We are back with another cracking episode of The Whole Circle and this week we are again chatting with the fantastic Georgia Lienemann who featured in episode 108, where we spoke about reducing food waste by consuming all of the parts that make up an animal, including brains, hearts, and livers! While we candidly admit that we haven‰’t yet implemented offal into our diet, the idea is well and truly etched in our minds. This episode will certainly add a few more ideas to your memory banks, where again we are hearing some incredible tips on how to reduce household food waste.

Georgia grew up in the country and now lives in a rural off-grid property. She has found that composting comes naturally and it‰’s something that’s very easy to implement in the country. The city, however, is a whole different story. You might be surprised though, at how many ways you can still cut down on food waste, even living in an apartment.

Our disconnection with our household waste

Ever wondered what actually happens to food waste once it leaves your house? A lot of the time we don‰’t even think about it. We bundle everything in a lovely lemon-scented bin liner, before placing it out in our kerb-side bins for weekly collection.

What‰’s actually happening is that all that household waste gets dumped in the landfill, along with everything else. It breaks down in the ground, without all the organic compost matter (which is where the soil microbes help to create a beautiful, mineral-rich, fermented compost). Instead, it actually sits in the ground around tonnes of plastics and metals, which goes on to form pockets of methane gas, which rises through the soil. Believe it or not, this is one of the biggest contributors to climate change.

While you might have made other positive environmental changes such as reducing your consumption of beef or driving a smaller car, you may not know that there‰’s a much stronger way to help protect the environment.

Get started now!

Like us, you may not even have a reason why you‰’re not already composting your scraps of foods, or helping to reduce household food wastage in many other ways. A lot of the time, it‰’s not until you‰’re aware of what‰’s actually going on before you decide to make a stand, and start changing the way you go about your day-to-day habits.

Set aside a weekend to learn how to compost correctly, as there are a few different elements that make up the whole composting cycle. There are many great blogs written on how to compost!

Some of Georgia‰’s top tips for reducing your household waste include:

  • Learn to cook from scratch and improve your overall skills in the kitchen as this uses less packaging overall. This is a great tip for those that live in small apartments, who are wanting to find ways to contribute to protecting the environment.
  • In an experiment where men and women came together to prepare meals in bulk, from fresh whole foods, they all cooked together for two weeks and divided all the meals up into containers. They slashed their packaging waste, food waste and overall cost and time. This is a great community-based activity, that can be organised with a group of your friends, who meet every month to learn new tips. Learn to ferment veggies, buy in bulk, nail meal planning and improve your overall cooking skills.
  • The day before your usual shopping day, assess what you have left over in your fridge and pantry and see what you can create out of that. Most people have a set shopping day created out of habit, but you may actually be wasting food by restricting yourself to that particular day. See if you can push that day out. Georgia dubs this ‰survivor days‰ where she is always surprised what she can create. She even went an entire week by creating dishes that she would never have thought were possible, with what she had leftover in the cupboard!
  • Try ordering veggie or fruit boxes, as they put you in touch with seasonal foods which then open you up to learning new recipes, you may not otherwise try in selecting your own produce at the supermarket. You‰’re forced outside of your usual comfort zone in learning how to use up all of that product without waste. If you had an entire box of apples, you would learn how to make apple pie or even apple scrap vinegar (uses the cores and peels of apple- see resources below for how to)!
  • Georgia has been on the veggie box systems for five years now, and never shops at supermarkets. Her cooking skills are 10x what they previously were. She truly believes it‰’s a worthwhile commitment.
  • #1 tip is to go through your entire fridge the day before your shopping day, or before your veggie box arrives, so that you can use older items. Get everything out that can be used and create a recipe. You can also freeze items for later use. Whatever you do just don‰’t let food go to waste! New stuff goes at the back, old at the front.
  • What can you rescue from the bin in terms of food scraps? Coming into the cooler months, we have an abundance of citrus fruits. Everyone has leftover peels, so it‰’s a great idea to learn how to correctly use those. They‰’re a bulky item that can fill your bin up fast.
  • The juice is actually the least nutritious part of the fruit, with the most nutritious contained in the skin which we always throw away. You can dehydrate citrus peels and grind them into a powerful vitamin C powder, loaded with health-protective antioxidants. This is so much more potent than a store bought supplement. Sprinkle the powder into cooking, add into a veggie capsule or create a zingy lemon pepper.
  • If you have organic citruses, keep the whole rinds, and add them all into a pot of room temperature water. Continue adding rinds for 1-2 days, you‰’ll notice they break down into nothing. As for the water itself, it would appear as though you‰’ve soaked a fluorescent highlighter in there! That bright, bright yellow is all of the beautiful oils that seep from the lemon rinds. This oil contains powerful antioxidants and bioflavonoids which can then be consumed directly. This is like an old-fashioned lemonade, that you can keep making throughout all of winter to truly boost your immunity. You can also create a cleaning product out of the skins. Just leave them to soak in a bottle of plain white vinegar for 2-3 weeks.
  • You can make some great drinks with peels! Limoncello is a delicious Italian liquor that‰’s just sugar, water, vodka and lemon rinds. If you peel your ginger or apples, have a dish next to your kettle, allowing them to dry, then tip them into a cup and pour boiling water over them. You then have your own delicious (and nutritious) apple and ginger peel tea.
  • In Chinese Medicine, corn silk and corn cobs, which are usually tossed into the bin, are actually used as an incredibly potent anti-inflammatory agent. You can make that into a corn silk tea (see resources below for how to). It‰’s very high in silicone which is great for hair, skin, and nails!
  • Whenever Georgia‰’s family roasts a whole chicken, everyone saves their chicken bones (even after eating the meat off them!) and then creates a bone broth. Put the bones straight into a pot of water after you‰’ve finished dinner and simmer for two hours. Place any corn cobs into that broth, add a few veggies and then you‰’ve got a deliciously sweet, chicken and corn cob soup for the next day.
  • Keep all bones in general as the gelatine is so nutritious. Place old bones in re-sealable bags in the freezer for your next batch of bone broth. You can even make a seafood broth out of prawn shells!
  • Any cheese that has a natural rind such as parmesan, they can be either thrown into stock giving a beautiful flavour or roasted as they shrivel into a consistency similar to pork crackling.
  • It sounds really obvious but you can actually avoid peeling many vegetables altogether, especially if you‰’re slow cooking. This is one way to easily avoid food wastage and reap in the many nutrients available in the peel. Use your discretion on this tip, if you‰’re not buying organic. It really depends on the vegetable you‰’re using, it‰’s worth looking at the ‘dirty dozen‰’ to recognise the most heavily sprayed products. Root vegetables are generally the best for avoiding any sprays.
  • Tougher vegetable scraps such as kale stems and broccoli stems are great slow-cooked. Or you can place the offcuts in the freezer to make a vegetable broth at a later date.
  • Banana skins are great to place around the base of your lemon or citrus trees. They break down fast and you‰’ll see a notable difference in the growth of your trees. You can also wash out egg shells, place in a bowl and mix in your food processor. Place them in your garden as snails hate them, and they contain over 25 minerals for healthy plants. Believe it or not egg shells are amazing to clean stainless steel or your thermomix!
  • If you can get just one giant organic watermelon in summer, you can pickle the rind which tastes amazing.
  • There‰’s a slight loss of vitamins by freezing vegetables, but all the minerals are kept in their whole form.
  • Lastly, think about how much money you could be saving. AusHarvest figures suggest $3,800 per annum is lost due to food wastage. If you‰’re throwing out your leek greens or spring onion tops then STOP, these actually hold twice as many nutrients than the part of the plant that you would otherwise consider useable.

It‰’s a bit of a crime to be throwing away so many food items, where you can truly reap in all the health benefits of many of their offcuts, and save the environment at the same time. With this awareness, each and every one of us can very easily play our part in cutting down on overall food wastage. Remember, any mindset that you adopt about reducing your food wastage is passed down to your children and that‰’s a powerful thing. If we don‰’t raise our children to be a little conservative, they would grow up with the mindset of being able to waste things, just because they can!

Resources: