Reduce Food Waste: Easy Ways to Promote Sustainability

Banner designed by Amy Oh

This semester, in line with our mission to promote sustainability and social good, EthiCAL Apparel is focusing on promoting personal sustainability through 4 main pillars: Shop Local, Reuse, Fast Fashion, and Food Waste. Today, we are going to discuss food waste!

Did you know that a shocking 40% of food in America is never even eaten? And yet, one in eight Americans will struggle to put enough food on the table. I’m a firm believer that it’s the small things we do in our everyday lives that will make the biggest changes. By working together, we can all do our part in helping to equalize food security across the country and even help out the environment. And better yet, it’s a lot easier than you might think!

Here are a few tips and tricks to help alleviate food waste:

1. Don’t overshop! Try to keep a checklist of what is already in your fridge so that you don’t end up buying more food than you need.
2. Bring your own reusable containers to stores. Rather than grabbing plastic bags, consider bringing your own container! Stores like whole foods are already geared towards encouraging this with their bulk bins.
3. When buying takeout, try not to use plastic utensils. It sounds a bit odd, but you can carry around a set of utensils to use! People are already starting to use metal straws rather than plastic ones and this would be no different.
4. Utilize food waste for fertilizer and compost!
5. Remember that “ugly” food is still good food! A few quirks in appearance will not alter the taste of the food!

Another great option would be to cook with normally underutilized parts of foods! It’s a lot of fun! Think fruit seeds or vegetable scraps; all of these can be made into something new and tasty! Even fruit peelings can be made into something like candied peel! Think of fun ways to spice up your everyday cooking! Here are some links to some fun things you can do with these:

• https://www.motherearthliving.com/food-and-recipes/sustainable-food/eat-whole-plants-zm0z17sozkel
• https://www.godairyfree.org/news/sustainable-recipes-earth-day

Hope everyone is staying safe! Look out for one another! We’ll get through this together! :)

Author: Eric Liu| Editors: Sarah Roberts & Amy Oh | Graphic: Amy Oh| Team: Social Good

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