To ask for your waste reducing tips

[Crazypetlady]

I am horrified by the waste in this country,we waste so much. I would like to waste less food and reuse things I would have thrown. So have any of you got any tips to share?

Mine is fried rice, great the day after a curry to use leftover rice and odd ends of veg.

We purchased two carrier bag full of banana on Friday, they were 9p

We are slowly, giving the banana away, making smoothies, eating whole, chopped up on breakfast

So far we have eaten five per day - so 15 bananas that were perfectly edible and hardly bruised

Waste not want is a good site. But basically stop buying stuff. Use up what you have

Also have a compost heap for eggshells, tea bags,peelings etc, we even put used kitchen roll in ours and we had loads of lovely compost this year.
Also make stock with things like a chicken carcass.

overthehill could you make a link to that "waste not want" website address? All I'm getting from Google is the full phrase and its meaning.
Thanks!

Sorry *overtheMill" (bloody small screen phone)!

Oh, I give up!

Thanks. My problem is I keep all my toilet roll tubes for the pinterest crafts and end up recycling them anyway as I am too busy with ds at the minute!

onlineshop, not sure if this has already been mentioned. also shop at smaller supermarkets. less choice. less choice less impulse buying

For Mumsnetters wanting to waste less - check these sites out, there is lots of great info available to help us all waste less....

FOOD - How to waste less food at home (and save lots of money in process!) www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/ - tips, recipes, what you can freeze, what date labels mean etc loads of great food info.

PACKAGING/STORING FOOD- How to store food to keep it at its best and save money - Fresher for Longer - www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/node/5859

RECYCLING - What you can recycle where you live, what happens to your recycling and where you can donate things for re-use locally www.recyclenow.com/ - A-Z of what can be recycled, recycling/re-use locator where you pop your postcode in and it tells you what to recycle for YOUR local bin/box collection and your nearest sites for bigger items or more unusual items like light bulbs etc

FURNITURE/ELECTRICALS - Find local charities and social enterprises to donate your furniture and electrical goods www.frn.org.uk/ (Furniture Re-use Network)

CLOTHES - - how to look after them, repair the, re-use them and get better use out of the ones you buy loveyourclothes.org.uk/

Ooh Piper that satsuma thing looks good! Thanks!

Most of our food waste at the moment is cooked food - DH gives the DDs quite large portions IMO, and they are very inconsistent in how much they eat for tea. I suggest serving small portions, then seconds are available but if not desired can be kept for another time.

The next problem is that DH buys for 7 evening meals a week which means we don't use up leftovers as the next thing's about to go out of date and needs to be cooked or it'll be wasted. We need to buy fresh food for just 5 or 6 evenings a week!

I meal plan for four or five days at a time. I have a Tesco delivery season ticket so extra deliveries cost me nothing.

Ivykaty you can freeze the bananas. I'd recommend peeling them first and slicing, then freezing in tubs or bags. You can blend and make banana ice cream. Or use them in smoothies etc..

Mine and DH's joint NYR is to stop wasting money, time and stuff (food included) by being more organised and thoughtful. In preparation we're doing a big clear out and setting some ground rules, so this thread is helpful, albeit I'm not Uk so some of the routes arent open to me.

I'm going to stop doing a weekly shop for fresh stuff. I find things just get forgotten about in an over full fridge or freeze at the back and go to mush. I'm not convinced that doing one big shop is therefore cheaper. I dont have a huge freezer so batch cooking isnt that practical although I do do some. Definitely need to meal plan though.

I'm good at freecycling stuff I dont want and always give the DC's outgrown clothes to friends or the Salvos but for me, I could definitely just buy less stuff to start with. We're having a "no adult present" Christmas and the kids are also getting less this year.

Great narna tip!

I've been selling things on eBay. And trying to use up the "stuff" I have - beauty products etc.

Food wise were pretty good at hardly wasting anything. We tend to buy frozen veg as well as fresh and when the fresh is going a bit wangy I either soup it or add to bags of frozen stuff.

Freeze leftovers. Batch cook and use my oven for more than one thing at a time if I can. So no electric waste.

OP - be very very careful about reheating rice. It can make you ill.

See this: www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning.aspx?CategoryID=51

With over ripe bananas, we make 2 banana bread loaves at once. Eat one, then slice the other loaf and the leftovers, and freeze them like that so the kids can grab a slice to take to school for a snack or in their packed lunch.

Serve meals but putting the various things in the centre and letting people help themselves. Then you can reuse the leftovers (which you're unlikely to want to do if its been on someone's plate)

A good one for those with wood burners is tumble dryer lint. Collect it and shove it into toilet rolls to make really good firelighters.

These may be obvious to others but have really made a dent chez Hummus:

Freecycle - tons of local groups with people who'll collect unwanted furniture/clothes/toys/whatever from you free, or who advertise unwanted things. I once saw an old Toyota on there FFS - you could basically kit out your house from Freecycle in a pinch.

The freezer - we tend to buy meat and frozen veg, and just defrost/use as needed.

Bulk cooking - I'll make stews/bolognese type dishes in 3x quantities, freezing most for later use. Also, that MN stereotype of adding lentils to everything really does work.

One-pot dishes - stews, soups, dishes where you just chuck in loads of ingredients and leave to slow cook.

Lidl - Just as good as Waitrose for most things, far cheaper.

Online shopping - no temptation to pick up random things, much easier to stick to your shopping list.

Planning for 5/6 days worth of meals, not 7 a week: there's inevitably one day a week where we'll fancy a takeaway / one of us will eat late in the office / we'll be out for a meal with friends.

Thanks for the rice tip, I am a chef and my nvq trainer said it has to be above 75 degrees is all how odd!