Buy food smarter…
Bad News: Food waste is a big issue. The average US household wastes 15-20% of the food they buy. Get the facts and learn more about food waste here.
Good News: It’s not that difficult to reduce your personal food waste.
In part one, we are going to stick to the root problem of food waste in our homes: we buy more food than we can eat. In the next two posts we’ll dig deeper on storing food and diverting excess food from the waste bin.
If you want to get radical, join Rob Greenfield on a dumpster-diving expedition. Rob’s on a crusade to save perfectly good food from dumpsters and get it to hungry people. On his site he provides tips and resources for anyone who wants to join the fight against the food waste fiasco.
If you want to start small and work on your personal impact, start by being more disciplined about what you buy. You’ll find that when you’re more organized with your shopping you’ll save food and money. Simply following a few basic steps can help cut down excess food in your shopping cart.
Try these action items to stop food waste in your home at the source:
Your Action Item
Get better at buying only what you can use.
- Assess what you have before you hit the supermarket.
- Make a shopping list and stick to it.
- Don’t shop when you’re hungry.
Just Eat It:
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Resources:
Rob Greenfield has been working to solve America’s food waste for years. He became well known (and even gave a TED Talk) for his dumpster diving expeditions where he would save shocking quantities of perfectly good food from going to the dump.
wehatetowaste.com has some good tips for waste reduction (not limited to food waste). This article is one of many cool stories they post about how people are working to cut down on food waste.
More Quick Tips to Reduce Your Food Waste
In this post I offer a few more tips and a bit more of an explanation around how to decrease your foodprint. There’s also an inspirational Weird Al video included as a bonus!
We have very little food waste, thanks to a garden with compost bin, and a freezer. The compost bin does take care of itself, once you add enough paper and water to balance. I try to cook for 8 even thought there are only 2 of us, as I genuinely find cooking each day a drudge so having frozen portions means I only cook about 2 or 3 times a week. Once you get to the habit of it, it saves so much time and the planning of it is second nature. Some people dont like freezing in tubberware,which I dont mind, and some dont agree with microwaves (not me) but you can also freeze in glass jam jars if were so inclined and do things that can be stove heated.
I think simply getting in the habit of freezing can really reduce food waste. If done right food can still be really good once reheated. I specifically address freezing in tip #12 too.