Do you have food waste in your home?
OG is very good at wasting food. She will take a bite and then she’ll throw it on the floor or mush it in her hands. Probably pretty standard for a toddler, but still… annoying.
It’s frustrating to be struggling to fit healthy food within our small budget and then have so much of it go in the garbage.
And then I think of all the families around the world right in my own community that struggle to find enough to eat.
And I worry that our earth’s finite resources are being bagged up and tossed into the landfill.
Unfortunately, those fears are not inflated. Those small things really do add up to a lot of waste that we can’t afford.
That’s why I was so thrilled to read Dawn Gifford’s new eBook Sustainability Starts at Home: How to Save Money While Saving the Planet. In it she outlines some fantastic ways to combat food waste, one of which is composting.
What to compost?
Composting is nothing new for me. I know what to compost and have been composting our produce scraps and leaving out oils and animal scraps. But what I found out in this eBook is that there are many more food and non-food items that can (and should!) be composted instead of thrown in the garbage like:
- Cracker crumbs
- Spoiled soy/rice/almond/coconut milk
- Unpopped, burnt popcorn kernels
- Nail clippings
- Pet fur
- Hair from your hairbrush
- Burlap sacks
I still don’t like that we waste any amount of food but at least now I know most of it is going back into the earth (and hopefully my garden next year) to grow organic vegetables. Did you ever think your cracker crumbs or pet fur could provide beautiful organic fruits and vegetables?
And that’s only one chapter! She goes on to introduce numerous other ways to reduce food waste including food recovery, gleaning, storage ideas and more.
Other topics include:
- How to utilize solar panels without the high upfront cost
- How to use less energy in your home (without sitting in the dark)
- How to actually pay less for organic produce than the same produce grown conventionally
- Saving money and resources on baby products
- Having an eco-friendly holiday
- Natural and eco-friendly cleaning
- Green transportation
Why you need Sustainability Starts at Home:
Gifford’s upbeat writing inspires and empowers each and every one of us to make small and large changes that can make a huge impact on the sustainability of our lives and communities. She proves that we do have the power to change our world.
Gifford not only proves that radical simplicity will save our planet but also that simplifying our lives will save us too—something we talk about quite often here! Simple living can provide the kind of contentment not found in the modern fast paced world. Gifford writes:
“We can create a world that offers the best quality of life, not the greatest quantity of possessions. We can create a world that balances the needs of people with the needs of the planet, and creates prosperity for all in the process.”
Does that sound like the kind of world you want to live in?
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