6 Simple Ways To Reduce Food Waste

As Australians, we LOVE food. However, our love for food unfortunately translates into buying with our bellies instead of our heads. Australians waste around 25% of all the food we purchase. This means essentially every time we walk out of the supermarket with 4 bags, we throw out and waste one whole bag of food. It is estimated Australia’s food waste equates to around 4,000,000 tonnes of food every single year. Imagine what we could do with or how many people in need we could feed with that huge amount of perfectly usable, nutritious food! The good thing is, food waste has decreased by 35% since 2005, however, there’s still MUCH more that needs to be done.

Here at Morlife, we understand the importance of minimising waste and being cautious about how much we contribute to landfill. We are putting a huge focus on what we can do to limit our food wastage and how we can make the most of our fresh, nutritious produce!

These are our most simple but useful tips we’ve been loving;

1. Spotty bananas may be a bit too mushy for some people’s preference, but they’re perfect for banana bread! The riper the bananas, the tastier the banana bread. Not only a great snack but super easy to have on the go or to pop in your little one’s lunchbox!
2. Soft vegetables that look a little sad are great to add into stir-fries. Just because they don’t look like they’ve just been picked straight out of the ground doesn’t mean they’re not usable anymore. They’re a fabulous way to add in a few extra vegetables into your stir-fries, fried rice or omelettes – remember, the easiest way to ensure your diet is rich with important vitamins and minerals is to eat the rainbow!

3. If you love coffee as much as we do, you’ll most likely have leftover coffee grounds! These normally would be thrown straight in the bin however there are so many ways you can utilise these. They work great as a natural exfoliating body scrub plus the added bonus of one of our favourite smells. They also work brilliantly as plant fertilizer due to the nitrogen levels which help to grow healthy, green plants.

4. Storing fruits and vegetables in the correct way will no doubt extend their shelf life. We’ve discovered a few useful hacks, such as putting avocados, carrots and celery in an airtight container of water in the fridge. Not only does this void the need to buy produce in single-use plastic but it helps keep your veggies crisp and slow down the ripening process.

5. This one is easier said than done, we all know how making a meal plan and buying seasonal ingredients is not only better for your health but better for your hip pocket. Eating in-season produce is a fabulous and easy way to ensure your body is getting all the nutrients it requires and in the most delicious way possible! Planning your meals and only buying the exact amount you require is a simple way to attempt to cut down on purchasing extra foods or ingredients that could potentially go to waste.

6. As much as we try to be cautious and avoid letting food go to waste, it’s impossible to be absolutely perfect! If you find yourself with additional food you will most likely throw away – look up your local food bank and see if they will accept it! Not only will your food go to help others in need, but you’ll also be minimising your impact on the environment and on landfill. There are many organisations around that absolutely need more donations and it’s an incredibly important way to help out others in your community.

We hope you find these tips as useful as we do and know that even the smallest changes can have a big impact!