Love Food? Hate Waste
15 Oct 2019
Do you know we Kiwis throw away a whopping $62 million worth of bread every year?*
What’s more astonishing is that this is only a small portion of our total $1.17 billion worth of total edible food waste.
For the average Kiwi household, that s $644 worth of wasted food a year!*
Not only is it a waste of money but unwanted food decomposing in landfill releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.
Fortunately, there are some very simple ways to reduce food wastage, save money and help the planet.
Start by storing bread in the freezer. Defrost only what you need. Freeze leftover meals as well as surplus fruit (for use later in smoothies). Use chiller bins and store cut-up veggies in airtight containers to keep them fresh longer.
Learn the difference between 'use by' and 'best before' dates you could be throwing out perfectly edible food.
For food that really is inedible, here are three alternatives to the rubbish bin.
Traditional Composting This is a great way to convert limp or spoiled produce, inedible stalks, leaves and vegetable peelings into fertile soil.
Worm Farming Start with just a handful of these slippery creatures in a tub to create a powerful composting machine. Ask your garden centre for advice on how to set up a worm farm.
Bokashi Bin Developed in Japan for apartment dwellers, bokashi is an increasingly popular alternative to an outdoor compost pile.
Add virtually any food to your bucket fruit, vegetables, seafood, meat, eggs, cheese, cooked and processed foods then add a sprinkle of bokashi mix (available from your garden centre).
Over about four weeks, food scraps ferment to produce both a liquid fertiliser you can add (diluted) to the garden and a solid compost.
At around $80 to set up, it’s a cost effective, environmentally friendly way to get the most from unwanted food.
*Source: www.lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz
