CW for relationship with food, but in passing.
(tl;dr below, but if you have an itch to comment, then please at least skim the words diagonally.)
I think this is going to be even more excruciatingly painful to do than my roundup of thrift posts. Partly because I don’t really mind spending money – would if I could, especially considering that I did it when I couldn’t. But I abhor food waste. So much so that when I would open a garbage bin at my old job and see perfectly fine salads or soups simply not to the taste of my colleagues thrown into the bin, I wanted to either scream or pick it out of the trash and enjoy the next day, with anyone being none the wiser. But alas, a bin is a bin, and my stomach is not what it used to be. I’m not against dumpster diving, truly, but I imagine I could only partake for non-edibles, or vacuum sealed/ tinned/ you-get-it edibles.
This post is not about dumpster diving, however. It’s about my entire disconnect from my values when it comes to food waste. Part of it, and the bigger part of it too, I can write off to my mental health. Again not delving into it too much in this post, but let’s just say that it is. Part of it is my weird relationship with food – which, if you think about it, can also be attributed to my mental health. But then there’s another part which is just… dumb. I used to plan for every bite and scrap – I no longer do. I keep forgetting that certain foods can be triggering, and that I would stop eating them mid-bite and simply would not be able to return to them – not normal behaviour, but can’t be fully attributed to mental health, because it happened before, and I’m aware of it, I just forget it, because I’m a scatter brain.
Which, on the other hand, can also be explained by the ruckus.
Hm.
Regardless.
I think food waste bears little to no excuse. If I can’t eat it, surely I can easily find someone who can – human or animal. So many people in my city live below poverty line or in the streets or both – I can just put out what I know I would not consume close to the communal bins, and it will be picked up. Sometimes I do, most of the times I don’t, I just let it rot to the point of no return in bizarre hopes of doing something with it.
Out of all my beliefs and values, food waste is probably that rare thing (together with animal rights and sexism) that I could endlessly lecture people about. Because it’s a problem, you know. I’ll use American stats as an example because American stats are easiest to come by – but did you know that 30% of all the food produced does not reach the metaphorical table and is basically produced to go to the landfill? 30%. Thirty percent. That’s one third. Imagine every time you buy three apples, you just immediately throw one perfectly good apple into the garbage. You buy three coffees – you just dump one directly down the drain for shits and giggles. Three packs of ramen noodles – you just throw one into the bin. I must emphasise – you throw it away. You dispose of it. You don’t give it to a neighbour, or a food pantry, or a stray cat – you throw it away.
So yes, I could endlessly lecture people on this – but I don’t, because I’m guilty of it myself, and I either walk the walk and talk the talk, or I don’t walk, but I don’t talk either. Lead by example, as they say.
So every Friday for the foreseeable future I am going to take a picture, or at least write a list, of all the edibles that have gone bad in my fridge and pantry, and post them for all the world to see. I know Kristen from The Frugal Girl did something like that back in the day when she was combating food waste in her house. She later stopped, because there was no food waste to write about, and this is something that I aspire to achieve. I will only stop once there is no food waste to write about.
This post is a bit of a cheat, because I did a massive fridge clear-out on a Sunday, and my weeks begin on a Monday. Which means it’s not as shameful to look at the exposé below. Still is, but not as shameful as four kg of fruit, one kg soft cheese, a pack of corn tortillas, and about a loaf worth of various breads, etc. etc. could have been, coupled with today’s clear-out.
tl;dr: Food waste Friday is exactly what it says on the tin – I write a list, sometimes accompanied by pictures, of all the food that I wasted during that particular week.
So. Food waste, week 28 of 2024.
Photographs mine, but unrelated to food waste.
List:
- 1/3 cup of sour cream;
- 3 cucumbers;
- a significant amount of cherry tomatoes;
- several eggs;
- 1L of soya/almond milk. A remark, then, that it is not my fault. I ordered groceries, and they sent me a full pack of rotten milk, damaged seal and everything. ♥ Thank you ♥ I don’t complain often, but this time I did, and got my money back;
- a loaf or so worth of various breads. I have a Very Bad Habit of keeping heels of bread for ‘another day’, and then they just go bad in my fridge.
And I think that’s it for this week. Anything else I will unearth when I do my fridge clean will be added to next post.