Food Waste: Bad for our Pockets, Worse for our Environment

Listen up: Our food is responsible for a substantial source of Methane – a greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Food waste makes up nearly 15% of all municipal waste, which weighs in at 33 million tons. Not only that, but wasted food contributes to ozone destroying greenhouse gases lying in the landfill, but during the preparation of food as well.

In North America we make the most food waste on the planet, this may also coincide with the highest obesity rates, in that we prepare more, to eat more, and thus waste more. Many other nations are far more frugal with their food intake and wastefulness. Not to mention, food costs more in other parts of the world, with even Canadians paying more for groceries than Americans do. This reminds me of a saying, “if it doesn’t make dollars, than it don’t make sense,” meaning if the practice is costing us money, and everyone is feeling the crunch, than we really ought to do something about it, right?

One solution that is definitely not for the squeamish is to go right to the source and reuse what’s been discarded – that’s right, Dumpster Diving. Jeffry Seifert started off by dumpster diving for food near his Southern California home, but found this rapidly raised questions about why we waste so much food, at all. Seifert took his questions to the street, and with camera in hand directed the documentary “Dive,” which spent a good run on the film festival scene. Seifert poses the question of why the world food system allows over 1 billion people to be malnourished or starving, while more than a third of the worlds food is discarded.

With the scope of the problem so large, and with little being done, anything you can do is progress. Some are taking an extreme approach sourcing all or most of their food from dumpsters, while you may simply elect to start composting and remove your household’s food waste from the waste stream. We have discussed the benefits of composting before in Indian Time, but it cannot be stressed enough, 33 million tons of waste every year comes from home and commercial food waste. While you are at it you could be growing your own food, which consumes less energy than store bought veggies.

Other means of controlling waste are as simple as eating leftovers, or for those that cannot stand the same thing two nights in a row, use the leftovers as components in a new creation, like soup – remember, our parents did it for a reason. You can use vegetables you might not have chosen to use otherwise, by salvaging the good parts and composting the rest.

Planning your meals is a great way to reduce waste and save money. Calculate portion sizes and needed ingredients ahead of time. We have farther to travel for our groceries so it’s not always practical to run to the grocery store every day, but you can reduce your potential to waste substantially by purchasing smaller amounts of groceries.

Don’t forget to store your leftovers in a good sealable container. This will preserve freshness, and allow you to throw it in the freezer to preserve it as it approaches the end of its usefulness.

With some planning, a little extra preparation, and some creativity, you can enjoy much more of the food you buy and save money and the environment while you’re at it.