What to Do With Food Waste
We’re back with another Trash Talk Tuesday! This week, we are talking about food waste. To waste food is to also waste all of the resources it took to make the journey from its origin to your table. The good news is that since the stream of food waste starts in our own homes, it’s one we can fight head on!
The best way to stop food waste is to eat what you buy. Whether it’s cooked at home or ordered in, don’t throw out those leftovers. Eating your leftovers for a meal the next day is a great way to avoid waste while saving money. If a recipe calls for only half an onion or a few stalks of celery, don’t let the rest go bad. Try a catch-all recipe at the end of the week, like a sautéed skillet or a big pot of soup that allows for whatever kind of scraps you have handy. If you don’t have time to immediately eat leftovers or scraps, you can also freeze them to use in soup stock later.
If you have some excess scraps or bits that are less than desirable but not rotten, consider saving them for a pet or a local friend’s chickens or livestock. Be mindful of which foods may be poisonous to your particular animal or which kinds of scraps are not safe to feed them of course (for example, don’t feed wild birds bread or feed dogs chicken bones or grapes, etc.), but as long as you have done your research, it can be a great way to upcycle your scraps.
The last way to save your scraps from the landfill is to compost. Depending on whether you have a compost pile in your backyard, you have a composting machine for home use, or you are participating in a commercial compost drop-off/pick-up program, the rules of what you can or cannot compost may vary, but in general, it’s estimated that composting alone can save 277 pounds of waste per person per year! Not only does composting stop food waste, but it improves soil, prevents erosion, conserves water, and more.
With a little creativity and a few tricks, you can turn your sad leftovers into a new dish, a treat for animal friends, or healthy soil for your garden. Stopping food waste can save you money and conserve all of the resources tied to our food systems in one tasty move. Bon appétit!