According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 30% – 40% of the U.S. food supply goes uneaten, resulting in approximately 133 billion pounds of food waste annually1https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs. If the average person eats a pound of food per meal, the food waste in this country could feed an additional 121.5 million people annually!
Waste occurs at all levels of the food supply chain, but U.S. households waste approximately 31% of the food available for consumption at the retail level2https://www.usda.gov/foodlossandwaste/why. Though solving this enormous food waste problem would be a daunting task for any individual to tackle, there is a huge opportunity for each of us to make small changes to our daily routines to reduce food waste, which would make a massive impact over time. Let’s go through some waste-reducing strategies that can be implemented on a daily basis:
- Plan your meals: Planning your meals is a fantastic way to ensure you will purchase only what you will eat. Create a weekly calendar listing what you plan to eat for each meal each day. If you know you’re eating out, mark an “X” through that meal. Then list the ingredients needed to make each meal and, ta-da, you have your weekly shopping list! Try to make meals that will use all of the ingredients that you buy so you’re not left with, for example, half a cucumber rotting in the fridge at the end of the week. As an added benefit, planning your meals will encourage you to make healthier meals choices throughout the week because you won’t be making decisions about what to eat when you’re hungry or tired after a day at work.
- Only purchase what you can consume: I love shopping at big box stores like Costco, but I make sure to keep my purchases to nonperishable and long shelf life items. Unless I’m cooking for a large group, I typically can’t consume perishable items bought in bulk before they expire. Buying in bulk might seem like a good financial decision because it can save money per unit purchased, but it’s important to ensure you can consume all those units. Buying 5 avocados from your local grocery store might actually be cheaper than buying a bag of 10 from a big box store and throwing away one half that turned bad because they couldn’t be eaten fast enough.
- Use your leftovers: Check your fridge before making a shopping list to see if there are any leftover ingredients that might turn soon. Plan a meal around them! This is a great way to try new recipes and save food that would otherwise expire. One time, I found myself with an exorbitant amount of olives – there was no way I could eat them all. So, I looked up recipes that used lots of olives and managed to find some delicious dishes that I still make today, like olive bread and grilled olives.
- Check expiration dates: When you’re at the store, check the expiration dates on perishable items to ensure you’re buying products that will last the longest.
- Freeze foods: Many ingredients purchased and meals created in bulk can be frozen. Things like soups, meat, fruit, and bread can all be stored in the freezer to extend the food’s life.
- Compost: I used to think that throwing fruit and veggie scraps into the trash was essentially composting them in a landfill. They’re going into the ground, right? Well, yes, but that’s not really how it works at all. What actually happens is that when food scraps decompose in landfills without oxygen (because they’re in your plastic bag and buried deep underground), they produce methane, which is one of the worst greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change. Composting produces significantly lower emissions compared to throwing food in the landfill. It also benefits the soil in your garden, helping your plants grow strong without paying for fertilizer! There’s a couple different options for composting.
- Bring your compost to a compost drop-off location. Many farmers markets, community gardens, and sustainably-focused grocery stores provide compost drop-off services.
- If you have outdoor space and time, compost in a bin the old-school way. Combine green, nitrogen-rich food scraps with brown, carbon-rich material, and let the matter break down naturally.
- Invest in a composter like a Lomi, Mill, Reencle, Vitamin FoodCyler, or similar product that can break down food scraps in your home without being a stinky mess.
- Plant herbs: Instead of buying herbs in a plastic box at the grocery store, try planting your own herbs! They will last longer than the pre-cut option and can save you money over time.
- Take your leftovers from a restaurant: In addition to eating your leftovers, remember to bring your own containers so you don’t accumulate hundreds of plastic containers which you’ll eventually throw out.
- Try purchasing groceries from companies that focus on fighting food waste: Companies like Imperfect Foods and Misfits Market focus on distributing goods that didn’t make the cut for grocery stores. These foods are perfectly healthy to eat, but may have been the wrong size or slightly disfigured. Buying produce from these intermediary companies is a great way to help reduce food waste. If you don’t love the packaging associated with food delivery, consider sustainable refill stores which focus on being zero waste and plastic-free environments.
The cherry on top of these food waste reduction tips is that they often correspond to a reduction in personal food costs. So let’s save a couple bucks as we turn our food waste into future meals!
Keywords: #food #carbon reduction #gardening