All eco-warriors are needed! You can still contribute to the environment even if you’re a student on a tight budget. In many instances, becoming green might even be a wise financial decision. As a student, there are many excellent methods to help the environment, such as recycling, buying used items, switching from a private vehicle to public transportation, or conserving water. The best place to start, though, is with food waste. Food waste disposal in Malaysia is a problem that the community should be aware of and concerned about.
Why is food waste a major issue?
One of the main causes of pollution on the planet is undoubtedly food waste. Did you know that every year, over one-third of the food produced for human consumption is wasted, contributing 8% of the global greenhouse gas emissions? According to Researchgate.net, they found that household in Malaysia throw away around 0.5-0.8kg uneaten food per day.
Not to mention the way that it wastes natural resources. It takes a tremendous quantity of natural resources to produce food. A startling 50% of the world’s land and 70% of its fresh water are dedicated to agriculture. Just one kilogramme of beef requires 15,400 gallons of water to produce!
Naturally, not all of this takes place at home. Food is wasted a lot throughout the production and delivery processes. However, you can influence how food goods are handled and stored at home. Unfortunately, students and young people between the ages of 18 and 34 are the worst offenders when it comes to food waste. This is probably because they haven’t learned (or needed to learn) how to handle and store food effectively.
Reducing food waste benefits the environment as well as your financial situation. According to studies, reducing food waste can help you save an average of $746 per person year. That’s almost $3,000 over the length of a 4-year schooling!
So what can you do at home to prevent food waste?
Here are some suggestions for improving how you shop for, store, and consume food at home:
1. Make wise food and shopping choices.
One of the simplest strategies to control your food intake is to schedule your meals. Make a list of the meals you want to cook for the entire week, note the nights you’ll be eating out, and determine the ingredients (and their necessary amounts). Look through your cupboard or refrigerator to see what food is still there and what dishes you may create with the leftovers.
When you’re out shopping, stick to the items on your list and refrain from making impulsive purchases. Give “ugly produce” a chance as well; fruits and vegetables with blemishes or other imperfections are still totally safe to eat and are frequently offered at a discount. Also, be wary of group discounts. For non-perishable goods like toilet paper and cleaning supplies, shopping in bulk can be quite cost-effective, but it’s riskier when it comes to fresh fruit. Be practical and avoid purchasing anything that won’t be consumed by the expiration date. You’ll just throw it away in the end.
2. Properly store food
Learn how to properly store fresh produce to keep it from spoiling. You might want to keep them apart since some fruits, particularly bananas, release natural gases as they ripen that can cause neighbouring goods to decay more quickly. Make sure your refrigerator is cool enough, and utilise the FoodKeeper app if you’re unsure of how to store food securely.
You may always freeze or preserve excess fresh vegetables to lengthen its shelf life. Many products, such as bread, sliced fruits, meats, and prepared meals (which are useful to have on hand when you’re too exhausted to cook), keep well in the freezer. To keep track of what you have on hand, just remember to periodically check your freezer.
3. Set up your pantry and refrigerator.
Products can go misplaced or shoved to the back of a refrigerator or pantry, where they’ll deteriorate before you have a chance to notice. Try to arrange your produce using the “first in, first out” (FIFO) strategy, which involves putting recently purchased things at the rear so that older stuff is used first. Additionally, keep a mental note of the things in your cupboard, such as canned goods, cereals, pasta, and rice, as these are frequently overlooked but will ultimately go bad.
4. Recognize expiration dates.
Expiration dates are frequently confusing and misleading. In actuality, expiration labels are responsible for about 20% of the world’s food waste. 84 percent of customers throw away food that is still totally safe to eat even though it has passed the expiration date on the box. Use your common sense and other senses to determine whether the item has actually expired. “Use by” dates are crucial to abide by, but “best before” dates frequently include a large margin of error. Here is a fantastic resource for understanding expiration dates.
5. Consume any leftovers.
It might not sound like the most exciting gastronomic experience to eat the same thing twice in a row, but it’s a terrific way to save money and lessen waste. If it helps, many leftovers, including lasagna and tiramisu, taste even better the next day. If you can’t do that, think about storing your leftovers so you can reheat them when you don’t feel like cooking.
6. Be inventive with leftovers
It doesn’t necessarily have to go in the trash just because something is unfit for ingestion. You can use your food scraps in a variety of ways, such as:
Creating your own broth. Create your own broth to keep in the refrigerator or freezer using leftover vegetables or meat (even bones). It will make store-bought broths look foolish.
Supple up. Vegetables that are limp or wilted (such as salad) can be revived in cold water or diced up and made into a soup. Greens from leeks and spinach are very tasty in soups.
Never discard bread. Stale bread has so many uses, including making croutons, breadcrumbs, French toast, and delicious bread pudding.
Accept the strength of citrus. Lemon and orange peels work particularly well for flavouring marinades, sugar, and water. Citrus peels can also be added to vinegar to create a natural, environmentally friendly cleaning solution.
Go to the spa. Cucumber peels are excellent for relieving itchy skin, while brown avocados can be mashed and put to the hair for a luxurious, hydrating hair mask. For a spa escape at home, apply them directly to your skin or dissolve them in your bathwater.
Cultivate your own food. Many pits, seeds, and vegetable leftovers (such as potatoes, onions, lettuce, avocados, ginger, and lemongrass) can be used to re-grow fresh produce.
7.Start a compost pile.
Almost everything that cannot be reused can be recycled. The majority of the food waste you generate may be composted, giving it a second chance at life and preventing landfill methane production. For you to start your own compost bin, you don’t need a garden or a lot of outdoor area. Use this simple instruction to compost on a balcony in an apartment. Save your scraps and put them in the community compost bin if you don’t have a compost bin of your own (or don’t have the money or time to invest in one).
8. Make food bank donations
To support your neighbourhood, donate non-perishable, undamaged food to the food bank, soup kitchen, or shelter there. One of the largest food banks in Switzerland, Cartons du Coeur, has collecting sites set up all around the nation. You can also give to organisations like Partage, Table Suisse, and Caritas. Here is a list of acceptable and unacceptable donations to food banks.
Bottom line: Food Waste
There is just no justification for food waste. You may reduce, reuse, reprocess, and recycle your food waste in a variety of ways to benefit the environment as well as your neighbourhood. Your wallet and the environment will eventually thank you for it, even if it might need some forward planning and modifications to the way you shop, cook, and consume food.
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