When it comes to wasting food, we’re all guilty of it in one capacity or another. Especially when we’re cooking for one, it’s easy to misjudge proportions and end up with more food than we bargained for. With so much food at our convenience nowadays, it’s easy to see it as disposable and waste it at our leisure. However, did you know that globally, the amount of food we waste is enough to feed almost 1 billion hungry people in the world? Isn’t that crazy!

Not only is wasting food unethical, it’s also seriously bad for the environment too. Wasted food creates tons of unnecessary greenhouse gases, which contributes to climate change and our warming planet. However, fear not – there are a few easy things that you can do to waste less food & live a more sustainable life when it comes to your eating. Read on to find out more!

1) Shop Smart

The easiest way to stop wasting food is to shop smart at the grocery store. Plan your meals ahead so that you know exactly what to buy and the ingredients you’ll need. Avoid impulse purchases unless you’re going to actually eat it, and wait to buy perishable items such as veg until you’re actually going to cook it. If you’re planning on eating out a lot in the week, take this into account and buy less.

2) Get Creative

If you’ve got a bunch of brown bananas, don’t throw them away! While you might not want to eat them by themselves, soft brown bananas are perfect for banana bread or muffins. Find creative ways to use stale and old food to minimize waste.

3) Organize

Often, we end up wasting food because we forget it’s in the fridge in the first place. When you unpack your shopping, move fresh produce to the back and old produce to the front, so you use up the old stuff before it expires and minimize your waste. Allocate one day of the week as ‘leftovers day’ too, so that you use up all the small bits of leftovers that when pulled together, can create one hearty meal.

4) Compost It

If you’ve heard of composting but you’ve never known what it is, well, today is your lucky day. Composting is an easy way to recycle biodegradable goods and create fertile & nutritious soil for your crops. Start a compost pile in your backyard and sink and throw any food scraps into there to convert your waste into something useful.

Do you have any great tips to add to reduce food waste? We’d love to know!

 Source: http://greatist.com/health/how-to-ways-reduce-food-waste