Each year in the UK alone approximately 8.5 million tonnes of left-over food and drink is wasted. This waste often gets thrown into landfill sites up and down the country. Not only do these landfill sites cause an unpleasant smell and take up valuable land space but they also produce methane gasses which are extremely damaging to the environment.
Often when we are cooking, all of the food peelings, stalks and leftovers are all thrown into the general waste bin. In fact, per household, every year approximately £450 worth of food is just thrown away. However there are ways in which you can and peelings to reduce landfill and benefit you.
Portion Sizing
If you want to limit the amount of food waste you produce then don’t make the waste in the first place. Ensure to cook just enough food so each portion is suitable. If you do have leftovers then save them either for work lunch the next day or for a meal another time. A lot of food such as Bolognese and curry can be frozen and eaten at a later date.
Best Before and Use By Dates
Most people see a date on the side of food packaging and throw it away that day without any consideration to whether or not it would actually be ok to eat.
Best before dates are given as a guidance and often it is down to personal judgement if you can continue to eat the food. For example, if your bread has gone stale then use it for toast but when your bread has gone mouldy throw it in the compost bin.
Used by dates are given as the last day an item can be eaten. Food beyond it’s used by date should be thrown away. Items containing used by dates are mainly meat and dairy products which can cause illness when out of date.
Composing
Composting is a great way to recycle your leftover food waste, not only will it reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill but it will also help maintain your garden.
Most food and food packaging can be composted generally the only food that cannot is meat and fish products and dairy products, mainly because they attract rodents to your garden. Everything from vegetable peelings, biscuits, noodles and coffee can be thrown onto the compost bin.
Getting To Terms with Waste Management
Getting to terms with waste management and what in fact we can recycle and cannot recycle is the reason why people don’t aim to minimise waste in the first place. Your local authority will be able to provide segregated bins to help you divide your waste for recycling.
If you would like to reduce your household waste see what SLR Consulting can do for you.