This Philly Pop-Up Is Turning Kitchen Scraps Into Climate Action
From milk-waste clothing to beef-tallow soaps, this zero-waste makers event is fighting climate crisis with creativity.
The Billion Layer Lasagna from Post Haste / Photography courtesy of Post Haste
Every year, Philadelphia throws away 206 million pounds of food, more than a quarter of which comes from the restaurant industry. Whether you’re looking at that figure from an ecological standpoint, a socioeconomic one, or a fiscal one, it’s a problem. But, from the perspective of some, all this waste is an opportunity for culinary ingenuity.
“Looking at the world through the lens of zero-waste is one of my favorite things to do,” says Dana Cowin, founder of Progressive Hedonist, a podcast, newsletter, and dinner series centered around imaginative ways to use kitchen byproducts.
Before her life in zero-waste, Cowin spent 21 years as the editor-in-chief at Food & Wine. After leaving the magazine in 2016, she found her calling at the intersection of climate, food, and fun. “I saw that there was a lot of climate activism in food,” Cowin says. “But there wasn’t a lot that connects the ways that we can, through eating well and living well, actually improve the soil and the water and the air.”
In Cowin’s kitchen, giving ingredients a new life is as simple as taking the leftover oil in an anchovy tin to make a sort of Caesar salad dressing, or, if you’re making carrot juice, using the pulp to make carrot cake.
To showcase just how creative you can get with your food scraps, Cowin has teamed up with Natalia Mazzaia of Terratela — a Brooklyn-based company that uses seaweed, soybeans, and even casein protein sourced from milk waste to make clothing — to host Circles & Circularity: A Zero Waste Event, a pop-up market taking place at Post Haste on March 29th from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event will feature Philly makers including Vellum Street Soap Company, MVP Studio, and Brass Monkey Bread, as well as New York-based Acid Spirits and Terratela. Chef Ari Miller of Post Haste will also be serving up a Billion Layer Lasagna with a filling of herb and green scraps cooked down to a purée and excess provolone and mozzarella, as well as a pretzel hydrated with reused pickle brine paired with drinks from beverage director Fred Beebe.
Post Haste’s fried pickles and pretzel with pimento cheese
“It’s fun, it’s creative, it’s economical at a time when there’s a lot of economic pressure, and the net result on the planet is tangible,” she says, adding that we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from doing more with our discards. According to a 2022 USDA report, the production, transportation, and handling of food, as well as excess that ends up in landfills, exacerbates the climate change crisis to the tune of 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — around the same amount produced by 42 coal-fired power plants.
And finding ways to reduce waste has a ripple effect. It could increase food security, foster economic efficiency, and promote energy conservation — all things that could result in “decreasing climate change-related shocks to the supply chain.”
Beyond being a practical economic and ecological solution, Miller says the zero-waste philosophy deepens his connection to small businesses and makers in our local food system, from farmers to butchers and even other chefs. For instance, take the fat you’d normally cut off and throw away: “If you have the farmer who raises that beef bringing it to you, you make a stronger connection with the value of that fat,” he says, adding that excess pork fat can be whipped and used like a butter, a “decadent luxury” he likes to serve with a soft pretzel.
The pretzel, which will be served at the zero-waste pop-up, also incorporates reused house-made pickle brine made with vinegar from Keepwell, based outside of York. As for the Billion Layer Lasagna, the provolone and mozzarella come from Caputo Brothers Dairy out in Spring Grove. According to Miller, when you know the producer and see all of the hard work and intention that goes into the ingredients you’re using, “It becomes less easy to just simply discard the trim and not think about the stems and all that stuff once you are compelled to engage with those things.”
Tickets for Circles & Circularity: A Zero Waste Event are $10, which serves as a donation to Broad Street Love. The event will also serve as a donation drop-off for items Broad Street Love needs (see a full list here). Post Haste will remain open to the public during regular service hours from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
