Tuesday 17 May 2011

Waste not, want not...

Another week's challenge has flown by. Another challenging challenge too. Last week my mission was to waste no food, but was also complicated by the fact that I was on holiday (in Greece - beautiful!).

Not wasting food was much more difficult than I expected actually. On holiday we were eating out every day so getting our portion sizes right at restaurants was the biggest test. What did work well was sharing meals. I was travelling with two good friends who have reasonably small appetites - at most restaurants we shared meals, and so generally finished what was on our plates. We also managed to get take away containers for leftovers for a few of our meals, saving waste and giving us a free lunch the next day.

The down side of our waste-saving behaviour was that we did get a fair few sideways glances from our Greek hosts (not always the most hospitable), who must have thought we were very cheap travellers...

I've decided to continue my challenge for another week now that I'm back home to see how I can incorporate it into my home life. I made a good start this morning cooking up some past-their-best apples that I might otherwise have had to throw away to puree and freeze for future baking.

The next challenge I'm adding in the mix for this week is to go plastic-free. Basically that means purchasing no new plastic. It sounds reasonably straight forward, but when you start to think of how many of the foods we eat daily or buy from the supermarket are packaged in plastic it will certainly mean quite a change in behaviour.

There are lots of good sites with hints and tips though so I'll have plenty of help. Do you have any good plastic-free living tips for me??

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