Here’s how to do your part to keep food from going to landfills
Bio waste. When food waste go to landfills, it releases methane, contributing to global warming. Photo by Maerzkind/istock, from Sierra
In the United States alone, approximately 133 billion pounds of food is wasted each year. According to the EPA, that’s 31% of our total food supply. These food scraps go to landfills and release methane, contributing to global warming. Whether or not you’re cooking this holiday season, here are five ways to avoid wasting food.
Food Calculator
What do you need to host a holiday dinner? With the food calculator from the National Resources Defense Council at (https://www.savethefood.com/guestimator/guests), you can find out in minutes. This guestimator takes into account the expected number of guests, their projected eating capacity, the number of leftover meals you desire, and the type of meal you’ re looking for (vegetarian, classic, or smorgasbord) to create the perfect grocery list. Enjoy.
Refrigerator Thermometer
Now that you have your ingredients, you have to keep them fresh for the big day. The fridge thermometer is an essential and affordable gadget. Incorrect temperatures are one of the biggest contributors to household food waste; a recent study by Daily Mail found that a whopping 75% of people are running their fridges at too high of a temperature. That accounts for 4.2 million tons of food waste and represents even more wasted money and time.
OLIO
Now that you have made your meal and preserved your extra ingredients, you might consider giving your leftovers away. OLIO can help (https://olioex.com/about/). It’s a free app that connects neighbors and local businesses so that surplus food can be shared instead of thrown away. This includes food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, and the groceries in your fridge. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items. It’s easy. To make an item available, simply open the app, add a photo, description, and when and where the item is available for pickup. To access items, browse the listings available near you, request what you’ d like, and arrange a pickup via private messaging.
Fruit and Vegetable Disk
Even if your refrigerator is just right, you need to preserve that extra half sweet potato. Once you cut your produce, it can quickly rot before you have time to eat it. Spoiled produce can be frustrating and expensive, not to mention wasteful. A fruit and vegetable disk, like the ExtraLife Produce Preserver, takes care of that (http://bit.ly/Fruit-Veggie-disk). Fruit and vegetables emit ethylene gas as they ripen, which accelerates spoilage, so these affordable little disks aim to absorb rot-inducing gases and extend food’s shelf life in the process.
Copia
Another way to recycle your excess food: the Copia app (https://www.gocopia.com/how-it-works.html). For a small, volume-based fee, the app schedules pickups of your surplus food by certified food handlers, who safely deliver it to local nonprofits in need. You can track surplus trends, make better buying decisions, access tax deductions, and even receive photos from the people you fed. Download it today for a seamless food recovery that can make another’s holiday season happier.
Content was reproduced with permission from SIERRA, the national magazine of the Sierra Club, ©2017. The content was modified from the original article, 5 Ways to Cut Down on Post-Thanksgiving Food Scraps, by Ariel Gans | Nov. 21, 2017. (https://sierraclub.org/sierra/5-ways-cut-down-post-thanksgiving-food-scraps?suppress=true&utm_source=greenlife&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter)
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