Food and kitchen waste

[ashc13]

I'm trying to cut down on food waste. Can you please share any tips or ideas?

Our recycling bin is full every collection day. It is collected fornighly. Again I'm looking for ideas on to reduce this. It's mainly packaging and plastic bottles.

[FlorayG]

What type of food waste do you mostly have? It's difficult to suggest solutions without knowing

[ashc13]

When I cook too much for dinner like mash potato, pasta, vegetables (funny all the meat gets eaten!) would be the main cause

Fresh fruit vegetables that go off before I use them. I do buy frozen vegetables and it helps

[megaflyer]

I try and cook only what I eat as I can’t eat leftovers. Any waste goes down the waste disposal - I guess that is ok as our sewage is turned into bio fuel and made into electricity (I only found that our recently when I visited the sewage works on an open day !). Our local authority no longer collects food waste.

I recycle what I can - mine is collected daily so not an issue.

All other waste (including aerosols as they can’t be recycled) are put into general waste which is incinerated and made into electricity and ash into building materiel - zero landfill

[ashc13]

I'm not good at using left overs. So generally left overs go in the food waste bin, it is collected in seperate bin.

I'd like to reduce the amount of plastics we use, I can switch to glass jars/bottles for some items. Where we are, there is nowhere (that I can find) to bug pasta etc in bulk.

[ashc13]

Inspiration for left overs would be good!

[sotagals]

A bokashi bin might be the answer or a wormery which would be cheaper but you can't put meat in.

Pm me if you want to know how to set up a wormery!

[kateh134]

I plan our meals a week at a time, and only buy what is needed. The only food waste we have is things like egg shells and the tops/bottoms of things like leeks and carrots. We rarely have any food leftovers, but if we do I freeze it. Bread gets made in to breadcrumbs and then frozen. I measure out things like rice and pasta because the extra bit you chuck in ‘just in case’ tends to be the bit which goes to waste.

[ERICSMUM]

Cook less pasta and rice. If you are a bit short when dishing up, it doesn’t take long to boil up a bit more.

[WhereIBelong]

We are a family that LOVE leftovers, mashed potato in particular - we always make double on a weekend so I can make

potato cakes (leftover mash, an egg, flour, salt, pepper, mix to make a dough, form into balls, flatten and fry - food of the gods!

or fried mash - oil a pan, heat til VERY hot, put in leftover mash, fry til edges are crispy, turn over and fry other side til crispy.

or bubble and squeak - leftover mash, chopped onion, chopped cooked (leftover) cabbage - mix and do as for fried mash.

or use it on top of mince for a quick cottage pie - add any leftover veg to the mince.

or mix in some cooked salmon, parsley and peas, form into rounds and fry til crisp for quick fishcakes.

or mix with a drained tin of sweetcorn, an an egg or 2 (oops - missed out and a couple of tablespoons of flour) to make a thick batter, fry for potato and sweetcorn fritters - can use any leftover cooked veg for that too.

We like mash in our house...