Did you know that if food waste was a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world?
In UK households alone, 4.5 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year. And more shockingly, 25% of this wasted food is due to cooking, preparing or serving much more than they need - costing a massive £3.5 billion each year per household!
To help combat this, Love Food Hate Waste is again dedicating a whole week of action to shining a light on how simple behaviours to reduce food waste can save time and money.
Taking place from the 6th -12th of March, the theme for this year’s Food Waste Action Week is 'Win. Don’t Bin’ and aims to demonstrate how valuable food is in our lives, how it unites people and how using up everything we buy saves money, time and the planet.
Taking actionable steps to reduce your food waste can have a huge impact on the planet and help reduce the harmful effects of food waste on climate change. In fact, in the UK alone, if we stopped throwing away all the bread we do in a year, it would be the equivalent of planting 5.3 million trees!
So, without further ado, here are my top tips for reducing your food waste at home:
1) Ditch Those Discounts
We understand how tempting it can be to fill up your trolley at your local supermarket with yellow-sticker items believing you’ve saved money, but by diving head-first into the discount pile, you may be increasing your food waste and harmful impact on the planet.
Not only do discounts and sales promote overspending on items you didn’t intend to buy or don’t need, but they also create further waste because you didn’t get around to eating the ‘buy one get one free’ item - and now it’s expired!
Avoid falling into the marketing trap of these 'deals' and ditch those store discounts by sticking to your shopping list and only buy reduced goods if you need them/will definitely consume them.
Click here to read more about The Psychology Of Buying Less (and why it’s so difficult!).
2) Make a Meal Plan
As a student, I’m always looking for ways to quickly plan meals for the week ahead so I’m not making a spontaneous trip to the shops and buying more than I need - and this is where a meal plan comes in handy.
A meal plan can help you organise your eating plans for the length of time you need it. Not only does it help me to stay organised, but it also helps me to see what food I already have in my fridge so nothing is wasted. And the less time I have to think about cooking, the more time I get to spend creating great content for you at All Things Green!
Looking to start incorporating more plant-based foods into your diet? Read our tips here.
3) Dispose of Food Waste Correctly
Sometimes, no matter how much you try to avoid it, food waste is inevitable. So, the next best thing to do is to make sure you’re disposing of your food waste correctly and sustainably.
One way to do this is to recycle and compost your food waste. Composting foods at home that can be organically disposed of is a great way to reduce the amount of food you throw in the bin, and is also great for the environment:
Use food scraps such as fruits and vegetables, coffee grounds, eggshells, nutshells and tea bags.
Do not dispose of meat, dairy or oils this way.
Add the food waste to cardboard, newspaper, vegetation and other organic materials in your compost pile. Mix it in with soil and dirt so the food can be broken down.
When you add new material to the pile, turn it with a garden fork or other tool to let fresh oxygen in to help with the composting process.
Source: Wikihow
You can also distribute your unwanted/leftover food with apps like Olio, and donate any spare food to local charities such as food banks and soup kitchens to help both the planet and those who need it most.
For more tips on disposing of food waste sustainably, click here.
If, on top of reducing your food waste, you’d like to get more involved with the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, check out the official Instagram @lfhw_uk and head to wrap.org.uk for more details on how you can support Food Waste Acton Week.
I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to support this campaign and how you’ll be reducing your food waste this week, so feel free to leave a comment/send me a DM over on the All Things Green Instagram with your ideas!
At All Things Green, we share simple, eco-friendly tips to help you lead an imperfect sustainable lifestyle.
We believe that ‘small steps are still steps’, and that we can all have a positive impact on the planet - no matter how small.
Join the ATG community today and take that first step towards an imperfect sustainable future by following us on Instagram!
Want to read more? Take a look at our previous blog posts, bag yourself some amazing discounts on eco-friendly products, and find out more about our story all right here on the All Things Green website.
Thanks for reading and see you soon!
Naomi 💚