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Did you know Zero Waste Week has taken please each September since 2008? No I didn’t either. It’s an annual campaign to stop us throwing away anything that can be reused. Because after all there is “no away”. It’s galling that we are still needing to campaign as strongly now, 9 years later.
I’ve had the opportunity to read “Left over Pie” by Anna Pitt this week. With 101 ideas on how to reduce your waste, there’s got to be something we can all implement? Anna’s style is clear and very accessible.
In 2015, household waste stood at 7.3 million tonnes (Source: Wrap) That’s around a quarter of all the food and drink that we buy. Fortunately, these food waste figures are heading in the right direction; the previous annual waste figure from 2007 was 8.3 million tonnes. (Source:Wrap)
The history of food waste
I found the first section particularly interesting: The history of food waste. With all the snippits we tend to read, this is a great overview to where it all started in one place. How did we get to the stage where we need all our vegetables and fruit to be exactly uniform? (Rather like exhibiting at a local gardening show where shape rather than taste matters).
Why food is wasted
The second section suggests discusses why we waste much of our food. Is it the fault of the supermarkets with confusing best before and use by dates? Habit? Portion size? Any and all of these probably.
Making the most of your food
Enough of the background, the third section suggests how we can make the most of our food. Are you guilty of a fridge full of jars of “things” stuck at the back that you’ll get round to using sometime? The fridge just slows down decay, it doesn’t stop it.
One revelation for me, you can actually eat banana skin when cooked!
And so on to the part that we’ve been waiting for, those 101 recipes that will help us reduce waste from preserving to making better use of leftovers. Whether you are a meat eater or not, there’s something here for everyone.
Find out more
I am pretty good at minimising food waste, but I’ve still lots to learn as does the United Kingdom! Maybe the UK can make a radical decision as Costa Rica has done to ban all single use plastic(video)
- Check out the Zero Waste siteZero Waste site for tips for householders, businesses and schools.
- Buy Anna Pitt’s book Left Over Pie .
- Head over to Pebble Magazine for 4 easy-to-make recipes that help reduce food waste.
- Check out the hashtag #zerowasteweek for other fascinating articles.