Friday 21 March 2008

Waste not, want not

The whole 'don't waste food and use up the leftovers' thing seems to be snowballing even more just lately!

Since my last post on the topic I've seen a snippet in one of the free London newspapers about leftover recipes, an article on BBC Breakfast News about food waste and landfill sites and, just this afternoon, an article in the Tesco magazine.

It seems that the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has recently launched an awareness campaign entitled Love Food Hate Waste (which has a fantastic website full of tips, recipes and statistics).

I've been posting to this site like a crazy with my tips and comments - let me know if you spot any of mine on the homepage!

In the meantime, here's my own personal five top tips to eliminate food waste:


  1. Make a shopping list when you visit the supermarket and stick to it
  2. Don't buy larger packs or special deals just because they are cheaper unless you're sure you will use them
  3. Have loads of sandwich bags, foil, plastic pegs, airtight containers and cling film handy for storing things
  4. Make sure you keep vegetables and salad in the crisper drawer thingie so that they don't wilt too soon
  5. Always consider the possibilities for making the next day's lunch out of dinner leftovers (I might even post a few recipes for this sort of thing in the near future, because I'm awfully nice!)
It's amazing how much we all throw away and how much money we probably spend, not only on wasted food but also on buying new stuff to eat when there's perfectly good ingredients in the cupboards or fridge. So please let me know your own tips and recipes so that we can all be smug, thrifty, resourceful types now and again!

1 comment:

Mrs H said...

I am finding that having a little baby uses up leftovers very well indeed - I save leftover vegetables from my evening meal, blend them down and give them to my daughter for her lunch the next day. I feel very smug for saving money and knowing that she is getting plenty of veg.

I probably should do more than this though, as I am sure I still waste a fair bit.

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