Image via thekitchn.com
We all love our food, but too often we’re guilty of wasting it.
Even the most organised of us have chucked out those squishy cucumbers and neglected, crusty hunks of cheese found at the back of the fridge. If something smells funny, looks a bit wrinkled or is a few days past the use-by date, it tends to end up in the bin. Even if it’s still perfectly edible.
The occasional throw-out seems inconsequential, but over time the cost is huge. Last year, FoodWise, a campaign run by Do Something, released a truly astonishing finding: Australian households throw away $8 billion worth of edible food every year. This includes fresh produce, leftovers, frozen food and takeaway – a huge waste of the glorious produce we’re lucky to have here in Australia.
The cost of this waste isn’t just economical, either – binning food is a waste of the water, fuel and other resources involved in harvesting, producing and transporting produce. Then there’s the pollution. When in landfill, discarded food rots and emits methane that is 25 times more potent than the carbon pollution from you car exhaust.
It’s surprisingly easy to cut down on food wastage in your own home – a couple extra minutes when unpacking your groceries or preparing dinner is all it takes. After her recent Business Chicks talk, Sarah Wilson – blogger, best-selling I Quit Sugar author and ambassador for the International Love Food Hate Waste program – shared these five easy tips with The Glow.
5 easy ways to stop wasting food
How do you reduce food wastage at home?
