Amy Hodgetts
According to statistics, up to 60 percent of household waste leads directly to the landfill which could be recycled. It’s vital for our environment that we increase our recycling habits and reduce our overall waste levels. We understand that recycling can be a tricky, as the strict rules of what to and not put in the correctly colored bin can be a daunting task. However, when it comes to food waste particularly, it’s important that they do go in the right bin as they can attract pests and rotten food being left in the wrong bin!
An easy place to start with food waste, would be to reduce the amount of food you’re wasting. Skip Hire company investigates the top food waste hacks that can help you reduce your food waste.
Get Rid of the Bad Habits
When it comes to food, there is chances you’ve may have unintendedly picked up some bad habits. By becoming more mindful toward the amount and the kind of food you are buying, you can reduce excess waste and develop better habits when it comes to your weekly shopping trip! Awareness is key for reducing your amount of food wastage, and simple changes can make a big difference.
Common bad food waste habits tend to be:
- Not classing food as money: Food waste costs families £700 per year! But many of us don’t consider food in terms of the price tag. It’s much easier to throw away a moldy loaf of bread than a £2 coin! The hack would be to think of food as currency, therefore you’ll surely be conscious of what you’re throwing away. A great way to get started is by writing a shopping list, to make sure that you are only buying items that you need.
- Leaving leftovers: Some people tend to avoid using left others, that can be reheated or used for other purposes. The hack for this would be to check online to see how to safely use up your left overs instead of scraping them straight in the bin, you may be able to use what’s left as a simple ingredient for your next meal.
- Keeping Up with Trends: For the likes of avocados, sure it’s a trendy food but if you’re unsure how to use it in a meal, then it will likely end up in the bin. The answer for this would be to research and educate yourself on unusual ingredients so you can know how to cook them before buying.
- Scraping Everything in the Bin: For many of us, this act tends to be thoughtless and second nature to us. While you’re cooking, packets and peels get chucked mid-process. You can consider placing these foods like vegetables and fruit peels in a compost bin. Have another bin next to your general bin for peels and natural food waste, then just chuck it out into the compost after you’re done cooking.
- Starting a Health Kick without Realizing How Fast Fruit and Vegetables Spoil: A common mistake that many of us make, that would be to clear our everything out of our fridges to make way for healthy fruit and veg that will assist our new kick. Then a week down the line, we discover to food has rotted in our fridges because they don’t last long. A hack for this, would be to freeze the food. Place the food into the freezer, which would help it last longer, especially if you prep meals and put portions in the freezer. Plus, you can make a healthy treat with frozen grapes — they keep and taste like sorbet!
- Forgotten food in the back of fridge: Another common scenario is finding horrors lurking in the back of the fridge. Cheese with mould so advanced you’re fairly certain you’ve cultivated life in the back of your fridge. Bacon you were going to make sandwiches with three weekends ago, but then you slept in and forgot you had it. To resolve this issue, bring a sense of order to your fridge. Have a shelf in the fridge and in the cupboard to put food that needs using up soon on. That way, it’s easier to find rather than getting forgotten at the bottom of the drawer. Plus, you can easily see what needs using up at a glance and make a meal of it.
With this guide in mind, you can prevent a lot of food waste occurring in your household.