Buy Less, Waste Less, Compost the Rest: What Can We Do Right Here, Right Now.

I’m moving through the aisle in the local grocery store, looking for where they've hidden the coffee creamer; in front of me sits a giant shopping basket, like a bathtub, full of evaporated milk cans.  At first blush, this impulse buy display strikes me as very odd.  When was the last time I impulsively bought evaporated milk?  Then I remember, “It’s October and pie season is just a few weeks away.”

When we think of challenges to living sustainably, food waste is probably not one of the first things that comes to mind.  But, it’s no coincidence that this issue of Sustainability Sundays comes as we all prepare to slide into the relaxed waistband of feasting season. 

Holiday food excess wouldn’t be such a problem if it didn’t spill over into the whole year, like holiday marketing itself.  According to the climate change resource, Project Drawdown, nearly one third of all edible food gets wasted and that waste accounts for nearly 8% of all greenhouse global emissions.  There is good news, however, if we can reign it in a little!  Cutting global food waste in half by 2050 avoids emitting an estimated 26.2 gigatons of CO2. This reduction prevents additional deforestation for farmland saving another 44.4 gigatons.  No small impact there for a little more efficiency and intention in our everyday routines!

Not surprisingly, cutting waste also saves money, in addition to curbing emissions.  A recent USDA study suggests that the American consumer wastes as much as a pound of food per day. In 2010 this cost us 161 billion dollars or $525 per person, $2100 for a family of four.  This could be an additional rent or mortgage payment, retirement or college savings contribution, or a lot of other things that could help the average family. 

So, if that’s the bad news, what can be done right now?  Our Sustainability Sunday blogs are intended to provide resources and tangible ideas that you can implement right now, while  celebrating what people ARE doing that make a difference every single day!

Buy Less, Store Less…Buy Perishables More Frequently

Our shopping patterns have changed through living in a tiny space over the last 7 years.  Our grocery bills are lower because we simply don’t have the room to store a lot of food, just a couple of cupboards and one cooler.  But, our shopping habits apply to anyone living in a more traditionally-sized home:

• Shop with just a hand basket (or tiny cart), not a full-sized cart.   When it’s full, you’ll head to the checkout.  No room for impulse buys in there.
• Buy perishables more frequently.  They’ll be fresher, tastier, healthier…and won’t rot in the back of your fridge.
• Buy what you need for a specific meal(s), then use it in the next 2-3 days.
• Plan your shopping schedule around your local Farmer’s Market.
• Buy “Ugly Produce.”  Many producers waste vast amounts of perfectly good tasting food, by prioritizing good looking and idealized vegetables during production.  Buying products for taste and not just looks helps create a market and an incentive for producers to bring more slightly crooked carrots to market. It can also save you money.
• If you aren't part of a CSA, join one!  Use their suggested recipes to prepare those less popular vegetables...Kohlrabi Quiche anyone?  Note: If your CSA doesn’t have a “donate what you won’t eat” box, create one.  This can be for others who love that kohlrabi, or can be donated to the local food bank each week rather than rot in your fridge.
• Downsize the fridge, rather than up size.  Thinking of a kitchen remodel? Go smaller, not bigger.  Donate your current fridge to a non-profit, or after-school program.  
• Donate the second fridge in the basement while you’re at it.  You’ll save money two ways -- by lowering your electric bill and buying less food that doesn’t end up on your plate.  You’ll also burn less coal in producing the electricity to your house. 
• Use online grocery shopping and delivery to save time and eliminate impulse buys.  You can take stock of what you have in your kitchen, as you make the purchase.  We learned this trick from some friends that we recently visited. 

Intrigued?  Want more reading material?  Mr. Money Mustache blogs about saving money on food.

 Waste Less

In an ironic twist, our big American fridges and reliable electrical grid seem to encourage waste rather than prevent it.  Despite lacking proper refrigeration, Project Drawdown found that household food waste isn’t really a problem in the lowest income economies across the world.   

So, what if we actually listened to our fathers’ advice and looked at the food we waste as money going down the drain?  If every American put the money they threw away, $1.43 in cash, down the garbage disposal at the end of each day, things might change more quickly. 

In addition to buying small, here are a few other ways we limit our waste:

• Purposely make enough dinner so that you’ll have enough leftovers to become lunch for tomorrow. If you have just a little bit leftover, the temptation to just throw it out is much greater.  
• Eat (or freeze) those leftovers!  So many foods actually taste better the next day – soup, lasagna, chili, etc.  We don’t have a microwave, so we just reheat in a pan on the stove.  
• Keep track of what you have and what “needs to be eaten,” then prioritize meals around those items.
• Re-purpose what you might otherwise throw out; we turn older carrots and broccoli stems into “broccoli slaw.”  Add some spicy ranch dressing and you have an awesome cruciferous crunch to go with Taco Tuesday.  This is just one easy example, and the video below will inspire others.
• Glean!  We know quite a few people who "dumpster shop," and have done this ourselves. Not because we can't afford to buy it, but because it's quality food that is just past its "sell by" date,  still very edible, but can't be sold.  We used to attend a weekly "community dinner" in Bar Harbor, ME that was 100% gleaned food.
• Keep chickens. We've visited friends in suburban areas and volunteered on farms who keep chickens where table scraps never get wasted -- they just become fresh eggs.

If you haven’t yet seen “Wasted: The Story of Food Waste,” put it on your list.  We think every home, school, church, business, and restaurant should watch this documentary.  We knew a lot of this stuff before watching, and we were still blown away by the rich ideas and innovations of these celebrity chefs. 

Compost the Rest

This guy bikes around New Haven, Connecticut, picking up peoples’ food scraps, and hauling it away to a composting facility.  How bad ass is that? 

We met Domingo, founder of Peels & Wheels Composting, in the parking lot of our friends’ apartment complex where he emptied resident’s food scrap buckets into the larger bins on his small, but sturdy bike trailer.  Call this coincidence or providence, we don’t care; this was a timely meeting.  


We had just been thinking about this exact thing the week prior, after learning about Pedal People, the bike hauling company who won the city waste contract in Northampton, MA – they also haul compost.  You see, we love compost.  We love that it happens, with or without our intent.  We love what it does to make healthy soil and grow healthy, delicious food.  We also love bikes, so getting them together seemed an obvious connection.  But how amazing to run into one of the people who see the same connection and has taken action!

Domingo used to be on the faculty at Yale, where the intellectual atmosphere drove him to distraction -- lots of thinking not so much doing.  “The research was good but it was all for some journal to put up on a shelf and collect dust. I needed to be out in the community doing something,” he admitted.  His service charges $7.50 per week to regularly collect household food waste for folks who either don’t have space for a compost pile or don’t want to deal with it.  In return, members can collect compost for their household plants or gardens, or they can donate their share to a cooperative farm project.  Peels & Wheels employs about 5 other riders who move throughout the city on pick-up routes.  As demand grows, he'll be able to hire more riders  In addition to curbing global warming, they are creating green jobs.  This local movement could not have a more charming, and passionate advocate, who could also be a finalist for best legs in Connecticut, -- I mean check out those calves!  

Composting our food scraps is something we used to do religiously, back when we had a house, a garden, and a little bit of land. We're not going to lie, we’ve had a difficult time continuing this practice since living in our little camper.   We just haven’t tried hard enough to find places where we might be able to donate what little scraps we do make.  But we’re going to try again, by getting a small container which can live in the storage area of our truck and making it a priority.

While composting scraps and leftovers should be the last step in preventing food waste, it can keep what you don’t use from off-gassing in the landfill.  Peels & Wheels has reached some impressive numbers in just 4 years of operation!

In case you don’t live in New Haven, there is a nationwide network of community composters; some bike, some don’t.  Check out their map to find a service near you.  And in case you don’t know how composting helps curb global emissions, check out the following short video.

This is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce head (sorry, couldn't resist). So many people are trying to address and eliminate food waste in so many creative ways.  What is your household, school, university, church, or business doing to address this issue?  Feel free to share on our Facebook page or comment on our Instagram post.  Become a part of our conversation, part of the movement.