Thursday 4 September 2014

Zero Waste Week!

Did you know this week is Zero Waste Week?


I read something about it on Twitter and didn't realise it was into it's seventh year.....We generate about 177 million tonnes of waste every year in England alone....This poor use of resources costs businesses and households money and causes environmental damage....Zero Waste Week is to encourage participants to reduce landfill and rethink waste....

Did you know 4.2million tonnes of food and drink that could once have been eaten (not including crusts, peelings, bones etc) are thrown away from our homes each year!!


 Did you realise you can reduce food waste and save money?

There's nothing worse than going to the fridge and discovering that really expensive punnet of strawberries or posh dessert you'd been saving is way past its sell by date....When you chuck food in the bin, you're literally chucking money away!! Never a good feeling, especially when it can be avoided!

 Just a few simple changes to the way you shop and store food will save the world and your bank balance!!

 Write lists -- List out exactly what you need to buy before you go shopping and make sure you stick to it!

Store food properly - Once you've got the food home don't get lazy with how it's stored....Use cling film or resealable bags to keep opened packets of meat fresh, put fresh herbs in water, roll down and clip bags of cereal and dry pasta (or better still buy a tupperware food storage), use lots of airtight containers and always remember to put it back in the fridge. Sounds simple, but you'll save tons by not having to re-buy stuff that's gone off.

Avoid temptation - That means walking past amazing deals...You do not need two pizzas, 4 boxes or cereal of 3 loaves of bread no matter how cheap they might sound.

Get your portions right - Use an online portioning tool....It helps make sure you are only makeing the amount of food you actually need meaning nothing sits around in the fridge for days without getting eaten....

Learn to love the ugly stuff - Tons of fruit and veg is senselessly thrown away because its size, shape or colour doesn't quite match what it should look like....Though they might have fallen off the ugly tree most of these items are perfectly good to eat and should never be ignored. Bonus: it's often cheaper too....

Never shop hungry - Shopping when you're starving is never a good idea. You'll pick up tons of stuff that looks amazing to your poor empty belly but has nothing to do with those sensible dinner plans you dreamt up this morning....Grab a glass of fruit juice or a healthy snack before you head to the supermarket...It will make all the difference to how much you spend. ...

Be realistic - If you rarely cook, or you're not going to be home a whole lot over the next few days don’t stock up fresh goods....You'll just end up throwing them away and throwing money down the drain while you're at it....

A free lunch - If you still have leftovers bag it up for a free packed lunch tomorrow....Soup and pasta dishes are a particularly nice treat heated up the next day!

Preserve produce - Fresh produce can start to look pretty sad very quickly, but that doesn't mean it's unusable.....Blend soft fruit into smoothies and chuck wilting vegetables into stews and soups....

Know your labels - Date labels can be confusing, but really there are only two labels you need to pay attention to.

'Best before' dates refer to the quality of food, rather than how safe it is to eat. Food with a ‘best before’ date should be safe to eat after the ‘best before’ date displayed on the packet, but the quality of the food may not be at its' best.

'Used by' refers to how safe it is to eat the food. Food can be eaten up to the end of this date, but not after, even if it looks and smells fine.

Recycle - If you're not already recycling food waste, there's no time like the present....Food scraps can be gathered and turned into compost in a food caddy so if you're still not eating your vegetables at least you'll know they're doing some good, somewhere, like powering people's homes or fertilizing crops...

http://www.coldteaandsmellynappies.co.uk/thrifty-thursday/

12 comments :

  1. That's a lot of waste! Great tips there, thanks for sharing.

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  2. Great post! The I Quit Sugar book I'm working from at the moment is really against waste so there's loads of stuff to do with leftovers. Am having leftover chicken for lunch! Thanks for linking up with #WeekendBlogHop!

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    1. Good luck with quitting sugar.....The book sounds very useful x

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  3. I hate throwing stuff away. Our freezer gets a lot of use when I realise stuff is about to go off.

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    1. My freezer has more leftovers in there then bought food....I really need to sort it out.

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  4. I genuinely have 3 loaves of bread waiting for me when I get home tonight. Seemed like a great offer until I realised the freezer was already full of prepared meals. Sandwich anyone?!

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  5. Great advice here! It takes a bit of effort, but now that I have some more time with Austin starting school, I'm going to be following these tips.

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  6. Thanks for sharing about zero waste week with your readers and I love your tips. I find 'popping into the shop' is one of the worst - you invariably come home with £20 of stuff that then needs using up. I hope you're enjoying the week and making progress on food waste!

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  7. These are so useful advices! What I do in order to reduce the waste at home is to shop only with a shopping list. Another thing is that I buy most of the vegetables and fruit from the nearby farm. I also use only glass bottles to drink water and I do not use any plastic bags, only my fabric shopping bag.

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  8. I follow most of these steps shown by you here in the article but it is pleasant to see someone using them properly. I do admit, we have to be very realistic about the food and wastage of it.

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  9. I always try to be realistic when setting my goals during zero waste week. For the last year my family has minimum to no food wastage. We try to reuse old books, TVs, jeans and jackets. My husband and daughters are drinking from glass bottles, we definitely said 'yes' to the no-plastic life. We love it.

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