Various friends assured me I would be surprised at the amount of waste that would go in my bin once the time came to start using it, and claimed that it would be filled up on a weekly basis, but actually hardly anything goes in. According to my research the average household generates 3.2kg of food waste weekly, ours is less than 700g. And no, although I do have some OCD tendencies, I don't weigh it every week! According to an article in the Guardian last year household food waste has reduced by 13% in three years, but is still costing the consumer the same due to inflation. Food waste generated by UK families in a year will still completely fill Wembley stadium nine times, (rather than ten times) though, so to be honest there is still a lot of room for improvement.There are various reasons why our family generates so little food waste, and I thought it might make for an interesting blog post.
Firstly, we are a family that eats just about everything. I was brought up to keep trying things until I did like them, and I am doing the same with my own children because it really worked. There are foods I don't prefer, but apart from honey on toast and liquorice I don't really dislike anything. So leftovers can be eaten by anyone, and it makes menu planning (see later) much easier. It also makes a big difference if you have someone in the family who doesn't mind using up broken biscuits, manky fruit from the dregs of the fruit bowl and end-of-packet cereal dust. That will be me then.
We compost at home, anything that can be composted. Peelings, teabags, fruit cores, etc, also handy for disposal of shredded confidential documents. My parents were surprised when I started composting as I'm not into gardening and have a garden the size of a postage stamp, just big enough to grow some herbs in. I didn't start composting to get some free compost, but rather to cut down on unaviodable food waste such as peelings going to landfill. I have actually given away my home made compost via freecycle! I don't put eggshells, avocoado peel or stones or other large fruit stones such as mango stones in as they just don't decompose fast enough in a domestic setting, so they DO go in the food waste bin, along with bones, the odd burnt toast crust and the very occasional plate scraping.
The contents of our food waste bin after two weeks: two little bags.
I often have leftovers for the next day's lunch - and it makes a change from boring sandwiches.
Plan your meals weekly and only buy what you actually need - I usually do the food shopping on Saturday mornings so I sit down on a Thurday or Friday night with a list of what will be in the Tuesday vegbox (they email it to me), a list of what needs using up in the fridge, and my recipe folders, cookery books, magazines etc and plan menus for the week, this also helps to keep costs down. I've got a list of items we always need, the "weekly check" such as teabags, coffee, cereals, milk, fruit; and I go through that checking what we need. I have a look at the calendar and see what everyone is doing, so I know whether we need something super quick on a particular day, or if I can indulge myself with a new recipe midweek. Sometimes it does have to be different meals for different family members, or if the husband is going out I can look forward to having something he doesn't particularly like. I usually have something in the freezer for emergency last minute changes of plan too.
Speaking of the freezer, use it well. I always freeze sliced bread for my son's sandwiches and get out a third or half a loaf at a time, as we don't use much sliced bread. Bread which does go stale can be made into breadcrumbs. If I make a cake and cut bits off it to shape it they get frozen for the next trifle. Also roast chicken carcases get frozen and made into stock several at a time.
Use store cupboard ingredients, but keep track of what you've got, do a "cabinet reshuffle" every few months so you don't forget what you've got.
Don't take too much notice of best before dates. If it has gone off, you can usually tell. If cheese goes mouldy I cut off the outside and the middle is fine. That said, check the dates when you go shopping to make sure you don't buy something that won't keep until you've planned to use it.
Apples too elderly to be palatable raw can be used to top a pork chop, my husband's signature dish is pork chops with apples and prunes; or made into apple sauce. Over ripe bananas can be transformed into banana bread or put in a smoothie. Past its best veg can be roasted and even put in a tart. One of my favourite books with tips for reducing food waste is Economy Gastronomy, a tie in with a TV series from 2009 (at present from £6.53 on amazon).
The love food hate waste website is also recommended: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
So, I challenge YOU to reduce your food waste! If everyone just tried a little bit harder, we might fill less Wembley stadiums next year :-)
Thank you for reading, more soon.
Caroline x
well done you on eating the dodgy fruit. i wonder if i would be as good as you if i had 3 more?!
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