As I mentioned in my Meal Planning Monday’s post I am so
excited to be taking part in the Glad Fresh Food Challenge (#GladFreshFoodChallenge).
My reason for initially signing up for it was because unfortunately as much as
I hate it I am just as guilty as the next person of wasting food every week. I
try not to but inevitably something always ends up in the bin. Usually it’s leftovers
but occasionally fruit and vegetables that have been forgotten about and are
past the point of being revived are thrown away as well.
As I said though, I am not alone with this issue. It turns
out that the average Canadian household spends $5572 per year on
groceries. Unfortunately, on average 13%
of that food is thrown out which is the equivalent of $725 worth of food ending
up in the garbage every year per family[1].
Worse still however is a recent report from the US that states that 40% of food
is wasted every year amounting to a shocking $165 billion a year in waste. Of
that total 14% of that waste comes from households throwing away food[2].
And in the UK it is reported that around
15 million tonnes of food is thrown away every year with almost 50% of that coming
from UK homes. That is the equivalent of the average household throwing away 6
meals a week![3]
The results are staggering and quite simply unnecessary, so
it’s time to stop and make a change. The fact of the matter is that a lot of
that food just doesn’t need to be thrown out and so with some careful planning,
taking the time for some basic food preparation and having the knowledge of how
to use or preserve your food, we can all attempt to cut down on the amount of
food we are throwing out every year. If you can do that not only will you
prevent so much food from being unnecessarily wasted but at the same time you
will also be saving yourself big bucks!
So as of today, October 1st, I am starting the
Glad Fresh Food Challenge. My challenge is to waste NOTHING for 2 weeks….not
even a single lettuce leaf. After researching the issue of food waste and
finding out just how much of a problem it is, I am genuinely excited to accept
this challenge. My hope is to share new ideas, tips and tricks of how to save
food and stop it from being thrown in the bin. I’ll update my blog in 1 week
with my progress but I will be updating my Facebook page every day so stay with
me and see how much food I can actually save in 2 weeks and keep good food from
going bad! Even better why not join me?! Let the challenge begin to keep good food from going, stop wasting and start saving!
Great challenge, Lyndsey. I've been trying to cut back on what I buy at the market and go more frequently for just the things needed for the next few days. I find I waste less when I adopt that shopping mentality. I also compost vegetables that have gone past so at least they help build soil for our gardens. Cutting waste is so important!
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan! I'm really happy to be doing it as it's showing me I waste more than I thought some weeks! We compost as well and I love it and definitely makes me feel a bit better about some of the things that are thrown out - at least they are being "recycled'!!
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