Avoiding the Gentrification of Sustainability - Part 1: Eliminate Food Waste
One of the main criticisms of a zero waste lifestyle that I’ve encountered is that it’s too expensive. The perception tends to be that there are all sorts of new items you need to buy and a certain aesthetic you need to follow in order to be considered “zero waste”. I have heard many a story about individuals who have thrown away all of their plastic items and replaced them with more “sustainable” materials in an effort to be more conscious about their waste. It’s a trap that many of us fall into as we scroll through pages of Pinterest, Etsy, and Instagram touting gorgeous bamboo and stainless steel kitchen items and organic cotton and linen textiles in soft neutral tones and earthy prints.
But reducing waste isn’t about starting over. It’s about using what you have so you can buy less and waste less. The ironic thing is: during times of hardship, such as the Great Depression, many of the tenants of zero waste living were the only way that families could get by. Reducing and reusing are some of the most important ideas behind lowering your waste. The marketing for these two ideas has shifted over the years from something to be done out of financial requirement to something that only those “crunchy granola” folks who DIY everything do, but those use cases are not mutually exclusive.
Originally, this post was going to be a list, but as I started to build it out, I found that there was a lot of detail to cover. And since nobody wants to read the literal novel I was writing, for your sakes and mine, we’re going to break it out into another series. Over the next couple of weeks, we will cover tips and tricks that not only reduce your waste, but actually SAVE you money. So, today’s topic is…
Eliminating Food Waste
Estimated cost savings: $1,300 annually per household
How to do it: How many of us go to the grocery store without a list? How many of us decide what we’re making for dinner at about 5:30 in the evening when our stomachs are starting to growl? And lastly, how many of us forget about that cucumber at the bottom of the produce drawer for a couple of weeks only to find an unrecognizable pile of mush when you remember it? Sound familiar? It did for me too. Here are a few quick tips I’ve used to combat this:
Plan ahead. A couple of years ago, I was working late nearly every day. This meant that I wasn’t able to cook dinner until late, and getting stomach aches every night after going to bed too soon after eating. When I decided it was time for a change, I came up with a strategy. I would plan out my menu for the week in advance and do my grocery shopping based on that plan. At the time, my husband was in grad school, and we were living on an extremely limited budget, so planning meals that used similar ingredients was key so that we could buy less and make sure we used up everything we bought. I’d then come home and set up whatever I could to make the cooking faster. Whether that meant chopping up the ingredients or even fully cooking and portioning out meals if it was going to be a super crazy week. The best part about making the fully cooked meals ahead was that it meant I had a healthy lunch ready to bring with me to work each day, avoiding having to grab something out (which saves both money and disposables!).
Buy ingredients that last longer. Sure, I’m lactose intolerant now, but as a 20-something, that wasn’t the case. I always made sure to have milk in our refrigerator to have with cereal, and without fail, my husband and I would NEVER finish it before it soured. So, after a lot of research, we switched to non-dairy milk. Not because we were horrified by the dairy industry (that would come later), but because we were so sick of throwing out spoiled milk. We’ve done some testing ourselves and have found that an open container of Almond Milk can last up to a month in the refrigerator… sometimes longer depending on what else you’ve got in the ‘fridge. From a produce perspective, try opting for hardier vegetables like cauliflower and cabbage last a lot longer than a bag of lettuce. This is especially important if you know you’re not going to use it for a little while, or that you don’t need the whole amount for a recipe.
Buy only what you NEED. A 10lb bag of potatoes costs $2.00. That’s pretty cheap! However, if you don’t eat a lot of potatoes, chances are, about $1.50 of that bag is going right into the trash (or compost, we hope!). While it can be tempting to buy big bags of produce because it’s “cheaper” that way, it often ends up costing more in the long run. Most grocery stores offer these bulk type items loose as well. And even better, buying things this way means you get to avoid the usually plastic packaging. Disclaimer: this refers to perishable items only. I’ll go into what to do about dry / non-perishable items in another post…
Store food items properly. Repeat after me: Produce is not meant to be stored in plastic bags. In fact, this can actually make things spoil faster because plastic does not breathe. It traps the ethylene gas that is emitted as your fruits and veggies continue to ripen and can speed up the process, fast tracking them to rot. There are tons of great resources on the proper way to store any variety of food items (Did you know that plastic is bad for cheese because it needs to breathe? Or that fully submerging carrots in water will keep them firm and crisp?). Do your research on the foods you eat. You might even find that things you thought you should be refrigerating (bananas, tomatoes) actually do better on the countertop! …the more you know…
Resources:
https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2020/study-calculates-true-cost-of-food-waste-in-america.php