sligo-logo2
Facebook
YouTube
How Can You Help?
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Sligo Tidy Towns Projects
    • The Yeats Family Sligo Connections-Tourism Booklet
    • Sligo’s Old Cemetery
    • historicgraves.com-Sligo’s Old Cemetery
  • Green Aware
  • Events & News
  • Gallery
sligo

Food waste in Irish homes increases substantially over Christmas

December 8, 2016dkcreative

Sustainable Waste & Resource Management

Food Waste – let’s do something about it

Food waste in Ireland is a real problem and it is costing the average Irish Family €700 each year.

Most of our food wastage ends in landfills where it has significant local environmental impacts.

But long before we even buy our food there are a whole lot of other environmental costs associated with getting our food into our trolleys.

HOW MUCH FOOD DO WE WASTE?

In Ireland there is over 1 million tonnes of food waste each year.  Around 1/3 comes from household waste which means that at home each person is throwing out about 80kg of food each year.

This doesn’t seem much but we have a population of over 4million people and its adds to too much.

While some food waste cannot be avoided, the majority of it could be saved if we managed our food better.  And this will save us money too.

In general, we throw out three types of food:

60% is avoidable food waste – includes plate scrapings, leftovers, gone off fruit & veg, passed its date perishables etc.
20% is potentially avoidable – things like bread crusts, potato skins etc.  These are food wastes that are often related to habits and, as with any habit, changing can be hard.  For those of you at the resource management night held in the Sligo Park in 2014 Joe Shannon told us to use the breadcrumbs to feed the birds, and to freeze for your next roast chicken dinnerr. Remember, you can roast your potato skins with some olive oil and paprika!
20% is unavoidable food waste – includes chicken bones banana skins, peelings etc.  Your brown bin collects all of this household food waste. Visit  www.brownbin.ie for more information. When the waste collector empties your brown bin, the contents are taken to a dedicated composting plant where it is specially treated and turned into high quality compost. This can be used in gardens, landscaping projects and  on agricultural land.
Challenge your household to make inroads into reducing the avoidable food waste. It will save you money.

How can you stop food waste?

1.       Know the food you continually waste and ask yourself why?

a.      To begin to save you need to know how much you waste

b.      Record it.

c.       Put a reason why it is wasted.

2.       Plan your week ahead

a.      Write up a detailed list for the week ahead

b.      Know what you already have in the cupboard

3.       Shopping – this is the one place you waste food before you even know it!

a.      Go prepared

b.      Stick to the shopping list/plan you brought with you

c.       Check your savings from the week before

4.       Store foods correctly

a.      Know how to store correctly

b.      Use it right – within date.  Freeze what you can

5.       Cooking & Serving

a.      Proper portions – an overloaded plate leads to an overloaded bin.  Know what portion sizes are needed for adults and children.

b.      Reuse leftovers – learn about the magic art of the loaves and fishes.

Previous post Brown bins Next post Sustainable Waste & Resource Management

Latest News

Sligo Old Cemetery – historicgraves.com

July 23, 2019dkcreative
View Website Sligo Old Cemetery Survey commenced in 2017 as part of the Sligo Historic Graveyards Project.  Funded by Sligo...
Read More

Facebook Feed

Sligo Tidy Towns

23 hours ago

Sligo Tidy Towns

Our eight award is for the Transition Year programme in Sligo Grammer School. One of the many projects carried out by the transition years was the tidying up of the grounds of Sligo University Hospital. This was particularly important during the early stages of the Covid pandemic where they helped in the removal of discarded items on the hospital grounds. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
·Share

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email

Sligo Tidy Towns

23 hours ago

Sligo Tidy Towns

Great work in Fr Flanagan terrace. Well done to everyone who worked on this. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
·Share

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email

Quick Links

  • How Can You Help?
  • Useful Links
  • Events & News
  • Volunteer Charter

Our Partners

  • Sligo County Council
  • Sligo Leader Partnership
  • Sligo Tourism
  • Sligo Volunteer Centre
  • Sligo Chamber of Commerce
  • Sligo Bid
  • Purple Flag

About Us

Sligo Tidy Towns is organised and run by a group of unpaid volunteers who are passionate and proud of the place they live in. Our aim in 2018 is to continue to help enhance the image of Sligo as a place to live in, work in and visit.

Read More

© 2021 Sligo Tidy Towns. All Rights Reserved.
Designed by Darragh Kerrigan Creative