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Food we eat and waste we leave behind - discussion on lockdown learnings

  • 15 September 2020
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Food we eat and waste we leave behind - discussion on lockdown learnings
sylm_2000
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During the lockdown, we felt genuinely grateful to the essential workers who managed the essential home deliveries as we followed strict guidelines and avoided travel to the supermarkets.

We have always been a conscientious family, driven by reduce, reuse and recycle  principles. However during the lockdown, our food waste reduced further significantly. Value on hard to get commodity is quickly felt and appreciated. As a kitchen gardener, I have huge respect for the farmers and food growers who til the land for the food, which leads to our plates. 


One thing I discovered during the lockdown was oddbox which delivers food which is in surplus, or not sold in the supermarket either due to size or shape. We have been delighted with the produce and many of our friends appreciated the introduction (plus a free £10 voucher for the first order, pm me for a new customer link if you're interested). 

 

This made me wonder, what changes we are open to make to our lifestyle post lockdown? What positive impact we can have on the environment and sustain the changes as a family? 

 

As a community interested in net-zero I would welcome your thoughts and comments.

 

To net-zero and beyond!

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Tim_OVO
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This made me wonder, what changes we are open to make to our lifestyle post lockdown? What positive impact we can have on the environment and sustain the changes as a family? 

 

As a community interested in net-zero I would welcome your thoughts and comments.

 

 

A great opportunity to have a discussion on individual learnings, which we can all learn from if we so wish - thanks for posting @sylm_2000 

 

I don’t want to steamroll this discussion, but I have a learning from 2020 that I want to share. 

 

I can get used to anything

 

From supermarket delivery services and full lock down, to returning to the shops and office (occasionally), I have learnt that once-hardened routines can change whilst my thoughts, feelings and emotions adapt. I, maybe everyone, can get used to anything. 

 

It’s for this reason that the necessary changes to our lifestyles that I BELIEVE are necessary (to avoid catastrophic climate change and a bio-diversity tragedy), can be absorbed into our daily lives with little long term effect to our happiness. An example is paying more for meat and dairy (a likely outcome of an end to subsidies is higher prices) means you get used to meat alternatives, and see meat as a treat to be enjoyed, if eaten at all. This can apply to carbon taxes, tariffs on imports from high carbon emitting countries, a focus on local, seasonal produce etc etc. For those that say ‘we can’t change, look how much the world loves beef’ (or something similar), I say: you can used to anything. Let’s change now and start getting used to it!

 

I know of one techy that might be interesting in this topic from a technical solutions point of view, @Jequinlan 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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Wasting food is bad for the environment - including the climate. We waste about a third of all food produced for human consumption. This wasted food has taken loads of fresh water, land and labour to produce. If it were a country, food waste would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

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I live in an area where food-waste is collected by the local council. It gets taken to a bio-digester plant at Holsworthy.

The anaerobic process yields gas which is burned to produce electricity, whilst the solid wastes are available to local farmers as mineral-rich fertiliser.

My own household contribution to this is particularly small. Most of our own “waste” food (vegetable peelings etc) goes into our own wormery to create a nutrient-rich liquor.

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Tim_OVO
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I live in an area where food-waste is collected by the local council. It gets taken to a bio-digester plant at Holsworthy.

 

This prompted me to look into where our food waste goes down here in Bristol. I found out this from the bristol.gov.uk site:

 

Food waste

 

Food waste is sent to an Anaerobic Digestion Plant site in Avonmouth. The food waste is de-packaged and screened before being fed into the anaerobic digesters.

The pasteurisation stage ensures that the resulting fertiliser output is safe for application to farm land. The anaerobic digesters transform the food waste into biogas and nutrient rich fertiliser.

Anaerobic digestion is a completely natural process through which micro-organisms break down the food waste in the absence of oxygen to produce methane.

The biogas produced from the digestion can be used to provide vehicle transport fuel for our Bio-Bus and Bio-Bug, or supply homes.  

 

Did you know? Around 9,000 tonnes of food waste was collected for composting from Bristol households in 2014.

 

Sometimes, humans can be very clever and resourceful!

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
Tim_OVO
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@NinjaGeek I’ve spotted you’re online! :wave:

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
NinjaGeek
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@NinjaGeek I’ve spotted you’re online! :wave:

 

Heya :metal:

I will admit this is a very good idea. I will certainly look into this and if I am to go ahead, I will DM you for the introduction link if that’s ok @sylm_2000. Since lockdown I have been going to a farm local to me. Everything they sell is what they grow on the farm such as eggs, veg and fruit. Helping local farm seemed like the right thing for us to do so we continue on going back. 

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sylm_2000
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@NinjaGeek - please do, a worthwhile intervention we can make. I will PM you a link to join as a new customer.

As a gardener, I know the amount of TLC and resources it takes to grow your own. As a reference, my water bill went almost double since I started growing my own. It teaches kids respecting the food we eat, keeping in touch with nature and a great work-out especially during the lockdown.

Companies like oddbox are amazing as they bring back the odd-shaped peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and apples - unlike the perfect clones we get sold in the supermarkets plus saving tonnes of waste as well.

A lot of supermarkets (I think Waitrose, Asda and Tesco) have joined in selling (natural shaped) veggies and fruits. We as customers need to support the change.

To net-zero and beyond!

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