Two weeks ago I made about #PlasticFreeJuly: Be More Enviromentally Friendly, and how July is being a month of awareness of how much waste we produce on this little planet of ours. While plastic is one of the massive causes, food is also a massive thing that we are wasting in our everyday lives, and that’s what I want to highlight in today’s post.
Last Monday I ventured off to a talk all about how to stop food waste and how to be more sustainable with our food/food waste. It was a very interesting talk hosted by Taz Kelleher, co-founder of Sustainable Fashion Dublin, and from that she has created Sustainable Food Dublin; along with her she had Dee Laffan of Food and Wine Ireland, Eoin Cluskey from Bread41 Dublin, and Stop Waste Ireland all sharing their tips and tricks on how you can be more aware of what you are wasting.
Here are some of the key things I took from the talk:
- The making of 1 quarter-pounder burger = a 90 minute shower!
- Even if a cup, plastic or paper, says it’s decompose-able unless you recycle it properly/put it in a compost bin, it’s actually causing more damage to the environment, due to the gasses the cup emits while in general waste. You’re better off just using reusable cups and bottles.
- While shopping, try and avoid foods that are wrapped in plastic. If you can buy your fruits and veg loose, it’s much better than buying them in plastic. Some supermarkets allow you to discard of plastic off their produce at checkout and sometimes even have bins provided.
- Composting is key to fueling our planets natural resources.
- Try and avoid processed foods whenever possible.
- Be the solution, not the problem. If you feel overwhelmed with all these new things, try take on even just 1 new habit every month. Start with reusable cups this month. Something else next month, and so on until these habits are everyday life.
Solutions to Help Prevent Food Waste:
- Plan your meals for the week before going shopping. Only buy as you need, never ‘just in case’.
- Try keeping leftover foods in clear containers. You’re more likely to want to use the food quicker before it goes bad if you can see what’s in the container as opposed to coloured containers, or containers you can’t see through.
- Try not go by best before/use by dates. Use your senses to your advantage, sight, smell and taste. Just because produce says use by 07/12/19, it’s not automatically going to go expire at midnight.
- Buy local, buy fresh. When buying meat and fruit and veg, try shop from your local butcher, markets, and fishmongers. Also don’t be afraid to ask questions about where the produce is from.
4 Key Things You Can Do To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint:
- Eat Less Meat — Try having one meat free day a week.
- Buy Seasonally — find out what fruits and veg grow in each season, and try to eat them when they’re ‘in season’, as that’s when they are at their best.
- Buy Local — buy from your local butcher, fishmonger and markets, as opposed to buying from massive supermarket chains.
- Cut down your food waste. There’s very little food that can’t go in your food waste bin, but that doesn’t mean we should just chuck it in there. Try freezing leftover portions, or heck even feed it to the dog (once its safe for them of course).
Our generation are probably one of the most wasteful generations in existence, and it’s now more than ever that we need to become more and more aware of what we’re consuming, how we’re consuming and what we’re going to do to change that going into the future!
If you’ve any questions, feel free to ask, and I’ll answer to the best of my ability, and if I can’t answer, I’ll veer you in the right direction!
🙂
Dean Kealy Blog 