We had an ALMOST zero waste week, but when I pulled out the last tortilla in the package and saw there was a bit of mold on it, it wasn’t worth eating. Especially since I’d already bought another package. I didn’t have time to take a photo while I was making dinner.
It’s funny, no matter how much I cut back on the amount of groceries I buy, we still seem to have a bit too much. My husband eats a lot of sandwich wraps and we eat a lot of quesadillas and burritos, but we didn’t manage to go through a pack of about 12 tortillas while they were still fresh.
I thought I was also going to have to toss half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich left over from my weekend hike, but my husband ate it two days later after I’d left it out on the counter and forgotten about it. I’m so lucky to have a husband who doesn’t mind eating leftovers, or even my cast-offs.
If you’re new to this blog and want to know why you should care about how much food you’re wasting, the long and short of it is that wasting food is bad for the environment, plus it wastes money. You can find out the details at Wasted Food. And check out The Frugal Girl, where bloggers meet to share photos of their food waste in a united effort to waste less.
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Are you watching your food waste? How did you do this week? Please share your tips, advice, wins and challenges in the Comments section. And let me know if you plan on participating in the Museums on Us program.
I've read your blog a few times and yes, because of you i make a mental list of the food waste i have.
Most of it gets composted, so i don't feel too bad about wasting some of it, although i do try for zero waste each week.
This week, i have some leftover olive tapenade that has a date with the compost bin. It might still be all right to eat, but i got food poisoning once from eating two bad black olives. Took me years to eat any black olives after that. So i'm erring on the side of safety and tossing about 2 ounces of the tapenade. The jar will be recycled.
I have rib bones that i'm tossing into the garbage. I had hoped to give them to a dog, but the dog's owner said no. I have them in the fridge, ready for the trash when i go to the dump. Didn't want them reeking to high heaven while they were waiting for me to make a dump run. Although i guess that doesn't technically count as food waste, as I've eaten all the meat i can from the bone, just don't have a doggie to give the bones to.
megan
Megan- Thanks for commenting! Every little bit helps. Like you, I don't feel as bad about wasting something if it's going into the compost bin. And people with dogs, chickens, or pigs hardly waste anything!
And yes, it's never worth taking a chance on something that might make you sick, in my opinion.