It’s an unfortunate truth, but a good portion of our groceries end up in the garbage. That’s why taking the time to understand ways to reduce food waste is so important.
Tossing the last of the berries that turned moldy or the container or half-eaten leftovers might not seem like a huge deal. But all those little bits can add up to a lot of extra waste.
Between 30% and 40% of the U.S. food supply goes to waste, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.And the vast majority of those ingredients go straight to the landfill, generating massive amounts of greenhouse gases like methane that contribute to global warming, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.
Our food-waste problem is happening pretty much everywhere in the U.S., including on farms, in supermarkets, and at restaurants. But it’s also happening in our homes. “All those fridge clean-outs and scraped plates add up,” Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFed, a national nonprofit dedicated to fighting food waste, tells SELF.
In fact, Americans throw away $165 billion in wasted food every year, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit environmental action group. “There’s no way we can make a meaningful dent in our food waste without people wasting less in their homes,” Gunders says.
And there are plenty of ways to reduce food waste. Here are eight strategies to use up more of the food you have and keep excess from making its way into your kitchen. Added bonus: They’re all easy enough to start ASAP.
1. Stick to a shopping list—and fill it with versatile ingredients.
It sounds almost deceptively simple, but just committing to buying only the ingredients you know you’ll need can go a long way toward keeping extra food (and your grocery bill) from piling up, the U.S Food and Drug Administration says.
That’s not to say you have to plan out every single thing you’ll cook or eat. “Having some go-to meals that are vehicles for those random veggies helps to ensure that they all get used. Some of ours are lentil soup, bhaji (an Indian veggie dish), and quesadillas,” Trishna Saigal, founder of Down to Cook, which upcycles aging vegetables into plant-based meat alternatives, tells SELF. And choosing groceries that you know you have tons of use for—say, ground beef you can use to make burgers or a bolognese sauce, or butternut squash you can roast or purée into a soup—can make sure you use them up before they go bad.
2. Go for frozen.
There are some instances where fresh produce really is best. (Frozen strawberries will turn mushy in a fruit salad, for instance.) But often frozen fruits and veggies work just as well for things like smoothies, stir-fries, and soups. And since they stay good for months and months, leaning on them more heavily could help consumers cut their food waste nearly in half, research in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society suggests.
And you don’t need to worry about taking a nutritional hit if you go for frozen over fresh: According to the USDA, the freezing process doesn’t destroy any nutrients.
3. Store your food so it stays fresh for as long as possible.
The longer you can keep your food fresh, the less likely it is to go bad and get tossed before you can eat it. Part of that is about getting savvy on the best way to store different ingredients. (The NRDC’s interactive food-storage guide is a great place to start.)