11/24/2020
A Food Waste-Free Thanksgiving: Tips and Tricks to a Sustainable Holiday Season
Holidays are always an exciting time for college students, end of the semester, seeing your family after a long time, and, of course, getting to eat that delicious Thanksgiving feast! It’s one of the most exciting sights that everyone is looking forward to, a table filled with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, casseroles, pumpkin pies, everything you might desire, yet with this plentiful tradition comes the afterthought of food waste. Thanksgiving meal leftovers are a phenomenon that occurs too often.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans discard 204 million pounds of turkey every year. Every year we purchase too much food, spend too much time cooking it, but end up throwing a lot of it away, most of the food we put in our trash can is sent to landfills. Twenty-two percent of the municipal solid waste ending up in landfills is food, making food the single largest material that is taking up the landfill space. When food scraps reach the landfill, all the energy, water, and labor used to grow it is wasted. Due to the lack of aeration in a landfill site, the food does not decompose naturally but starts producing methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to the climate crisis.
Now, this all may come as a surprise to you and it may even feel less than joyful, but there are solutions! So, how do we avoid food waste?
Step 1: Plan accordingly and shop smart! This year more than any other, we are trying to limit our contact with people to keep everyone safe, therefore our Thanksgiving meals will be shared primarily with our immediate family members. We suggest making a plan of how much food you will actually eat to avoid over purchasing.
Step 2: Utilize uncooked food to the best of your abilities! Feeding America has a comprehensive guide on how to donate food to your local food bank during the holidays, unfortunately donating leftovers is not an option due to sanitation and safety concerns, so if you ended up with some leftovers and just cannot finish eating all of it, continue on to the next step.
Step 3: Compost! If you have a home composting system, some of your leftovers can be thrown away without producing greenhouse gasses! There are some limitations to home composters, here’s a list of what can and cannot be composed at home:
What not to put in a compost bin:
- Meat, fish, and bones
- Dairy and eggs
- Fats and fat-based foods, such as oil, butter, salad dressing
- Citrus, fruit, and peel
- Baked goods and cooked grains
What can be put in home composting bins:
- Non-citrus fruits and vegetables
- Eggshells
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Nutshells
If your area has a municipal compost collection system, even better, because all types of food can be composted at an industrial scale. Just remember that “when in doubt” if something is compostable or not, it is better to “throw it out” to avoid contaminating other compostable materials.
Now, we’re equipped with facts and do’s and don’ts, yet we’ve all experienced that feeling of pushback from family members because something (aka the trashcan) is just too inconvenient. When talking to family members about reducing food waste, try to speak from a personal perspective, articulating why this issue is important to you. Sometimes when the issue is out of sight, people have a hard time connecting to it and it becomes out of mind as well. Letting those that are close to you know that the repercussions of food waste may affect them, or another family member might make a bigger impression. It is important to approach the topic but be sure to keep your audience in mind.
Most of the time the work of shopping and cooking for a feast falls into the hands of the “cooks” in the family. In order to convince your family's chefs to apply these food waste prevention methods be a sous-chef and help out! Offer to do the calculations on how much shopping needs to be done, research local food banks and see if they’re accepting any uncooked food donations this year, or start and maintain a composting bin to avoid throwing away veggie scraps and some leftovers.
Most importantly, enjoy your holiday surrounded by those closest to you, whether that be in person with your immediate family or with all 20 cousins on Zoom. Work on a prevention and composting plan that would work best for your family and try not to push your points of view too much, even if you’re convinced that you’re right. Be compassionate, understanding, and willing to listen to the views of others - you might just learn something!
