,The current amount of food waste in the world is shameful. The zero-waste method reduces emissions by reducing the amount of food the world needs to produce because we make sure that every bit of food is used. Between 30-40% of food that is produced for human consumption goes to waste. 103 million tons (81.4 billion pounds) of food waste was generated in 2018, according to the EPA, which is the equivalent of over 450,000 Statue of Liberties. The most wasted foods are fruits vegetables, cereals, and tubers. Food waste in America is exacerbated by unrealistic aesthetic standards for our produce and by our tendency to over purchase and over apportion food. Think of when you by the new super health food only to leave it neglected at the back of your fridge until it goes bad, only half consumed. Or the bruised bananas tossed from the pristine display when they still could have been good for a smoothie. How it works This method of environmentally conscious eating is often tied to charities or small businesses that rescue edible food from being thrown away by restaurants and stores, which is then given to people in need. One example is City Harvest, a New York based food rescue organization which collects millions of pounds of food each year from farms, restaurants grocery stores and manufacturers to help feed New Yorkers struggling to put food on the table. The Boston Area Gleaners tackle food waste on the farm with a network of volunteers and employees who rescue ugly or excess food from farm fields and deliver it to a network of local food pantries, food banks, and meal programs. Another good example is Too Good to Go, an app that allows restaurants and other businesses to post when they have food they would have to throw out. The app alerts people of their chance to buy food at a reduced-price, saving food and money for both. Implementing zero waste eating in your life While trying to eat zero waste is not the most well know method for reducing our carbon footprint, it is the most generally accessible. It does not require you to change your shopping habits much because to prevent food waste, all you need to change are some small things about food storage and how you think about the food you have on hand. To prevent fruit from turning brown sprinkle it with lemon juice. To protect pasta rice noodles and dried legumes from insects store them with a bay leaf. To soften brown sugar change it to a new container and put a small piece of apple or bread in the container. The sugar will absorb the moisture and soften. Create visible and clearly marked areas in your fridge and freezer for things that need to be eaten in the next few days. Place a bag in the freezer to collect clean celery ends, carrot peels, garlic and onion ends and skins, and herb stems. When you have gathered several pounds, they can be used to make a stock. Not all food can be salvaged. There are always things that you have to throw away. Food waste takes up more space in landfills than any other type of solid waste, but it is impossible to scrimp our way out of this entirely, some things will always go bad. How can spoiled food be diverted from the land fill? Composting, allowing the food to decay naturally with other waste components into soil. Some areas have composting services just like trash or recycling. If you have a yard, you can build a compost pile for yourself or use a compost drum.
Sources https://www.rts.com/waste-type/foodwaste/ https://www.rubicon.com/blog/food-waste-facts/ https://www.cityharvest.org/programs/food-rescue/ https://toogoodtogo.com/en-us/movement https://www.bostonareagleaners.org/ https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/tips-reduce-food-waste https://www.thedollarstretcher.com/frugal-living/food/frugal-food-rescuing-tips-from-grandma/ https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/types-composting-and-understanding-process https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home
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Zero plastic eating means your focus is on limiting the plastic pollution caused by your food, instead of focusing on the greenhouse emissions caused by the production of it. Zero plastic food is an arm of the zero-waste movement in which people attempt to reduce the amount of trash they produce as much as possible. Origins of Plastic and Its Environmental Impact The creation of plastic props up oil and gas industries because much of the plastic currently produced is synthetic plastic, which is made from Naphtha chemicals, a distillation of crude oil. These oils must be further broken-down creating hydrocarbons like ethylene, propylene, and butylene. Once the polymers have been created, the next step will either be an addition reaction or a condensation reaction, creating plastic pellets or nurdles which are shipped to other factories to be remolded and shaped into plastic products in which our food is packaged. Plastic has another destructive phase after you are done with it. Marine plastic is responsible for killing one million sea birds and 100,000 thousand marine mammals, severely depleting ocean eco systems which are responsible for absorbing 100 PgC or 100 pentagrams of carbon. However, even plastic free foods that have traveled long distances can use large amounts of fossil fuels because they are driven in large trucks to the supermarkets. On average, foods like winter squash, potatoes and apples are shipped from 500-1200 miles before reaching the grocery store and even farther for those passion fruits and avocados, which is something to keep in mind Zero Waste and You
The main principle of zero waste food is that we as consumers vote with our dollars so that food that does not contain plastic packaging becomes the new normal. Every bit will count when we are working towards a more sustainable future. However, we can’t know the environmental impact of food just by looking at it. Not all the packaging of food is visible. Pears, plums and other more delicate fruit are wrapped in paper during transit, which is then discarded before the produce is put on display. Simple cost-effective ways to buy food with less plastic
Sources https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution https://www.pnas.org/content/112/38/11899 https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how-is-plastic-made.html https://www.marthastewart.com/7591697/ways-reduce-plastic-use-kitchen https://green.harvard.edu/news/do-food-miles-really-matter https://ugc.berkeley.edu/background-content/ocean-acidification/ https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/OceanCarbon |
AuthorI am a high school student who is creating her own blog for the first time for school about our food system and environmental issues Archives
May 2022
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