5 ways to reduce food waste with Natural Collection
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wicker potato basket from Natural Collection
As you know, Natural Collection are offering one lucky winner a £50 voucher. All you have to do is pledge what you will do to reduce your food waste on our National Zero Waste Week page and come back during the week to let us know how you are getting on.
Natural Collection sell a huge array of items from clothing to soft furnishings to gifts and books. Every item they sell will satisfy your need for eco, organic, sustainable or fair trade.
They’ve got some great items to help you reduce your food waste, here are 5 of my favourites:
Compost pail
Much more stylish than my own plastic container, this Compost Pail looks great on your kitchen work surface and will hold all your scraps before you visit the compost heap.
Banana tree
According to WRAP, one of the most common fruits to be thrown away are bananas. I’ve had a few go bad in my time and they can also cause other fruits to rot in the fruit bowl. This lovely fair trade banana tree means you can separate bananas from the rest of the fruit and keep everything fresher for longer.
Preserving
I know we have a lot of ‘grow your own’ enthusiasts onboard with our challenge. Natural collection sell a wide range of preserving equipment including these Deluxe Glass Preserving jars. With rubber air tight sealing rings, this jars are perfect for storing homemade jams, chutneys and preserves.
Bokashi bin
If you’ve got a small garden or need to get rid of meat, fish and dairy waste, a bokashi will ferment your food scraps and turn them into valuable ‘food’ for either your wormery or compost bin.
Potato basket
Another common food waste item is potatoes. How often have you found soft, green potatoes sprouting eyes? The secret is to keep them in a cool dark place, like this wicker potato basket.
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Remember, we’re celebrating organic food fortnight too. While this might not be dierctly linked with zero waste, I think there are many overlaps. The main one being, many people think they cannot afford organic, so what ways are there to buy organic food on a limited budget?
Well the first thing is not to waste anything! If you have paid the extra for something that is organic, it might mean you value it more and waste less. I think we might all agree that our general attitude towards food in this country is we treat it like a disposable commodity. We seek quantity rather than quality and are happy to throw away perfectly edible food. Organic food often comes from farmers markets or farm shops, so you can buy exactly the amount you need. You can buy just two or three apples, a couple of carrots or one onion – you’re not forced to buy prepacked food which, with careful planning means there is no food wastage.
Meanwhile on the zero waste web of food love …
Sarah came home from visiting friends with a huge bag of plums this week. See what she has to say about them in her ‘cook for victory‘ post
Juliet, a self confessed tea addict tells us an amazing way to get more from your tea and from your pocket with her tips.
Cal from Northern Sky Knitting has been sharing ideas for reducing waste over on her blog.
Over on Organikal Julie asks the question “Scraps or food?” It’s all in the eye of the beholder I guess.
Meanwhile Sooz has provided us with photographic evidence about her food waste; do you think she got through the day or not? Find out here!
I’ll be back this afternoon to share what we ate yesterday.
National Zero Waste Week is sponsored by Tetra Pak. Tetra Pak cartons are widely recycled across the UK with over 86% of Local Authorities collecting cartons for recycling.
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Oh excellent post, thanks for mentioning Organic Fortnight and for linking to my post about green tea (it’s going really well too, I’m drinking only one cup of back tea most days now and all the rest is green, with the tea lasting for several cups!).
I really like Natural Collection and you’ve shared some excellent products here, specially the wicker potato basket, I don’t think we have room for one of those in our tiny kitchen but it looks wonderful!
@Crafty Green Poet: That basket is my favourite too. I don’t think I’d have room for it, but I’m sticking it on my vision board along with a huge kitchen for it to go in! Glad the tea is still working out well for you and hope you are enjoying Organic Fortnight 🙂
Been poring over the Natural Collection catalogue, which mysteriously appeared on my doorstep last weekend 😉 I’ll take the lot, please!
Bananas – I take half my delivery and cut them up into chunks and keep in the freezer to make smoothies 🙂
@Julie Gibbons: great idea about the bananas; I’ve never gotten that far, but I should; I’m sure DD would love them made like that as she’s an icecream fan