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City Diverts Tons Of Food Waste From Landfills

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The city says more than 2,500 tons of New York restaurant food waste has been diverted from landfills in the past six months -- for use as compost, or donations to food banks.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Friday that food came from 100 restaurants that are participating in the city's Food Waste Challenge. And the mayor says the city aims to expand the program to hotels, stadiums and other large producers of food waste.

The program is voluntary. Food that is unsellable -- for instance, misshaped pies -- goes to food banks rather than being thrown out.

City officials are now working to launch a cloud-based software platform that will allow waste to be tracked and evaluated for more efficient pickup or delivery.

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