Idea 11 – Food waste

I’m starting this week by asking you to watch this short Which video on their website.

It has got me thinking about how much food is wasted in my house and in the UK as a whole. South Glos has done well at increasing recycling and reducing the amount of black bin rubbish going to landfill. In fact in 2018/19 the amount of waste going to landfill was down to 9.7%.

Our food waste is also used to produce energy. However, as this video explains, the amount of food wasted in the UK is still having a very negative impact upon our planet.

The two things that stood out for me in this 1:39 video were:

1. Food waste which isn’t recycled produces greenhouse gases in landfill.

If food waste in the UK was a country it would be the third largest emitter of green house gases coming behind China and the USA.

2. If the UK stopped wasting food it would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars of the road.

Crazy hey! 😲

So what can we do to reduce the amount of food going to landfill.

1. Firstly by reducing what we buy.

2. Making more careful choices about what we eat and where it comes from.

3. Planning how to use up leftover.

4. If food can’t be eaten then ensuring we place it in food waste bins rather than our black bins.

This week I’m also going to link to meal planning to reduce food waste.

How hard can it be I thought?

Do I really need to read up on meal planning?

Well apparently I do, as this website has some useful hints on meal planning.

Plus it reminds me that meal planning is meant to save people money, reduce waste and stopping the need for extra trips to the shops and impulse buying. It is most probably why the weigh loss companies advocate meal planning as being a key area for losing weight.

So, if you don’t already, try out some meal planning. See if you can make your food go a bit further, lighten the bins and hopefully save some money in the process.

If you are already very diligent with placing food waste in the correct bin maybe try weighing your food waste bin this week before bin collection day. Then see if you can reduce the weight before next week’s collection. Weighing your food waste bin to see if you can reduce the amount of wasted food was suggested at our last meeting.

Happy planning!