure, but the point is that you can't always say "less plastic = more good" if it is an oversimplification; in some cases farmed fibers are less efficient than synthetic, which does need to be remembered when trying to protect the environment. Nothing more, and definitely a much more compelling discussion than this device.

Lavender? Nice touch!

@@SortedFood Thanks!! Excited to get your seal of approval 🤩

Why/when did you become a vegetarian/homosexual?

@@12pking lame

Nah call em pig fingers

Same in my province in Canada 😄

I don't know that brand, but the one I use sells the refills much cheaper than the grinder, so buying the refill is the best option. I don't want to buy bigger bags of several spices to fill it myself

plus the WHOLE point of milling is to bring out freshly activated flavors. The cinn/sugar mix is already ground and then pelletized again. save the plastic and just use a cinn/sugar shaker.

"fűszermester Kotányi" automatikusan elkezdtem énekelni :D

Same here in BC…Canada represent!

...We're so backwards here in Capital City, Alberta... I live in a rental complex that has four houses in it, and the city bylaws don't want us to have the black, blue and green communal wheely bins (we do have a dumpster that's privately collected). We have to throw EVERYTHING out, cardboard, plastic, food and yard waste included. I bought the "composter", thinking it was a way for me to "do my environmental part"; however, no matter what I do, I end up STILL being part of the problem. I. Can't. WIN. D':

only until the energy prices rise again, then you'll be back to making a loss every time you switch it on.

Exactly, this product was absolutely insane to recommend. They did not use their brains

Using it as a "free" soil additive offsets that cost/benefit a bit.

@@CthRyleh Except what comes out of the machine is not fit as a soil additive, it's just the same thing but dried - you still need to properly compost it for weeks or even months. But then you don't even need the machine. It's just an absolutely pointless waste of electricity.

My tesla can travel 5+ miles on 2kw.

except that baking the food scraps (all the machines do this) kills the useful microbes. these machines are $400 wastes of plastic & energy

@@kenziescout2343 Ah beans, I didn't know that! You might as well just compost the normal way then and save yourself the energy bill, haha.

In Austria Kotanyi is also super popular. We have their cinnamon grinder in our cabinet, and we prefer their curry spice blend over all other brands. Generally their products, I find, are really good, and usually really worth the price compared to store-brand spices. Also hello neighbour!

This. As an autistic person who also has IBS Quorn products have kept me vegetarian. I doubt i would still be veggie if i had to rely on lentils and tofu for my protien

Same. In German they're called Fischstäbchen (little fish sticks)

Same! I’m vegan and fish is the one thing I actually missed!

That’s so interesting because I’ve never tried the fish alternatives and I’ve not really missed having fish! However companies are bringing out “scampi” now and I am very intrigued

Just eat the damn fish then. Jesus.

@@acidfruitloops Having a bit of trouble understanding the concept of vegetarianism, are we?

​@@acidfruitloops If current fishing trends continue, the ocean will be more or less completely empty of fish by the year 2050. And this estimation did not even factor in the effects of ocean acidification and warming due to climate change. 90% of large predatory fish stocks (i.e. tuna, marlin, swordfish) are already fully depleted. Very soon, 'just eat[ing] the damn fish' won't be an option anymore, because the oceans will be dead.

We have a composter bucket that stays in our kitchen and my mom takes it out once a week to the bigger one that's in the backyard.

Thank you. This didn't make sense to talk about the alternative animal products as something with a higher CO2 emissions. Why do I need to eat an animal if I have very good alternative products now on the market. Eat them less and you are good. I like my vegan burger onced in a while, some vegan frankfurters/bratwurst, vegan fish fingers, vegan pulled pork, vegan schnitzel and so on, but only onced or twiced a month. I even get me some vegan mortadella/lunch meat to put on sourdough bread if I feel like it and the vegan mortadella/lunch meat taste very close to the real thing. I'm vegan since March 2020 and I can remember very well what the "real" stuff tasted like. The only thing I really miss is cheese.

I had similar thoughts. Yes processed Vegetarian and vegan foods leave a carbon footprint, but how does it compare to meat/ fish production. Also the idea of flying foods from overseas leaving a large carbon footprint is misleading. Have foods grown overseas in their natural environment has a much lower carbon footprint compared to grown locally in an artificial environment.

There are some good research papers out on farm to fork GHG analysis, and it really does depend on what country you’re in and where your food is coming from. In the Americas, where there’s more and continuous deforestation for cattle grazing, and the meat travels long distance across the country, meat is extremely GHG intensive, and you could make a massive difference to you carbon footprint by cutting it out. In the UK, meat sourced at from local farms at butcher’s shops has less than 1/3rd the GHG emissions, so *per typical serving* chicken and fish can have a lower impact than coffee or chocolate. I’ve not been able to find much independent research on these highly processed meat alternatives, but simple processed foods like tofu do always turn out more environmentally friendly than the meat alternative per portion. The difference can be as low as 10% though, so depending on other lifestyle choices you have even going vegan can have a much less significant impact than e.g. taking public transport to work. Looks like there’s not going to be a silver bullet for climate change!

@@chrisgraham6031 I find it ridiculous when studies, er, "studies" compare local chicken to something like chocolate--or actually lettuce, as in one case--to create a false appearance of sustainability on the animal product side. It should be things having similar macronutrient composition.

@@chrisgraham6031 GHG emissions are only one side of the coin though, also consider land size needed as any excess land used could’ve been forest and therefore reducing CO2 in our atmosphere. Also consider water use as processing water uses energy. 10% reduction in GHG is still a 10% reduction. That’s also not taking into account ocean plastics from left behind fishing equipment. Or the fact that animals literally suffer and die to produce meat and fish. Regarding land use, being vegan uses approximately 18x less land than a meat eater will for their food (obviously this is dependent on what they eat, but on average it’s still a massive difference)

I wouldn't trust the supplier, but with some basic assumptions and quick math it doesn't look good for the dehydrators. Assumptions: Majority of power used is from drying the food Majority of saved carbon is in less truck loads Our fruit/veggies mix is 90% water Some quick numbers: garbage truck can carry about 20 tons and get MPG of 3 for about 3kg of co2 per mile driven to boil 1 kg of water takes about 0.183 kwh US avg kwh is about .4 kg co2 nearest landfill/composting center for me is about 15 miles but several are within 30 miles Okay, so we boil off that 90% water and that will reduce the number of truck loads by 9. Case 1: don't use it 10 truck loads of 60 miles round trips comes to (60x10x3) 1800 kg co2. Case 2: boil off the water 1 truck load 60 miles round trip 180 kg co2 + 9 trucks worth of water boiled ( 9 * 20000 * 0.183 * .4 = 13,176 kg co2) If we reverse the boil cost to miles, we get a break even point would be a round trip well over 400 miles (>700km).

@@barongerhardt first of all, thanks for being willing to do the math I asked for but wasn't willing to. Most of the assumptions seem fine for this type of estimate, but we don't have to "boil" the water to evaporate it. If I leave out a glass of water it will slowly evaporate assuming my relative humidity isn't close to 100%. Also truck capacity is volume limited not weight limited. But I'd be happy to Collab and try to come up with a better model, it's a better start than "I wish". Edit: my truck capacity statement is an assumption, I realize I stated it like a fact

@@RecoveringSpartan Thanks, I will take the criticism. I was trying to make most assumptions in favor of the dehydrators, but most numbers were based on a quick search for local/average values. I think boil is going to be a good description. The speed (a few hours/over night) is going to necessitate using a heat based solution. One plus kilograms (liters) of water in a bucket isn't going to evaporate over night in all but the most arid environments. Temperatures below boiling can be used and airflow can help, but the latent heat of vaporization is the same. I made a mistake and used the energy to go from 20c to 100c. It should be 0.628 kwh/kg just for vaporization. About 3.5 times more energy than used above. Heating, grinding and cooling the scraps is going to add to that. Vacuum or freeze drying could also dry in reasonable time, but I think they are less efficient than heating (by like an order of magnitude). Truck capacity has a max for both mass and volume, but for low density waste they are more likely to hit the volume limit prior to the mass. As I was assuming the scraps to be 90% water, hence mass / volume savings will be that of the water which has a density of 1. My local trucks have a capacity of 19.3 m^3. I rounded that up to 20 tons of water. I also assumed the dried scraps would have a similar average density to water. Significantly more dense product could favor the dehydrator and less dense would go against it. Different size trucks would also influence the results and MPG will very with truck choice. Actual percentage water doesn't seem to have a significant effect on results. As long as dry scraps are assumed to have an average density close to 1kg/l. 90% was chosen to keep the math simple of 10 trucks and 9:1. Full trucks and travel between my house and dump was to keep values simple and I think favor the dehydrator. The .4 kg co2 per kwh came from a 2020 EIA report: In 2020, total U.S. electricity generation by the electric power industry of 4.01 trillion kilowatthours (kWh) from all energy sources resulted in the emission of 1.55 billion metric tons-1.71 billion short tons-of carbon dioxide (CO2). This equaled about 0.85 pounds of CO2 emissions per kWh.

I think a case could be made in locations that would use the dry scraps in energy harvesting incinerators, combined with otherwise carbon free power to do the at home drying. By far the most efficient case is going to be to actually compost the scraps in a natural way in your own yard/garden.

Thunderf00t made a great video about similar machine but since this one does the same I suggest giving it a watch

Most countries in Europe have separate bins for biological waste which is further processed in huge composts. The natural gases and the fertilizer are then sold.

Corporations only exist because people consume - limit consumption = lower emission/footprint.

its all supply and demand though. I completely get your point with composting, but in terms of the foods we choose to buy and eat, we have control over what we vote for with our money

Ben is very sweet and conscientious

It's funny how being left-handed makes you super receptive to other people's handedness. I work a tutoring job and I usually bring up the topic if I notice a student writing with their left hand, make a joke about how smearing ink is a pain in the butt or so. Right-handed people tend to notice it much less, like I've known people for years until they, one day, finally noticed I'm writing with my left hand. When others are considerate it feels really sweet.

Very good point. It didn't really seem worth the price tag to us.

@SORTEDfood yet you still promoted the item, for thousands to be confused and potentially INCREASE their carbon emissions. Great job being conscientious guys.. how about we promote items that don't make the world worse off.

@@chillynewberg2652 Bit harsh! It wasn't much of a promotion - quite the contrary. I've seen those adverts and as someone who has a roof garden and spends the most money on buying potting mixes, I was getting rather interested in getting one. The end product was nothing like that advertised, so to me it was an eye-opener to not get one.

@Mary Ann Borg And you could make a small garden box a compost area as well, for much cheaper and using much less plastic and emissions. Just like the original comment stated, you can just compost, instead of buying something that only gets you halfway.. Just get some extra soil from an old garden box and start composting into a bin, then upgrade to a box when you can

For sure... Many reasons to opt not to eat fish. We just weren't sure that an ultra processed food product was the answer to the solution.

@@SortedFood But most people buying fish fingers, are buying an ultra processed food product already… so the replacement being processed doesn’t matter? It’s almost like you’re trying to compare fishless fingers to a lump of unprocessed fish which isn’t an equal comparison. You failed to consider bio accumulation of things like micro plastics within fish too as well as things like 75% of ocean plastic is fishing gear. As well as the fact that fish fingers are literally dead animals as said above, or the fact that a lot of fishing like trawlers severely damage our ocean environments.

@@SortedFood it is the answer to not eating fish though.

They're also really good for Veggie/Vegan kids (Particularly now they have Quorn Dino nuggets). I was a veggie kid and I loved Quorn products (Still do) and they were a very easy way to get me to eat protein. Even now as someone who has IBS and Autism mock meats have kept me veggie when I could no longer eat lentils.

Insufficient protein consumption (as a percentage) is tied to increased obesity, and most westerners are deficient in protein consumption. Companies are adding protein to help consumers consume enough.

I think the added protein trend is also tied to the Keto trend, where you drastically limit your carb intake and increase protein and fat intake. I don't agree with Keto becuase I think carbs are essential for energy, especially when exercising and healthy digestion

@@no_activity almost no one with a Western diet is actually deficient in protein. But more protein theoretically replaces things like carbs, and we sure could use less carbs.

@@OrWhatWeHave just remember, I said "as a percentage" protein seems to have an effect on satiation, so if you eat protein rich foods, you will tend to eat fewer calories than if you are eating carb heavy foods.

@@no_activity And they said that applies to almost no one in the western world. A lack of protein in our diets is a myth.

In any case, one of these brands will just start putting algae oil in their fishless fingers in the near future and that will take care of that "missing" nutrient. If one considers how much bioaccumulated crap is in fish, the omega fatty acids argument used to paint fishless fingers as less healthy seems . . . oblivious.

@@tamcon72 Future Farm Tuna already do!