Yes – zero waste can make a difference. It is a radical action to avoid such ordinary, everyday things as plastic packaging and single-use plastics. The zero waste movement breaks the unsustainable and wasteful production/consumption cycle. It is focusing on high-quality, long-lasting ethical products.

Lunches packed without disposable bags and containers will not only save you time and money (up to $250 per year, according to wastefreelunches.org), but they will lower your carbon footprint by reducing the amount of waste you contribute to your local landfill or incinerator.

“Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.

Saves money from buying less food. Reduces methane emissions from landfills and lowers your carbon footprint. Conserves energy and resources, preventing pollution involved in the growing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling food (not to mention hauling the food waste and then landfilling it).

Reducing Food Waste: Eight Tips for Home Cooks

1. Introduce mindfulness into your shopping routine.
2. Find ways to use all the food you bring home.
3. Eat (or drink) the peels, too!
4. Become a storage pro.
5. Make friends with your freezer.
6. Revive food that is on its way out.
7. Understand date labels.
8. Compost remaining scraps.

Here are some easy actions you can take to re-connect to food and what it stands for:

1. Adopt a healthier, more sustainable diet.
2. Buy only what you need.
3. Pick ugly fruit and vegetables.
4. Store food wisely.
5. Understand food labelling.
6. Start small.
7. Love your leftovers.
8. Put your food waste to use.

5 Simple Ways to Reduce Food Waste

• Plan meals ahead. In the home, one of the best ways to reduce food waste is to plan meals ahead.
• Rotate time-sensitive foods in the fridge and cupboards.
• Freeze surplus garden vegetables.
• Process or dehydrate surplus or damaged fruit, produce and meats.
• Compost kitchen waste.

Food waste ends up wasting nearly a quarter of our water supply in the form of uneaten food or over $172 billion in wasted water. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane – a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

Reducing food waste starts with smart shopping. Adopt these shopping habits to avoid overbuying at the grocery store. Planning and mindful shopping are key to avoiding wasted food. By making a list with weekly meals in mind, you can save money, time and may eat healthier food.

If you are spending way too much money on prepared, restaurant food it wouldn’t be worthy. However, if you spend it instead to buy quality ingredients, I would say your payment is justified. Spending money on organic, high quality and rare ingredients is definitely worth it.

7 shopping tricks you need to know to stop food wastage

1. Look for longer use-by dates.
2. Don’t shop hungry.
3. Look high and look low.
4. Buy only non-perishable items in bulk.
5. Plan out your shopping list.
6. Loose fruit and vegetables are better than packs.
7. Do you really need that second one?

Ways to Reduce Waste in the Home

1. Use reusable shopping bags. Ditch plastic bags completely and switch to reusable shopping bags for your trips to the grocery stores.
2. Make a weekly meal plan and shopping list.
3. Start composting at home.
4. Stop using plastic water bottles.
5. Buy second hand.

Pickling, drying, canning, fermenting, freezing and curing are all methods you can use to make food last longer, thus reducing waste. Not only will these methods shrink your carbon footprint, they will save you money as well. What’s more, most preservation techniques are simple and can be fun.

Such shopping can leave you with much more than you actually need.

1. Practice FIFO ( First In, First Out) Photo Source.
2. Freeze to Make Them Last. Photo Source.
3. Plan a Weekly Grocery List. Photo Source.
4. Use-It-Up Meals. Photo Source.
5. Make A Waste Log. Photo Source.
6. Eat Local and Seasonal.
7. From Soggy to Smoothie.
8. Learn the Label Lingo.

Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – gets lost or wasted.

5 ways food waste is destroying our beautiful planet

• It wastes water. Water is essential to life, and it’s no surprise it’s essential to food production as well.
• It releases Methane.
• It wastes oil.
• It wastes land.
• It harms biodiversity.

Although China and India produce the most household food waste every year, the average volume produced per capita in these countries is less than 70 kilograms.

When we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport, and package it. And if food goes to the landfill and rots, it produces methane—a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide.

The lost consumer surplus resulting from our food waste pushes up the price of food. This loss has a relatively greater impact on poorer individuals, as food costs account for a greater percentage of their income. This cost is estimated by the FAO to be approximately $900 billion per year.

For example, wildlife may die of starvation, disperse and live elsewhere, or switch their dietary preferences to other wild prey or livestock, with the latter potentially resulting in increased human-wildlife conflict. Monitoring of such impacts may be necessary when reducing the availability of food waste to wildlife.