In Greater Manchester 140,000 tonnes of food waste is put in general waste bins. Three quarters of this food waste could have been avoided too. We are working with councils across Greater Manchester to encourage residents to reduce and recycle their food waste.
Follow our tips below for ‘Buy, Keep, Eat, Repeat’, to help you plan your scran, store your food right, use up leftovers and recycle food in your food caddy or bin!
Only buy what you need, plan meals.
Here’s our quick handy guide to technology that makes it easier to change your habits and waste less.
Some restaurants and supermarkets sell their surplus food at the end of the day for a very discounted fee
Fancy composting but you don’t have the facility? This app lets you find someone nearby with the facility that is happy to accept your scraps!
Just like no waste no waste this app helps you keep track of what you have in order to buy less and waste less
If you have overbought, you can share with your neighbours what you have that you think you will not use
Lets you keep track of what you have and how long they have left to use! You can even scan product barcodes to make it more accurate. Very handy to avoid over buying!
If you’re the type of person who always forgets something when grocery shopping, this app is a must.
LOVE FOOD HATE WASTE
https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
Here you can find blogs, recipes, ways to get involved in the fight against food waste!
HUBBUB
https://www.hubbub.org.uk
Hubbub are great at giving handy tips on how to do better for the environment, from blogs, to recipes they have something for everyone
Put paper towels with your salad. By putting a piece of kitchen roll in your salad and sealing the bag/container you can make it last longer. This will work by absorbing the condensation in the bag and keeping your salad leaves fresher for longer
Don’t separate bananas before eating wrap the stems of the bananas in clingfilm when you first buy them, and only snap one off when you’re ready to eat it. This should give you 3-5 extra days of perfectly ripe banana joy.
The best way to prevent potatoes from sprouting is to keep an apple in the bag – apples produce ethylene gas, which keeps potatoes fresher and firmer.
Keep apples away from other fruits and veggies, ethylene gas may be good for potatoes, but it’s bad for almost everything else, it will make them ripen quicker, instead keep them in a plastic bag in the fridge
Wash berries in a mixture of 1 cup of vinegar and 3 cups of water before you put them in the fridge – this kills the mould spores, make sure they are dry before storing them
Wrap celery in foil it lets the gas that spoils it escape, rather than trapping it like plastic, so the celery stays crisp long enough
Fresh herbs can thrive if you store them in a glass of water on the windowsill. Alternatively if you have too many, chop and freeze them in handy ice cube trays, they will last for months and can be easily thrown in a pan and cooked on low. This method is best used with sturdier herbs such as rosemary, thyme, sage, and oregano. More delicate herbs like basil and mint won’t stand up as well to freezing.
Keep mushrooms in a paper bag storing them this way keeps them clean and dry.
Let avocado ripen at room temperature then put them in the fridge to halt the process and keep them ready to eat. Once you’ve cut them, keep the stone in the remaining half squeeze on a little lemon juice to preserve them even further.
Put your onions in tights, put them in one at a time, knot between each bulb and keep them in a dark, dry place until you need them.
Keep raisins airtight, stores properly they will taste better and last for a long time!
Limp lettuce can be rehydrated and refreshed by separating the leaves and tossing them into a sink full of iced water for anywhere from 5-30 mins.
Seasonal food is bought and consumed around the time that it is harvested; local food is produced, grown and processed within 30 miles of the store.
So what are the benefits of eating what is in season?
Eating fruit and veg that are in season can help you save money!
The moment fruit and veg are harvested they start to lose their nutritional value. So the quicker you can get them to your plate the better they are for you.
once veg and fruit are out of season they will need to be transported thousands of miles to reach our kitchen, transportation depends on how quickly they will go off meaning some of your favourites will contribute more to our carbon footprint than others!
By sticking to seasonal veg and fruit we can reduce our carbon footprint and doing the right thing for the planet.
Seasonal veg and fruit will last longer after you have bought them they are less likely to be thrown away, reducing the amount of food we waste.
Asparagus, Carrots, Cauliflowers, Celeriac, Cucumbers, Curly Kale, Purple Sprouting Broccoli,u003cbru003eSavoy, Cabbage, Sorrel, Spinach, Spring Greens, Spring Onion, Watercress, Gooseberries, Rhubarb
Beetroots, Broad Beans, Carrots, Cauliflowers, Courgettes, Cucumber, Fennel Fresh, Peas, Garlic, Green Beans, Lettuce, Salad Leaves, New potatoes, Radishes, Runner Bean, Sage, Salad Onions, Squash, Tomatoes, Watercress, Blueberries, Currants, Elderflower Berries, Greengages, Loganberries, Plums, Raspberries, Strawberries, Tayberries
Field Mushrooms, Lettuce, Marrow, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Rocket, Squashes, Sweetcorn, Watercress, Apples, Blackberries, Damsons, Elderberries, Pears, Plums, Sloes
Bay Leaves, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celeriac, Curly Kale, Fennel, Leeks, Parsnips, Potatoes, Red Cabbage, Swede, Turnips, Apples, Pears, Quince
Here’s some videos to find out more about how to recycle your food waste, and what happens to it!
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