Top apps and websites to help you reduce waste and grab a bargain or freebie (UK): PART 1: Food Waste

Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

Welcome to part one in a series of posts linking useful apps and websites to help you reduce waste and save money.    This first post focusses on food waste.

According to the WRAP campaign Love Food Hate Waste , food wasted in the UK is equivalent to throwing 1 in 5 bags of shopping away!  As well as meal planning to help you only buy what you need, there is a range of apps and websites to help you find ways to use up leftovers, pass on unwanted food to someone else to use, or to get hold of food that might otherwise go to waste.  These are just some of them – please let me know in the comments if you have used these or any others.  And if you find the list useful, please share – you can find sharing buttons at the end of the post.

Food waste:

1) Use it up:

Not sure what to do with those leftover potatoes, or that half an aubergine hiding at the back of the fridge?  The internet is your friend, with plenty of places to find inspiration.

Many local authorities have website campaigns dedicated to reducing food waste.  Here in West Sussex you can find tips as part of the #fightagainstfoodwaste campaign, while Norfolk has Plan Eat Save.  Look out for one in your area.

Fight Against Food Waste

Plan Eat Save

Supermarkets also offer recipe ideas such as Tesco Real Food

And I have already mentioned Love Food Hate Waste which has loads of useful advice.

Plus there are websites and apps to help you search by ingredient such as   BBC Food,  BBC Good Food which I use a lot, or Supercook

2) Give it away or get it for free ( or cheap):

Olio

Use Olio to give away surplus food to your neighbours or find unwanted food for free.  This app operates across the UK  and is simple to use,  although it depends on having other active users nearby – that will only improve as more people get to know about it.  I’ve used it a few times over the last year, both to giveaway and to claim food.  And it’s all for free.  Whilst the app started out just for food, you can now use it to offer other items for free too.

Karma

Karma is an app for finding spare food from businesses at the end of the day – you reserve it on the app and go along to pick it up.  You usually pay half the usual price for the food.  Primairly operating in London at present.

Too Good to Go

Too Good to Go is another place to find food that restaurants, cafes, bakeries etc might throw away at the end of the day.  Operating in a variety of big towns and cities across the UK.

The Community Fridge Network

Take a look at the Community Fridge Network website to find a community fridge near you (tip : scroll down the page) or to learn how to set one up. You can also search using #communityfridge.   This works in a fairly similar way to Olio in that you offer or collect unwanted food – but this time you drop it off at a defined location for others to help themselves.  Retailers also donate surplus food to the project. Contact the local organiser for more info on how your local one operates.

3) Other food waste initiatives

Fareshare and Foodcloud     both connect supermarkets that have surplus food to charities that can use the food where it is most needed.

The Real Junk Food Project distributes food in a variety of ways – through food boxes, cafes, schools, community groups and more.  Operating in various locations, and indeed across the world.

As well as these there are likely to be a range of other local initiatives going on in your area once you start looking for them.  I’d love to hear about any you have used/ any others you know about.

I’m sharing this post as part of the Going Green Linky  .  Do visit the linky to have a look at other green posts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

50 + ways to reduce waste and avoid plastic- UK

Harris and Sons Fruit and Veg Stall, Leighton Buzzard Market

Are you looking for ways to reduce waste?  And single use plastic?  Then read on.  I hope my experience of making changes might help.  If you find the information useful please let me know and feel free to share –  you can find sharing links at the end of the post.

Recently someone in the Journey to Zero Waste UK Facebook group asked about ways to avoid plastic. I’ve been trying to reduce waste and our use of single use plastics for a while now and when I started reeling off a list of changes I was amazed at how long the list got! Some of these are things we have always done, or done for a long time, but many are more recent changes, made since I’ve been part of the online zero waste community. So I thought it might be useful to share our list. There are of course many other changes you can make, and not all of these may be applicable, but these are some of the things that work for us.

1) Ditch the Disposables:

• Cloth nappies – even if you only use them part time it’s worth it. There are lots of preloved nappy groups on Facebook so you don’t need to spend big and can try different types.
• Cloth baby wipes – again, even if you mainly only use them at home as we did it still saves loads of waste. Wet as needed and wash with the nappies. We bought some from ebay but if you have fabric to repurpose, so much the better.
• Cloth hankies – buy vintage or make your own from old clothing. No need to sew – you can cut up old jersey T shirts and they won’t fray.
• Washable cloths for cleaning (many of ours are the baby wipes/nappies we no longer need for that)
• Flannel for face washing.
• Instead of cling film, put things in a reusable container or a plate over a bowl. You can just put the cut side of half an onion etc face down on a plate.
• Tea towels and dishcloths or going to sink to wash hands/face rather than kitchen towel.
• Washable menstrual products – either a cup or washable pads as you prefer.
• Dishcloth, wooden brush or sliced loofah for washing up . A metal scourer is great for stubborn things.
• Reusable baking sheet liner rather than greaseproof paper or baking parchment.

2) Bathroom:

My bathroom essentials

 

• Bar soap instead of liquid hand soap or shower gel.
• Rhassoul clay and diluted vinegar in place of shampoo – you can even make your own vinegar – more in this post: Shampoo bars are not the only option! Hard water friendly zero waste / low waste hair wash options.
• Alternatively just use water for hair washing ( doesn’t work for me but seems to work fine for the rest of the family).
• If neither of these appeal look out for a local refill option – I now have the option of refilling an old shampoo bottle with locally made Green Goddess shampoo at local refill shop Refilled Chichester.
• Home made deodorant: Easy coconut oil deodorant recipe
• Flannel and water.
• Cloth loo wipes (part time – just for wee here). Mine are repurposed baby wipes.
• Bamboo toothbrush.
• Denttabs with fluoride – I buy mine from Anything but Plastic but they are available from several online shops or maybe from your local refill shop.
• Ecoleaf toilet roll made from UK post consumer waste. In a compostable potato starch wrap.
• Safety razor – bar soap can double up as shaving cream.
• Oil in a glass jar for moisturising when needed (currently using a blend of oils bought in a glass bottle in TK Maxx).

3) Food shopping and baking

Percol Coffee

 

• Loose fruit and veg – generally from the local market. I take my own bags and a 4 wheeled Rolser shopping trolley which makes it easier to get it all home on foot. If I can’t get to the market I do my best to choose loose produce in the supermarket.
• Dry goods and refills from local zero waste shop.
• Meat from local butchers – happy to put it straight into our own containers. Waitrose, Morrisons and Sainsbury will also do this for meat and fish.
• PG Tips loose tea in a card box.
• Percol ground coffee in a home compostable bag (carbon neutral too).
• Look for less or easy to recycle packaging.
• Milk delivered in returnable glass bottles.
• Make our own bread and pizza etc. I’ve been using a bread machine to make all our bread for 3 or 4 years now but have only recently got into baking sourdough – even less waste as no yeast is required. You can read more about making sourdough here: Simple sourdough bread – by a novice
• Make yoghurt (occasionally! ).
• Make plant milks. I tend to prefer almond milk now but I previously shared a recipe for hemp milk: How to make hemp milk that doesn’t split
• Soda stream for fizzy drinks.
• 5kg bags of rice from the world food section of the supermarket– less plastic and cheaper.
• Save veg peelings and trimmings to make vegetable stock.
• Two Farmers crisps in home compostable bags (available at Refilled Chichester)

4) Cleaning/laundry

Refills available at Refilled Chichester

 

• Refills of washing up liquid and laundry liquid.
• Ecozone eco balls.
• Soap nuts.
• Laundry powder in a card box.
• Dishwasher powder in a card box or make your own DIY dishwasher powder.
• Dishwasher salt in a card box.
• Vinegar. I mix vinegar 50/50 with water in a spray bottle for general cleaning or dab a bit on neat to wipe down food prep. surfaces immediately before using – e.g. when kneading dough.
• Bicarbonate of soda.
• Citric Acid – either mix to a paste with a little water as a cream cleaner, or dissolve 2 tbsp in 500ml of hot water and coole before transferring to a spray bottle for general cleaning as an alternative to vinegar
• Borax Substitute.

5) On the go

• Coffee cup.
• Water bottle.
• Stainless steel straws.
• Empty container and cutlery if you plan to buy street food.

6) Other things

• Compost all food waste, and waste from herbivorous pets.
• Grow a few things.
• Forage a few things.
• Buy things we need second hand first – I’ve bought most of my clothes that way for years but now we also look for other things preowned too. Our oak bed frame has to be one of the best finds when we moved house. It perfectly matches the bedside tables we had already.
• Repair what we can.
• Reuse – e.g. jars and tubs from food are saved to reuse for taking to refill shop, making jam, storing and freezing leftovers etc.
• Rehome things we no longer need – via Facebook groups, ebay, charity shops etc.
• Recycle as much as we can.

I’d love to hear about your favourite changes that have helped you reduce waste. Please let me know by commenting below and sharing.

Remember you can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @busygreenmum

I’m sharing this as part of the Going Green linky for Plastic Free July over at A Green and Rosie life so do check out the other posts there too. https://eco-gites.blogspot.com/2019/07/going-green-29-july-2019.html?m=1

Christmas Crackers – Zero Waste Style

Home made Christmas crackers

Do you enjoy having Christmas crackers but worry about the waste?

Of course they are not an essential, but they are a traditional part of the Christmas lunch table setting in the UK, and fortunately a simple one to replace with a less waste, homemade version.

I have been making my own for the last couple of years, using loo roll or other cardboard tubes and decorating with various bits and bobs saved through the year.  All you need to buy is the cracker bangs ( I found some unpackaged in lovely local shop Room No 9 in Leighton Buzzard but you can order online or find in craft shops) and your choice of gifts.

The first year I decorated them in the foil wrappers from chocolate bars.  They weren’t very neat but the family still really enjoyed them.  Next time I used some colourful pictures from a calendar and had improved the technique a little. I have saved some glossy wrapping paper that couldn’t be recycled to reuse this year.

The first step is to place the cracker bang carefully inside your loo roll or other cardboard tube and place it on top of the paper you will be wrapping it in to check for size – you want the cracker bang ends to be just covered. Mark where your cardboard tube comes to on the inside of the paper .

Then, removing the card tube again for now, carefully fold one end of the paper over to the mark you have made and cut some small slits – these will help you squeeze the ends of the paper in to tie them neatly.  It’s a good idea to try this out on a spare piece of paper first to make sure you have the slits in the right place and to see how big to make them.  Do the same at the other end.

Now, wrap the paper around the card tube with the cracker bang in and fasten with a small piece of tape.  Tie your ribbon around one end.

Now fill up the cracker with your chosen gift and joke.  I find jokes online to print out, or reuse jokes from the crackers at my work Christmas lunch – even better write your own.  We already have a set of Santa hats which are too large to fit in the cracker so we place those at the table separately but you could of course make paper hats if you prefer.

 

 

I try to source the gifts from local charity shops.  Last year I found these gorgeous wooden tree decorations which just fitted in, and which can be reused for the tree every year.  When I haven’t found anything suitably small preowned I have filled the crackers with sweets or lottery scratch cards.  Homemade sweets or biscuits would be another good idea if you can leave filling the crackers until close to the day.

Once the gifts are in, all you need to do is tie the second ribbon to close the end – and label them if you have personalised the gifts.

I’m not the most artistic or neat and tidy person so these always end up looking homemade, but there is nothing wrong with that – the family seem to enjoy them and there is hopefully no plastic tat to go straight in the bin.

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Home made Christmas crackers