Convenience is the enemy when it comes to food waste. If it wasn’t so easy to toss unwanted edibles into the bin without so much as a second thought, we wouldn’t be throwing away millions of tonnes of perfectly usable food every year, and wasting a third of all food produced worldwide. Tackling food waste isn’t just about reducing convenience, though – even if you stowed away your kitchen bin on the roof of your home, some unnecessary food waste would probably find its way there. Habits are hard to break.
You might not have to give food a second thought once you’ve chucked it and closed the lid, but someone else does – with unmanageably large heaps of food being sent to landfill every single day, it’s only a matter of time before capacity simply runs out. Of course, food recycling efforts go some way towards solving the problem, but statistics show that many people don’t recycle food waste because they consider it messy, smelly and too much hassle.
At InSinkErator we’re proud to have been pioneering a powerful machine that revolutionises your kitchen, keeps food waste out of landfill and keeps convenience firmly in the picture for nearly 100 years. But even as we continue to precision engineer compact, affordable food waste disposers to suit every kitchen, we’re passionate about promoting low-tech ways to stop food waste too. Here are five creative ideas for keeping food away from the bin...
Make use of peelings
Every time you use a carrot, potato, parsnip or just about anything else that grows in the ground, it’s instinctive to throw the peelings into the waste bin the moment you’ve put the peeler down. It’s even worse if you’re not concentrating on what you’re doing and end up peeling off half the vegetable too.
You might not want these trimmings on your roast dinner plate but that doesn’t mean they’re not edible. You can freeze them, put them in a soup and use them to make stock, so you’ll find that you save on money as well as waste. Get creative with your peelings and give them some love – after all, they’re just as tasty and nutritious as the rest of your veg.
Build a compost pile
Virtually any of the food that you send to landfill could go into your garden. Composting is not only an environmentally friendly alternative, but makes for really nutrient-rich soil. Preparing a compost pile in your garden is a great gardening activity that the kids can get involved in too – and down the line it can give you some beautiful flowers and plants. Make sure that you start with bare earth and lay twigs and leaves as a base, and keep it moist by watering it regularly.
Use rescue recipes
Whether it’s turning the last dregs of chilli con carne into enchiladas or throwing surplus toast into a bread and butter pudding, there’s almost always something creative that can be done with your leftovers – as long as they’ve not been festering at the back of the fridge for three weeks. You won’t believe how far some recipes will take your food – saving you money and time by having to prepare fewer meals from scratch every day. And if you can’t think of anything to do with it right now, freeze it. Inspiration might strike in a few months’ time!
Take a look at BBC Good Food for all sorts of creative leftover recipe ideas.
Start pickling vegetables
It’s easy to forget that we’ve not had fridges for very long. Only a few generations ago we had to come up with far more inventive ways to preserve food for longer – and pickling has long been one of the most popular methods. It not only allows you to keep hold of vegetables and other food items for much longer, but you can get as creative as you like. All you need to do is start with a 1:1 ratio of boiling water to vinegar, and then you can use spices and seasonings to make different pickles. They’ll make things taste even better than they did in the first place.
Get a food waste disposer
OK, we’re bending the rules a little bit here as we’re the ones who’ve been creative. But if you install a food waste disposer under your sink, it’ll merge seamlessly into your existing pipe system and you won’t believe how streamlined it makes your kitchen. You can put most unwanted food into a food waste disposer where it’ll be ground down into particles tiny enough to flush straight into your waste water system – keeping it out of landfill and saving you from scraping dinner leftovers from the side of the bin.
