Every week in US households, one of every four bags of groceries goes to food waste. Where does your food waste go? According to the EPA, leftover or un-used food is the single most common material that burdens our landfills or is incinerated. The result — significant methane emissions in landfills and carbon dioxide emissions per year equivalent to 42 coal-fired power plants. All of those toxins are polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we live on.

If all of us can make small changes in the way we source, preserve and discard our food, imagine the impact we can make on healthy living for our families, our community and our planet.

Think about the energy and natural resources taken from the environment to produce, transport and handle food. A lot of human resources of time and labor are also lost when we readily discard food. We can dramatically slow the harm the entire food lifecycle creates by rethinking how to embrace our leftovers and making small changes with how we use and discard our food.

Here’s how…

Plan Ahead – shop in your pantry and make a list to only buy what you need at the store

Understand When Food Expires – don’t always go by expiration dates, use your senses to determine a food’s freshness

Learn to love your freezer — almost any food can be frozen. Invest in reusable containers to store leftovers — that’s less time at the grocery store and more money in your pocket

Leftovers are your friend – what’s not to like about spending more time around the dinner table and less time cooking. Make a habit of having leftovers once a week

Recycle Your Food Scraps – the earth not a landfill would love your food scraps — learn how to compost, hire a pick up service or participate in a municipal food scrap program – every bit of food diverted from the garage is positive for our planet.

Wilton Go Green is here to help – we are your food waste source. Visit our webpage on tips for reducing food waste. For easy reminders, download and print our one page flyer so the whole family can participate in protecting our planet. 

Follow our social media posts this week as we dive deeper into each of these areas and join us at the Zero Waste Faire & Sustainable Living Expo.

Save the Date to spark your green at Fairfield County’s largest Zero Waste Faire – Sunday, June 5, 2022 from 11 am – 4 pm at the Miller-Driscoll School, 217 Wolfpit Road, Wilton. Raine or Shine. Activities for eco-friendly learning and living will be available for the entire family. Take away one or thousands of ideas on indoor and outdoor sustainable living for your family, your community and our planet. Learn more. Wheelchair-accessible.