Bin, app, and subscription combo pledges a cleaner kitchen, environment

Enlarge / Thanks to its wireless connection, the Mill can alert you when it needs emptying. (credit: Mill)

A new subscription-based service launched today, but instead of bringing a box of meat or Japanese treats to your door, this one promises to take away your food waste. The creators of the service, called Mill, hope that it will reduce carbon emissions and help keep kitchens free of nasty smells and flies-all while feeding chickens with your kitchen waste.

The service is based on a trash can with Wi-Fi capabilities. Its creators say that while there are emissions associated with the bin's creation and operation, the life-cycle assessment they ran on it shows that users still come out ahead when it comes to their emissions reductions.

By some counts, around 119 billion pounds of food are wasted each year in the United States. This takes a toll on the environment, considering the energy that goes into growing, harvesting, packing, and transporting food. According to the World Wildlife Fund, between 6 and 8 percent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions could be eliminated by cutting down on this waste. Not including methane-which is considered 80 times worse than carbon dioxide-food waste and loss accounts for around 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year in the US alone.

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