{"id":356075,"date":"2026-03-31T01:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T01:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356075\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T01:35:08","slug":"as-that-new-food-caddy-lands-heres-how-to-reduce-waste-not-just-recycle-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356075\/","title":{"rendered":"As that new food caddy lands, here\u2019s how to reduce waste \u2013 not just recycle it"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you live in England, you may have recently received a new food waste caddy. Councils are now required<\/a> to collect your separated food waste<\/a> and turn it into fuel, fertiliser or compost. So you can live happily in the knowledge that your potato peelings and stale bread<\/a> will be put to good use rather than going to landfill.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a risk that the less we feel bad about wasting food, the less effort<\/a> we may make to try to limit the amount we waste. This is a problem, because around 40 to 50 times more energy goes into producing, transporting and selling<\/a> food than can be recovered from recycling it. To drastically cut food-related emissions we need to get serious about reducing food waste, not just recycling<\/a> it.<\/p>\n

Reducing food waste is hard<\/a>. It\u2019s difficult to know exactly how many potatoes will get eaten at Sunday lunch. Leftover potatoes in the fridge can be easily forgotten. Predicting how many bananas your children will eat before they turn too ripe during the week is tricky. And it\u2019s difficult to persuade yourself to eat that stale crust of bread for lunch when you could get a fresh baguette on your way to work. <\/p>\n

There are so many different things<\/a> that influence our food needs and preferences.<\/p>\n

Plan and track<\/p>\n

How can we make it easier? Our<\/a> research<\/a> points to two key steps that could make an important difference.<\/p>\n

First, experiment with shorter term, more flexible meal planning. There is evidence that food planning behaviours<\/a> cut waste. These include planning meals ahead of time, writing a shopping list and checking fridge and cupboard supplies before buying. But the further ahead we meal plan, the more time there is for things to change. You might get invited out to dinner, you could run out of time to cook, your child moves on from their obsession with hummus. <\/p>\n

Introducing some flexibility could help. This may include planning for a meal of leftovers, including meals that can be adapted to accommodate different ingredients (such as stir fries or stews or something with eggs). Swapping meals around between days depending on time, inclination and number of mouths to feed also helps. <\/p>\n

\"clipboard<\/a><\/p>\n

Meal planning can help reduce food waste.
\n Pixel-Shot\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

This tactic won\u2019t be right for everyone. If you have little interest in cooking or limited time and energy, this might just all sound like too much hard work. <\/p>\n

Another approach is to use the introduction of the food waste collection scheme as an opportunity to start tracking your waste. How many caddies do you fill each week? Could you aim for a smaller number? Is there anything that seems to lead to more waste or less? <\/p>\n

This type of monitoring can create a feedback loop<\/a> where we compare what\u2019s actually happening with what we want to happen and use any gap between the two to decide what to do next. Feedback loops may be especially helpful for outcomes that are influenced by many different things, such as a person\u2019s weight, a population\u2019s life expectancy or a household\u2019s food waste. <\/p>\n

Experimenting with different ways to cut your food waste can prompt you to identify<\/a> the habits that work best for you. For example, you may discover your kids like frozen overripe bananas in smoothies. Or that putting your leftover potatoes toward the front of the fridge means you\u2019re less likely to forget about them. <\/p>\n

This all assumes you\u2019re motivated to reduce your food waste in the first place. If carbon emissions don\u2019t bother you, you could think about the financial savings. In the UK, an estimated \u00a317.5 billion<\/a> of food is wasted every year. That\u2019s around \u00a31,000 a year for a household of four. These costs are certainly not small potatoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you live in England, you may have recently received a new food waste caddy. Councils are now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-356075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}