Green Blog
Throw Less Away on Turkey Day
Thanksgiving is about family, giving thanks, and perhaps most of all…food! But when you're sitting around the table this Turkey Day, it's important to keep in mind what will happen to your feast after the celebration has ended.
Did you know?
In the United States, 40% of the food we produce is wasted. That is a staggering number, especially considering the amount of people who live in food insecure homes across the nation (about 41 million people). Between production, distribution, and consumption, massive quantities of edible food is thrown out due to imperfections, consumer choices, poor planning or over-purchasing. On Thanksgiving alone in 2016, Americans threw out the equivalent of 6 million turkeys!
On top of wasted time, water, energy, and labor, uneaten food inevitably end up in landfills. Once there, the anaerobic conditions lead to methane gas emissions, which are greenhouses gases twenty times as potent as Carbon Dioxide.
This Thanksgiving, you can do your part to combat food waste! There are many steps you can take while planning the big dinner to make it as low-waste as possible.
Save The Food | Guestimator
What can you do?
- Only purchase the ingredients you need; don't over-buy!
- Use the Guestimator calculator to estimate how
much food you will need based on the number of guests in your dinner party
- Make less or smaller appetizers
- Send guests home with leftovers (or bring a container to take some yourself!)
- Avoid impulse purchases at the grocery store
- Cut recipes in half
- Use up the ingredients you already have in your kitchen
- Freeze vegetable and meat scraps to make broth
- Serve small portions
- Donate unused shelf-safe items
- Get creative with leftovers (most stay good until the following Sunday or Monday)
- Compost what's left!
- For even more ways
to throw less food away, visit our website here!
