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Holiday Season Waste Food Avoidance
HOLIDAY SEASON
FOOD WASTE AVOIDANCE
In Liverpool and across New South Wales generally, households throw away a lot of food. Nearly half the contents of the average general red-lid rubbish bin are food materials, including some that could have been eaten but for whatever reason ended up in the bin instead.
An EPA survey estimates the average New South Wales household is throwing out $1,036 of wasted food each year, a staggering amount. About 800,000 tonnes of household food waste is disposed of across the state every year, not counting restaurant and industry contributions.
As we head into the holiday season, we tend to over cater and end up with a large amount of left-over food, a significant portion of which ends up as rubbish.
How much is food waste costing you?
This holiday season, avoid tossing food in the bin by taking these steps
• Planning is key - try not to over prepare food; instead try to prepare “just enough”:
• Encourage friends and family to take leftovers home.
• Use good practice and appropriate containers when storing food, zip lock bags and sealed containers are the best options.
• Store leftovers in the freezer to enjoy as another meal.
• The NSW EPA’s ‘Love food, hate waste’ website has some easy recipes of how to turn left over food into tasty meal ideas.
• Plan a menu • Create a guest list • Create a food budget and shopping list • Take stock of what you already have and limit your food shopping to items you need for the number of guests you are expecting • Stick to your list
