Strategies to lessen food waste

[Anonymous]

We eat leftovers for lunch. We make them up as we clean the dinner table. If there is not enough, we make a sandwich.

I try to buy what we will eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are some tips that people have to lessen the amount of food you throw out? I recent article in the NYT pointed out that household food waste is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. I really didn't know that.

So I'd like to do better with this and I'm looking for ways to start.

you need to figure out what you are wasting first.

[Anonymous]

I read the article OP and it did cause reflection. The article talked about the importance of composting (which we have never done in our townhouse community with shared garbage dumpsters).

My DH is very fit and works out a lot + eats a lot so we do not waste much, but veges tend to go bad too fast.

[Anonymous]

If you cannot compost, use a food waste disposer (like InSinkErator) rather than putting food waste into the trash can. Some wastewater treatment sites are moving to using food waste to convert to energy. In most cases it helps lessen the greenhouse gases emitted.

[Anonymous]

Don't cook or serve large quantities of food. The best method to reduce food waste, reduce cooking time, save money, eat more nutritious food is actually quite counterintutive - cook smaller amount of food than what you will eat in one serving.

For example, if you have 5 people to feed, cook the entree for 4 people. Then just add more courses with foods that does not need cooking and that can add more nutrition - add small amounts of salad with nuts, roast veggies, yogurt, cheese, fruits etc.

I started doing it with my kids and it was an eye opener. When I get them back from school, it takes some time to get their meal to the table. I started serving them some carrots-cucumber with ranch dressing, some cut fruits, yogurt etc. Then I would serve them a hot meal (rice and chicken) and end the meal with some cheese and fruits. They love it and I realized that I am not wasting food, not spending more time making food, don't have the hassle of sorting out the leftovers and the best of all my kids are eating a more varied diet and more fruit and veggies.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how this shakes out in terms of plastic used, but I hardly waste any food at all since I started using hello fresh. Also we compost.

[Anonymous]

This is what I do:

Belong to a year-round farm share, so all of my produce comes from the farm share (+ I buy bananas), so I only have a set amount of produce per week. I select items everyone likes and meal plan for the week around what I get from the share.

Cook mostly vegetarian, so less waste from bones, skin, etc. - and it is easier to utilize all the produce we get. When I do cook meat - chicken, say - I freeze and re-utilize the waste as much as possible, i.e., to make stock, which I then freeze and use for soups, etc.

I am really strict about meal planning - I try to think through everything we will need for the week and then create meals based on produce + weekly plans for everyone's activities + what people like. I re-purpose food a lot so cut down on the amount I cook each night as well. So, for example, I will get a couple of bunches of kale, and make salad one night, then a soup that uses the rest of the kale.

Compost. Composting is annoying and time-intensive, but gives me great joy. And makes a huge difference on food waste.

Prep your produce as soon as you get it. This may be the most important thing I have done to cut down on waste. When I pick up my farm share, I spend an hour or so prepping everything I can - washing, cutting, storing - so that all vegetables are grab and go. This makes cooking each night easier, and it also means my husband and kids eat more vegetables because they are easy to grab and pack into lunches or for snacks. We always have a crudite stash going.

Storing your vegetables in clear containers at eye level also really helps.

Lastly, this isn't food specific, but kitchen waste in general: I invested in bees wrap, stashed bags, and nice glass Tupperware, so we have almost zero kitchen waste from storage now. I still use paper coffee filters and parchment paper, but those go into the compost and the occasional foil can be recycled. That feels really, really good.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind leftovers but DH doesn’t care for them. I try to “repurpose” when possible, like making sandwiches out of last nights pork roast.

I will freezer certain leftovers after a day or two if they lend well to freezing.

My somewhat guilty pleasure is putting leftover veg and protein in a bowl of instant ramen along with sriracha or gochujang and any other Asian condiments I have in the fridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you cannot compost, use a food waste disposer (like InSinkErator) rather than putting food waste into the trash can. Some wastewater treatment sites are moving to using food waste to convert to energy. In most cases it helps lessen the greenhouse gases emitted.

I don't think this is correct.

[Anonymous]

I think composting has to be part of the answer. After I learned about the greenhouse effects of food waste in landfills we started paying for compost pickup weekly. There is just so much that is not edible—coffee grounds, banana peels, onion paper, apple cores, watermelon rind, corn husks, meat bones, etc.

Like others, we freeze aging fruit for smoothies. Wrinkled tomatos get roasted. Brocolli stalks are shredded for a Thai curry salad I make. Old bread is frozen until I have enough to make breakfast casserole or Brown Betty. I even cook down bones from meat to make bone broth and I give the sludge and tendony stuff to my dog as a dog treat. I love ideas for using up stuff though! Keep the ideas coming!

[Anonymous]

For composting, get a Lomi. It turns your scraps into usable dirt in about 4-5 hours. This has been game changing too. My kids are seeing how much they toss in there (ps it handles meat, etc, and is an appliance, so no rat/outside issues), and they are taking smaller portions and being more careful about their food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mind leftovers but DH doesn’t care for them. I try to “repurpose” when possible, like making sandwiches out of last nights pork roast.

I will freezer certain leftovers after a day or two if they lend well to freezing.

My somewhat guilty pleasure is putting leftover veg and protein in a bowl of instant ramen along with sriracha or gochujang and any other Asian condiments I have in the fridge.

Let me guess. Your husband also "doesn't care" to cook. It's always the person who isn't responsible for cooking who demands a fresh, hot meal daily. If he were responsible for the cooking, bet he'd change his tune right quick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mind leftovers but DH doesn’t care for them. I try to “repurpose” when possible, like making sandwiches out of last nights pork roast.

I will freezer certain leftovers after a day or two if they lend well to freezing.

My somewhat guilty pleasure is putting leftover veg and protein in a bowl of instant ramen along with sriracha or gochujang and any other Asian condiments I have in the fridge.

Let me guess. Your husband also "doesn't care" to cook. It's always the person who isn't responsible for cooking who demands a fresh, hot meal daily. If he were responsible for the cooking, bet he'd change his tune right quick.

For the most part you’re right, but this isn’t the relationship forum. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he demands a hot fresh meal, he just doesn’t reach for leftovers when deciding on lunch. But if I tell him we’re having leftovers for dinner or ask him to finish the pizza in the fridge he doesn’t flip out.

[Anonymous]

I cook enough for the number of people I am feeding and no more unless I am freezing some of it. I am amazed at how much food people cook and throw away. I grew up middle class with enough food, but we throwing food away was morally wrong back then- people were starving in the world said mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you cannot compost, use a food waste disposer (like InSinkErator) rather than putting food waste into the trash can. Some wastewater treatment sites are moving to using food waste to convert to energy. In most cases it helps lessen the greenhouse gases emitted.

I don't think this is correct.

https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-hierarchy
If you look at this hierarchy, industrial uses covers anaerobic digestion, which if you follow the links through you’ll see that anaerobic digestion is used by some water treatment facilities. I used to work on food waste policy.