Food Waste Audit Diary May 2019

trailingspouse

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, as I'm having to draw my horns in big time. As my mother would say - every penny's a prisoner. So, as it happens, I've been keeping track of my avoidable food waste since the end of February!
So far - 1/4 cucumber and 1/2 red pepper (this was early on, when I hadn't got into a routine yet with shopping and meal planning). Another 1/4 cucumber, 2 slices of bread (went mouldy, thrown to the birds), 2 satsumas, 1 banana, 1/2 an apple, and 1 hot cross bun (burnt to a crisp!). No avoidable food waste at all since Easter, which I'm very proud of. And I've started slicing my cucumbers a bit thicker, to make sure I get through a whole one before it goes off. I've realised I don't eat as much fruit as I thought I did/ought to. So I either need to buy less or eat more!

I've been thinking about how much water I waste as well. The amount I waste while waiting for the hot water to come through is what bugs me the most, so I've started to 'harvest' it. I put a bucket under the shower to collect the cold water, which I then use for flushing the loo.
As to unavoidable waste, I haven't been recording it, but I generally cook from fresh so there's probably a fair amount (which is ironic in the extreme!!). Just today, off the top of my head - 1 tea bag, chicken carcass (after the bones had been boiled for stock), skin from swede, onion skins, another tea bag, apple core. There might very well be another tea bag - the night is yet young... I don't peel potatoes, so there's no waste there.
I shop on a Friday, so I'll start recording my unavoidable waste for the full week starting tomorrow. I can feel that the whole 'avoiding waste' concept is becoming a bit of a thing for me!

themadvix

Very interesting about the pineapples from Iceland SL, didn't know that. Like TTB, I think both arguments have their valid points, but the environmental cost of shipping from the tropics does still have a huge impact on carbon emissions - will keep an eye out for Icelandic pineapples from now on though! (As DH can't stand the things, they are a rare treat for me, rather than an everyday purchase.)

Vanlady

What a great thread, it's good not to be complacent about how our food is produced or where it food comes from.
And I agree, I had no idea that pineapples were produced in Iceland! And I too will be looking out for these. And yes, they are a rare treat for me too.
I thought I had very little food waste but never considered the unavoidable waste before.
I eat up/hoover up/reinvent leftovers no matter what as I can't stand the idea of food waste.....all that time, energy and money put into that resource!
If I have any veg or fruit that looks like it's on the turn or needs eating up, I'll either turn it into a pudding or....my latest thing......blend it up and have as a smoothie. My breakfast the other day was a smoothie made from a few radishes, quarter of a cucumber and some kale. Can't say it tasted that great though ::T
Ps loving the pineapple discussions. ...I think it could even warrant a thread of its own:D

AnimalTribe

Vanlady wrote: »

.....all that time, energy and money put into that resource!

Well put, that's exactly how I feel, about food and the stuff we use in general. I'll try to give as many things a useful life for as long as I can.

Suffolk_lass

I don't want to encourage you all to go scouring the shops for Icelandic pineapples - I do not know if they grow them in enough volume to export them - they don't export their bananas.

That said, they grow a few thousand tonnes and I suspect they started this to prove the value of geothermic heating systems to other major producers. It was a government representative that was showing a group of us round at the time - and it certainly offers a fall-back option for their own supplies, should a major virus impact growing in traditional locations, again, like the banana crops.

Now bananas, there is a whole other crop we could discuss - they are moved here by vessel and then weighed, gassed with ethylene (to make them start ripening) and then moved to the distribution points - and only certain ports with the right approved equipment are allowed to accept them as a UK import. Fascinating... - I wonder what the environmental impact of gassing bananas is?

trailingspouse

My unavoidable waste so far today has been... 3 teabags, and the dregs of 3 mugs of tea poured down the sink. I'm already thinking that I'll go for loose tea when this box of teabags has been used - it won't cut down the unavoidable waste by much, but am I right in thinking you can use the tea leaves to improve the soil? Or is that coffee grounds? Or both??


Just googled it - you can use both!! Right, that's sorted then. With the amount of tea I drink, my soil is going to be fabulous!!

tighteningthebelt

15g avoidable, trimmings from potato and carrot.
90g unavoidable, orange peel, teabags, pear and apple minimal remnants, fish skin, courgette end, plum stones.
Just me eating.
It's been a long day, so I'll catch up with posts tomorrow.

[Deleted User]

came home from my few days away last night and so far I have had three tea bags (my garden pots are all done now ) some coffee grounds from my cafetiere this morning and two satsuma peels.
I have some slightly sprouty spuds to peel later and turn into mashed potato balls for the freezer so that will be unavoidable waste for today I think although a couple of the less sprouty ones will be unpeeled and turned into wedges for tonights dinner I think I too save waste water from the shower before it starts to run warm and if it doesn't go on my lawn/shrubs then I use it to flush the loo.

mrsjanebanbury2009

Well, I did not know that! I've always thought bananas=OK for exactly that reason, that they are shipped rather than flown, so thank you!

HelenPetersBeads

I was out walking with a friend yesterday, she thought the 'just prep/eat a slice of pineapple rather than the whole lot' way of managing it was a great idea as well. As we said to each other we'd not prep a whole cucumber in one go (I would though, during peak 'salad season' where it would be eaten in about 2 days flat), so why do we tend to do it with pineapples????

I've clicked the links to the food waste websites but not yet got round to reading them so I have a couple of questions......

Regarding scraps we feed to the cat/dog/son's new rats/birds in the garden. If I buy tinned dog food then is that classed as food waste? If I buy fresh meat specifically for the dog, for instance there's a really good YS deal for chicken and as the poor love walked 8½ miles yesterday I thought I'd treat him to fresh food for a change; is that then treated as food waste? But if he gets left overs/plate scrapings INSTEAD of his own food it is? So surely his own tinned food should count as 'waste'?

Tea bags: are you weighing them wet or do you have the weight of a dry one on a post-it on the fridge and you just tick off each time you use one? Just wondering, coz tea comes dry but we make it wet which affects the weight. That was just a musing/wondering on my behalf, I'm not trying to wind anyone up by suggesting they're cheating or fiddling the results......

p.s. The dog didn't get fresh chicken, even if it had been on offer he stole and scoffed the cat's brekkie before we went out so wouldn't have got a treat anyway!

p.p.s Someone above said they'd go onto tea leaves when they finished this box of tea bags as leaf tea can be used on the garden; you can tear tea bags open and empty them after use. Just saying. And on that note I'm going to pry my backside away from the computer and go and empty the used coffee pods I have sat on the kitchen worktop into the recycling (for the plastic bit) and a pot (for the coffee grounds) to empty onto the garden.