0:57
- living
- April 2, 2023
Green living: Four tips to reduce food waste
Scientist and author Anita Vandyke shares her tips for living a zero waste life.
Video by Elisa Tang, Amanda Su
0:57
It's easy to lose track of various expiration dates. To stay organized, Vandyke said she places items at the end of their shelf life in a box labeled \"eat first\" in the refrigerator. Her family then prioritizes finishing those \"lonely\" ingredients before buying more groceries.
Her household regularly has \"mixed vegetable nights,\" coming up with creative ways to use all the scraps and leftovers in the eat first box.
\"Before you go shopping, I like to see what's in the fridge, chop up all those things, make it into a curry, a stir fry, or fried rice, something that you can use up all your vegetables before you go out and buy any more,\" Vandyke said.
Composting is the process of recycling organic matter, such as leaves and food scraps, into a fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants.
As alternatives to the traditional compost bin, Vandyke recommends families buy a bokashi bucket, which ferments food scraps into a liquid fertilizer, or create a worm farm, which are odorless and relatively low maintenance.
\"There's different types of benefits for different families, and you just have to find the right one for you,\" she said.
However, Vandyke said her favorite method of composting is actually not composting at all.
ShareWaste is a website that connects people who wish to recycle their food scraps with community gardens or neighbors with personal gardens who are already composting.
\"What I do is I freeze my compost or put it in the fridge and once a week, I take it to the local community garden,\" Vandyke said. \"That way, I don't have to upkeep anything because I have a small home. But this allows me to prevent waste in the long run.\"
By engaging children in zero-waste living, Vandyke said parents can cultivate environmentally conscious habits and an appreciation of natural resources from a young age.
For example, cooking meals with children is an opportunity to educate them on their food sources so they value the ingredients and don't waste them.
\"You have to know that the rice that you make, or the broccoli that you have, all the fruit and vegetables that you have, you have to know where it comes from,\" Vandyke said. \"It just doesn't come from the supermarket, it comes from a farm, it comes from a lot of resources to grow and make that food.\"
Vandyke said she also raids her household's recycling bins for cardboard boxes and glass jars that her children can then upcycle into jewelry boxes and other practical arts and crafts.
She also encourages parents to regularly bring their children outdoors to experience their natural environment and show them \"what you're fighting for.\"
\"The children appreciate nature,\" she said, and by taking them outdoors, it makes the concept of conservation \"really tangible to them.\"
Editor's note: This was originally published on Aug. 24, 2022.
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