Food Waste Reduction, Who Has Time for That?

There are so many expectations in 2020 to be a functioning member of society. Eat local organic foods, use natural products, save the turtles, homeschool your kids, don’t get COVID-19, oh and raise kind humans who are also functioning members of society. I’m already exhausted and now I need to lower my carbon footprint by reducing our household food waste too? What does that even mean? I’m here to tell you, if I (wife, mom of 3, college student with a full-time job and homeschooling my children) can do it, so can you. Little things like changing shopping habits, reducing wasted food, and recycling food scraps don’t take that much extra time or effort but they can make a big impact at home, on the environment and your wallets.

Food waste doesn’t just happen at home, it happens all along the food chain, from the farm, to the store, to us, the consumer. By changing habits as a consumer, over time, we can make a much bigger impact on how our food system works. Keeping food scraps out of the landfill also helps reduce the impacts of climate change on another struggling mother, Earth.  

At my house we started simple by grocery shopping smarter. Making sure the refrigerator stays organized and having a good idea of what is on hand before a trip to the store is really helpful in not overbuying. Planning meals for the week is also beneficial to us and sticking to a list makes a huge difference in lowering our grocery bills each month. Getting creative with leftovers has always been a challenge for me, so to avoid throwing the leftovers in the trash, we stick to our planned meals, which are perfectly portioned for my family. We also created an “Eat Me First” section of the refrigerator so things don’t get pushed to the back and forgotten about (moldy).

Once we tackled shopping smarter, we could get to work staying organized. As soon as we get the groceries home any produce is immediately washed, cut and put away in clear storage containers so it is easily accessible and ready for meals or if the kids want a snack (seriously, when do they not want a snack?). We’re all more apt to grab something healthy like cut carrots or washed grapes if they are ready to eat. Preparing vegetables and fruits before they go into the fridge makes them last longer as well.  

Now for the fun part, composting! We took a few basic steps to eliminate wasted food, but let's be real, there is bound to be something that still goes uneaten. In researching what would work best for our family we decided we could benefit from turning the food scraps into compost and using it in our garden. You don’t always have to use the compost from your food scraps; solar digesters that break down the waste and allow it to seep into the soil are a good option or a neighbor with animals looking for food scraps could work too. We wanted this project to be as cost effective as possible so we opted for a homemade tumbler. Vegetable scraps, fruit peels, egg shells, coffee grounds and tea bags go right into our recycled canister on our kitchen counter. A lucky kid at my house wins the coveted award of taking it out to the tumbler when it’s full so not only are we helping the environment we are teaching responsibility too. Everyone wins.

If you’re still reading, I may have convinced you your family can do this too. Wanting to reduce food waste doesn’t have to be difficult and it definitely doesn’t have to cost anything. Whatever you’re doing at home now, keep up the good work, but know that we could all be doing a little more to reduce our food waste. Make small changes in your lifestyle over time. You will see a difference in the amount of trash you produce, and the amount of money you save. To answer the question, who has time for that?

The answer is, we all do!  

Thank you very “mulch”.

Carrie Healy

Program Assistant

Health Planning and Promotion Division