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Reducing Food Waste
In the UK, nearly 10 million tonnes of food is wasted annually and three quarters of it is wasted by individual households! If global food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China!
Here are a few simple things you can do to start to reduce your food waste footprint at home: Check your food waste footprint on a calculator such as the BBC’s www.bbc.com/future/ article/20210204-calculate-the-environmentalfootprint-of-your-food. Plan your meals and shopping list for next week as a little planning helps reduce waste. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time – if you stick at it, you’ll soon cut down your food waste and save some money! If you are hungry, have a quick snack before you go shopping as you won’t stick to your list otherwise!
Have a look in your fridge for things which you will probably end up throwing away and make them into a few meals and put them in the freezer for when you are too tired to cook. Not sure what to do with random ingredients? There are lots of ideas online!
Try adding a plant based meal once or twice a week or cutting down your red meat consumption (14.5% of global climate-changing gases come from meat and dairy production). Once you have learnt to reduce waste, buy a hot bin or other suitable food waste composter so that none of your food waste has to go in your black bin and contaminate other recyclable materials and be landfilled or incinerated.
Our Food Waste Reduction sub group has just restarted and is looking for new members to help fight food waste issues. If you would like to join please contact Penny Stables (penny. stables@bostongreengroup.co.uk Tel. 07941 797902). We look forward to welcoming you and your ideas and enthusiasm to help educate us others!
Have you thought about switching to green energy?
It’s easy, and can save you money (& the planet too).
In Leeds in 2020, 26% of our carbon emissions came from our homes, which is predicted to rise to 33% by 2050, unless we all start reducing our energy usage and switching to using green energy. It is one of the easiest ways to make a big difference to your personal or family’s carbon footprint and help mitigate Climate Change. So if you haven’t already please think about this now.
Switching to green energy not only saves you money but you can feel good about the energy you are using. Do take a look at information from Money Saving Expert and compare: www. moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/cheap-greenenergy/. There is also information about the different green energy providers from Which too: www.which.co.uk/news/2017/04/shouldyou-switch-to-a-green-energy-supplier/. If you decide to switch, please consider using either of these referral links. Any credits/rewards we will donate the cash value to our Community Green Group, to help fund tree planting and other community projects we are working on together; Bulb, offer £50 credit when you join and £50 as a referral reward: join.bulb.co.uk/refer/pennys5280 Octopus energy, split £100 credit when you switch: octopus.energy/friend-referral/ If you would like to see more information on this please do look on our webpage: bostongreengroup.co.uk/reduce-carbon/haveyou-thought-about-switching-to-green-energyits-easy-can-save-you-money/
