Food Waste

[Dr_Liszt]

One of the things that shocked me when I was in the States was how easily people discarded food. Me being used to my mom saying "Are you going to finish that?" And me saying "No." She would keep it in the fridge and then I'll eat it later or someone else would. So I went to a world where people go "Are you going to finish that?" And me saying "No." ended up with "Ok. Trash!"

And I was like "Wtf? That's good food! They weren't even leftovers! Wtf? I wasn't hungry at the time but it could have been perfect as a snack! What's going on?"
Also the people who filled up their dishes and then throw half of it to the trash. I was a young teenage girl back then but that was my first wealth disparity shock I had.



So... what's up with you, guys?

[Monk]

I haven't watched the video yet, though I've been planning too. I do know as a country the US discards too much food. I try not to be so bad about it and generally do it if the food has gone or tastes.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

I haven't watched the video yet, though I've been planning too. I do know as a country the US discards too much food. I try not to be so bad about it and generally do it if the food has gone or tastes.

This.

I prepare a week's worth of food, and since I properly refrigerate it, it doesn't go bad. I really don't know why so many of us throw thing sout. If I'm at a restaurant, I always get it to go if I can't finish.

As my friend's mom once chided "There are starving African Americans in Africa".

[Blade Azaezel]

I was brought up with the threat, "eat it or wear it." I only chose to wear it once

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

I was brought up with the threat, "eat it or wear it." I only chose to wear it once

Now I'm just imagining some bratty kid eating all his clothes .

[Dr_Liszt]

I actually imagined him wearing his salad. And I hate him more for it.

[CashRules]

This wouldn't be a problem if everybody kept two or three goats.

[Islandmur]

Me I pack up leftovers and give them out to homeless people on my way to work. When i have leftovers that is. Now that my house is full, it's not as often as I use to.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

Waste in general, bothers me enormously.
Food is an obvious one - I'm the king of left overs and if I know I am going to cook too much of something I always make sure its something I can use later on in the week - either in its raw form or something I can do something else with - left over roast, make a pie ,,etc

But every single act of wanton waste bothers me at the same level - people who leave lights on and burn electricity for no reason, leaving TV's that aren't being watched on, whether this be because you are not In the room, the house or asleep .. leaving the heater/air con running when no one is home or using the room .. Its all the same "can't be fucked" mentality that has an impact and its always the same people that complain about the impact that can't be bothered applying a basic level of discipline to a life that would go an enormous way to solving the actual problem.

It's probably more of a first world thing given people in the first world generally live a life without knowing their born - no one feels responsible for "problems" but just seem happy to complain about the effects of the problems.

In my experience, it has less to do with your income or where you live and more to do with your attitude in general given I have seen examples of this up and down the spectrum or wealth.

My Nephews wife's family (who I have mentioned here before) will heat their entire house (all 15,000 sq foot of it) In winter - then the kids put on the air con in their individual rooms to combat the heating so that the room is what they consider to be ideal. That's like buying a humidifier and an dehumidifier, turning them both on and letting them battle it out .

Save the planet is just a thing to say to most people.

[Dr_Liszt]

By wealth disparity I meant more "first world vs third world." Mostly because over here people are more careful about those things. And people tend to lecture you if you do something like what your example family does.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

Yeah - that's what I thought you meant.

It could be generational as well altho, I've noticed loads of people my age waste a ton and people younger, waste even more.
My parents were strict as fuck about maximising their dollar and not wasting anything - but they were born before the war in the most heavily bombed country per square inch on earth so - supplies were short and you had to be canny to survive - guess they brought that mentality with them to us here living in the lap of the gods.

It clearly made a great impression on me tho to the point where I get fucking annoyed by wanton waste

[phe_de]

One problem: I've heard that in some places, when you are a guest and you finish your plate, then it looks like the host didn't give you enough to eat. So some hosts offer very large portions of food; or if you do finish your plate, they immediately put more food on it.

And from what I've heard, these places are not necessarily first-world countries.

About other types of waste: I leave my computer on when I'm at home, even if I am not in front of it. Since my computer takes about 2 minutes to boot, I prefer it that way. Since I have an electricity provider that uses renewable energy, I am ok with it.
About lamps: If the lamps are energy-efficient, leaving them on is not a problem. Unfortunately, energy-saving lamps often takke a long time before they are bright, and LEDs are not always reliable. And constantly turning them on and off is not good for them either.

So just use green electricity, then you don't have a problem.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

"One problem: I've heard that in some places, when you are a guest and you finish your plate, then it looks like the host didn't give you enough to eat. So some hosts offer very large portions of food; or if you do finish your plate, they immediately put more food on it.

And from what I've heard, these places are not necessarily first-world countries"

Well, there's waste and there's gluttony. I was raised in a culture of food being a central marker of hospitality and family focus where you eating loads of whatever was on offer is a tacit complement to the hosts.. In our background tho, food is normally dished out into serving plates left on the table and dished out by the diner electively - you take what you want and what isn't eaten is left in the serving dishes and so can be recycled into the next nights meal rather than scraped off the plate and put into the bin. So the waste is still effectively minimised.

"About other types of waste: I leave my computer on when I'm at home, even if I am not in front of it. Since my computer takes about 2 minutes to boot, I prefer it that way. Since I have an electricity provider that uses renewable energy, I am ok with it.
About lamps: If the lamps are energy-efficient, leaving them on is not a problem. Unfortunately, energy-saving lamps often takke a long time before they are bright, and LEDs are not always reliable. And constantly turning them on and off is not good for them either.

So just use green electricity, then you don't have a problem."

There are always exceptions and if your behaviour falls into one of the exceptions where the outcome doesn't result in millions of tons of carbon being poured into the environment to power shit that doesn't get used, then all power to you.
That's not what I'm talking about tho. I don't turn my computer off every single time I am away from it either even tho it takes about 10 seconds to boot up. But equally, I do not leave my computer turned on over night when I'm sleeping or if I am going to be away from it for a while because, even tho my computer is relatively low energy (its a surface pro) .. it still about not using power when you don't absolutely need to when reasonable.

These are things I see routinely - and given the Vast majority of power here comes from Coal burning, as opposed to renewables (something like 6% of our power is renewable) - these all add up to an enormous impact on our environment.

People have multiple Computers running in their homes which they turn on and leave on all the time .. they never get turned off regardless of whether someone is using them or not. My kids do this when they stay at my ex's house and it's never policed at all. I turn off the wifi at night and tell the kids to turn their computers off when I decide its time for them to be sleeping ..

People that have TV's in their bedroom that they turn on to go to sleep them leave them on as a kinda all night 200watt night light then can't work out why their electricity bills are so high and isn't it just awful that the government isn't doing something about global warming cos I sure can't be fucked making a minor change to my own personal routine or mindset.

People that leave lights on all over the house in rooms that they aren't using .. Iights, to me are functional purpose based things. If you need enuff light to see details for something you are doing, then turn lights on .. if you are just sitting in a room watching TV - then how much light do you need to do that?.. My entertainment room is about 40 feet long by 15 feet wide. If I am watching TV, I leave two 7w LED lights on that provides well enuff light for me to navigate around the room, see people in it and watch TV .. There are 16 globes available and its pretty routine for me to walk into equivalent rooms where all 16 globes are burning just cos people don't seem to like dimly lit rooms. It's hardly uncommon to go to peoples homes where lights are just left on because at some point - in the day - people were in there and couldn't be fucked turning them off. I have LED in my home and I have no idea what you mean by saying they are not reliable. They are immensely reliable - by an order of magnitude over the halogens they replaced .. they are bright in a couple of seconds, use around 1 eighth of the power and are bright as fuck.

I'm particularly Anal about waste so it annoys me when people use the clothes dryer to dry say a single pair of jeans every couple of days because they aren't organised enuff to do their washing on a routine so that every mornings dress isn't a panic to get clothes dry .. It's winter here now so I can't dry my clothes outside, instead, I hang them inside over a duct so they dry in about 4 hours..

Turning on half empty dishwashers - either wait till you have a full load or wash what you need in the sink, put that back in the dishwasher and wait until you have a full load.

Also - don't buy foods that use an excessive amount of packaging.. They're usually cheaper, you can inspect every single Item you purchase and you don't end up with a bin full of oil converted into plastic that goes straight to landfill.

[Anakin McFly]

I'm really, really bothered with food waste, especially at expensive buffets at company events and such (otherwise I'd never be able to afford them) - there might be dishes still full with extremely expensive delicacies but all of it gets shoved into the trash because the food can't keep too long, and I die a little inside. And I wonder about the waiters I've seen throwing it away, and how many of them would love to taste the stuff they're chucking into the trash; and if they're even allowed to.

also once when my brother was doing National Service in the army and working in their admin department, the higher-ups organised a lavish buffet lunch for the few hundred recruits to celebrate some holiday - at about $50 per head, with oysters and crabs and other obnoxiously expensive food. They also decided to make it a half day.

...which meant that almost everyone just decided to skip lunch and go home early. And all that food... trash.

I still get really sad and kind of angry thinking about it. And this happens all the time all over the place.

[Dr_Liszt]

People should simply just show up every time someone offers buffets. It should be their no. 1 priority.

[Anakin McFly]

Inorite?

Sometimes it helps to realise that humanity as a whole can afford to waste food - we're apparently producing enough of it to feed everyone the world 1.5 times over. The problem is in distribution and how the food doesn't actually get to the people who need it, while others have more than they can finish.