Going Green Tip of the Week

Goal: Reduce Food Waste

Why?

This is a tough one for me and although I have half-heartedly been attempting to reduce my food waste I really have not documented in any way our waste.  Remember that old saying about setting goals - you know, they have to be measurable and while the goal is measurable I have not been measuring and thus I'm sure I have been wasting a lot more than I ever thought I was.  So, I am going to attempt to join The Frugal Girl and post my waste every Friday.  I also really like how Mom's Plans documents her food waste by guesstimating how much each item costs that she throws away. 

So, let's get back on topic and address why it is important not to waste food.  Here are a few reasons why I think it is important and I'm sure there are many more out there (please comment and add on to the reasons:).

• I'm pretty certain we all know this, but it is like throwing away money (for Americans the total is 48 billion dollars according to The New York Times).  It is estimated that Americans throw out 1/3 to 1/2 of the food they purchase.  Now look at your budget (I'm looking at mine and shuddering right now) and figure out how much money that is.
• It wastes incredibly valuable resources like our fresh water that is used to grow/produce the food.  According to The New York Times we waste 10 trillion gallons of water a year with wasted food alone. 
• And according to the University of Texas the food we waste amounts to 350 million barrels of oil a year - oh my!!!  Oil and water are two things that are only going to become more scarce, we need to do what we can right now to stop or at least lessen this.
• Our food waste just ends up in a landfill, fills up the landfill (which is land that essentially can never be used again) and helps along global warming.
• Food waste is the number one product to enter landfills.  We produce more food waste than any other category entering landfills.  Can you believe that?????
• This food must decompose and when it decomposes it creates harmful greenhouse gases such as methane.  According to the EPA 20% of the methane production is coming from landfills where our food waste is decomposing. 

Municipal Solid Waste Discarded (by material) in 2009

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  Source: Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2009 Facts and Figures.

I know, I know, this is so much easier said than done and for that reason I am challenging myself to reduce and document my food waste.  Will you challenge yourself too?