Reducing Food Waste: Zero Waste Week 2020

I have been an ambassador for Zero Waste Week for a few years now. I do so not as an expert on the subject, or because I actually achieve a Zero Waste lifestyle (I am still very far from it!) but simply to reflect on my own habits and think about how I could make small improvements, share ideas, and hopefully inspire others too. This year the theme is reducing food waste, and each day from 7th-11th September 2020 I will be sharing tips about how to reduce food waste in your home. So look out for those daily blog posts! You can also find out more, and take part, on social media using #ZeroWasteWeek and, last but not least, check out the ZeroWasteWeek.co.uk website too for more detailed blog posts and to sign up to their newsletter.

What Zero Waste Means To Me

For me, the term zero waste is not actually about achieving literally zero waste. I feel this idea is unobtainable, in my situation anyway (with an SEND child’s needs to consider too) and the thought of trying to get to a point where I produce no waste is overwhelming. So rather than thinking of actually becoming completely zero waste as the end goal, or seeing not becoming completely zero waste as somehow failing the task, I see the aim as simply trying to find ways of reducing waste, even if they are just small changes. Looking at it from this viewpoint seems far more manageable!

“We don’t need a few people doing Zero Waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing zero waste imperfectly.”

Reducing Food Waste

So, as I mentioned above; the theme is reducing food waste. A good way to kick off is with an audit. You can find a PDF of the food waste audit here.

For my home, our food waste mainly consists of small amounts of leftover dinner (on days when I make my daughter too much/ she has less appetite) and occasionally her leftover snacks too; remains of a corn thin already covered with sunflower spread usually! Plus we sometimes get caught out with fruit that didn’t get used or frozen before it went bad – that is something to improve on here!

Don’t forget to check back on Monday for my post about day one of Zero Waste Week!