Too much food waste this week for my liking!Since the key to wasting less is to keep track of things, it's a lot easier when I'm home. When I'm out of town or working away from home, we have more waste. This week involved both factors. The soy milk was a couple of weeks too old and I had forgotten to use it or freeze it when we went out of town. The apple I had bought outside our CSA to make a dessert for my husband that was forgotten about (actually we had been eating too many sweets), the lemon went bad in that plastic bag, and I made the peanut butter sandwich for our hike the other day and only ate half of it. The next day the flattened sandwich couldn't compete with all the fresh CSA goodies that had been delivered.
Throwing food in the garbage is bad for the environment, and it's also a waste of money. If you want to learn the details of how it breaks down in the landfill to create harmful gasses, plus get tips on how to reduce your waste, visit Wasted Food. And if you're curious about how you compare to other families, check out The Frugal Girl for the weekly food waste carnival. Nearly everyone admits that their food waste goes way down as soon as they start tracking it, and especially when they commit to taking a photo to show to the world.
Are you watching your food waste? How did you do this week? Feel free to share your best tips for wasting less in the Comments section. I'm determined to do better next week.
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5 comments:
THANK YOU for All Songs Considered! I had heard that on NPR but never knew what it was, exactly. We will thoroughly enjoy this resource, Angela.
I really need to watch my food waste. I've been very bad about it.
Citrus keeps better if it is not in plastic. Even if I've cut a lemon, I just pop it back in the fridge. The cut end toughens up and will need to be cut off if you are serving slices of the remaining fruit, but it won't do it any harm. Wrapping citrus fruit in plasric,or keeping even whole fruits in plastic bags, makes the perfect little greenhouse for molds. I also wash all citrus as soon as it enters the house to inhibit the penicillium molds endemic on the fruit. I have a deadly allergy to penicillin, so I am extra cautious.
Carla- I know! I realized after I posted this that I'd been hearing about it for months without checking it out, or even registering what it was, really. Hope you can use it!
Leasmom- The main thing is to just start watching it- everyone seems to start out with a lot of waste. Although I remember back to my "starving student" and other salad days and don't remember ever tossing food. There wasn't much in the refrigerator and pantry.
Magdalena- I totally agree about the citrus- this was my husband's doing and I didn't notice it. He's a great food waste partner, but he's not perfect. Still, I think I'll keep him...
thanks for your comments!
It's interesting that watching food waste helps it go down. I *think* that my food waste is pretty much under control, but unless I actually track it, how can I tell?!
Good point.
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