Food Waste Audit Diary May 2019

themadvix

Interesting idea TTB - I shall follow the thread with interest (we don't waste much, but know I'd never keep up with weighing it in every day to follow along).

Pity about the pesto, but it happens to us all (well, definitely me!)!

tighteningthebelt

early tea...
170g total
95g avoidable in the form of living pesto (i admit i didn't actually weigh it, but have guessed quite carefully), and a few grams of damaged potato.
65g unavoidable comprising; teabags, onion skins, ground elder stalks (could have just snipped the leaves off and left the stalks behind, but didn't!), pepper core and seeds, coffee grounds, apple core.

i'm doing well (except the pesto) partly because I'm on the leftovers part of the household food cycle... My fridge has no less than 6 tubs of already made or already prepped stuff in (a lovely sight), and i'm here on my own mostly this week.
Variables incoming at the weekend though!!

freyasmum

I do believe that I'm the only person who actually enjoys eating the heel of a loaf :rotfl:

stirchleygirl

tighteningthebelt

Thanks for starting this thread (I'm following you over to this from the frugal thread) one of my aims for this year was to cut down on my food waste as being single and disabled I had noticed that my food waste had been increasing over the years of my disability.

I haven't had to throw any avoidable food away (not counting the years out of date yoghurt sachet homemade yoghurts making disaster that I posted about a few weeks ago) since starting my challenge.

I eat potatoes with skins on baked and boiled. I mostly buy frozen veg as it lasts longer with no waste being a single person (other posters have highlighted the issue of pack sizes/prices and variety when buying fresh food for one) I also buy some frozen fruit (use in smoothies) for the same reasons. I appreciate that the waste is therefore transferred to the companies that freeze these but I have no control over what they waste.

Interesting points that you raised as I had not considered the unavoidable waste like banana skins dry onion skins tops and tails of fresh veg etc - so there has been some 'food' waste from me in the unavoidable category. I am having some work done on my back garden (terracing and slabs and hand rails to make it safer form me) and have purchased a compost bin which will be put in place sometime this year when they finish the work - so whilst according to your academic it will still be classed as waste I will be happier that this unavoidable waste will be being composted instead of going in my black bin bag destined to landfill (no food waste collection from my council).

It is amazing that lot of what people class as veg waste is peeling skins off (out of habit because that how it's always been done) when most skins are edible and cutting off and discarding outer leaves of cauliflower or stems on broccoli and the green parts of spring onions only eating the small white part (obviously cut off the very ends of the green if they are dry or yucky) or peeling off the outer layer of a spring onion out of habit even if it is perfectly fine to eat and hasn't gone cry or yucky.

On the tea bag front most bags contain plastic so buy tea leaves and use a device (of your choosing to fit your needs see https://bestreviews.com/best-tea-infusers to asses the different types - other reviews can be found with a quick g00gle search) to hold the tea thus avoiding a single use (or 6+ use for those that stretch tea bags to more than one cup) plastic.

I'll be avidly following this thread to help inspire me.

Suffolk_lass

freyasmum wrote: »

I do believe that I'm the only person who actually enjoys eating the heel of a loaf :rotfl:

No, no, me too. I just don't buy it any more. It is from my childhood and evocative of my late Dad. He and Mum used to have bread and gravy for tea occasionally. Using up the sauce from the brown stew. He would hollow out the crust (about an inch thick) to form a little bowl for the gravy.

He would do the same with bread and warm milk, with a little sprinkle of sugar - this was a regular Saturday night supper when he got home from his second (Saturday night) job as a pools checker, around 9.30-10pm.

And once Mum got a freezer, she used to save stale bread and make bread pudding (it is to these make do practices that I owe my sylph-like figure! - not!)

[Deleted User]

I have a very minute wastage in my house as I like to use as much up as I can probably the tea bag is the hardest to sort out Although when I am doing pots for my patio I will line with used tea bags which hold the water and slowly release it which is helpful when I am away and they are in need of some dampness. The only bit of the pepper I don't use is the core and the stalk I will even dice up the ' lid' once the stalk bit has been removed .Egg shells get ground up and go round said pots on the patio or round garden plants to deter slugs as they don't like to cross the sharp bits .Re the orange bits on lettuce if you tear the lettuce or cut with a plastic knife you won't get the browning quite so much literally only the stub end core of an iceberg gets binned in my kitchen I slice the thick stalks of broccoli up and freeze them and use in stews and casseroles. Mushroom stalks get the same treatment as well I do use past ts best veg for soup as I make my own soups every week.I don't have a bread problem as I don't buy or eat bread but my DD donates her end bit to me if needed and it gets grated up and either frozen for later use or makes a nice crispy topping for cauliflower cheese. I have one of those small bags from the supermarket and that is my waste bin and once a week it is filled up Tins, I wash out and recycle along with bottles. jam or pickle jars I save and give to my friend, and get eventually in return a jar of jam or pickles when she is making it I do the same with chutney as well. I only try to buy what I actually need when I shop and do my best not to buy things unnecessarily. Envelopes are reused as scrap paper for shopping list etc. Its quite easy to cut back on waste once you get into the mind set but you really have to think about what you are buying and will you really eat it .I use my freezer for almost everything and at the moment I am eating from it in the hope of running it down to defrost

Vanlady

Freyasum - I also love the heels of a loaf, but toasted with lots of butter and marmalade:p!

TTB - loving this new thread! Am enjoying reading about how your challenge is going and also everyone's comments , I'm learning so much!
Very little food waste, if any, goes on in the van clan, I'm very good at eating up leftovers, no matter how big or small, or reinventing them into something else , or freezing them, but I had never thought about the unavoidable waste before.
Thank you JackieO for your useful tips about egg shells and teabags for garden use!
I like to give things a second life wherever possible.

Suffolk_lass

Inspirational post from JackieO - I am definitely taking the T-bags in pots idea on board!

tighteningthebelt

Thank you for all the great suggestions ...

my dad still mops up gravy/juice with bread!

i always chop my lettuce through whole, but of course leaf by leaf would be better, and i can see the logic of tearing. i did check the label before i threw it out tonight and it was best before 17th April though, maybe some people might have chucked the lot out (nobody here though!!)

It's just been me today, mostly eating up pre-prepped food, though the pineapple has finally been tackled, at a great cost to my averages!
avoidable 10g the last of the lettuce (it's a liability!)
unavoidable 475g of which an astonishing 410g was the peel of the pineapple, incl it's top and bottom. It wasn't cut off in great chunks or any other extravagance, that's just how much the minimum weighed. there you go... national food waste problem sorted...just stop it with the pineapples!! :rotfl:
other than that, there was the stalk and seeds of a pepper, a little coffee grounds and the teabags (which i've saved to get potted up with the next planting, cheers)

Brambling

Tighteningthebelt I've heard you can make pineapple tea from the rind, I haven't tried it so can't tell you if it's any good . You can also grow the top (crown) but I think that's a slow process.