Households in Wrexham are being encouraged to become more waste aware this Christmas to save money on their festive food bills.
Forward planning and following a few simple guidelines can help families cut costs as well as the amount of leftover and wasted food which is thrown away at Christmas.
At Christmas time most of us stock up with extra food for the festive season, but do we have a tendency to go a bit over the top? Over the Christmas period around 230,000 tonnes of festive food worth around £275m is thrown away across the UK. This year, Wrexham is teaming up with Waste Awareness Wales to highlight ways of saving households money and cut the amount of waste over the festive period.
Cllr David Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport said: “At Christmas, we often have to cater for more people than usual and buy lots of food to eat over the festive holiday. When cooking for extra guests, people sometimes struggle to work out the correct Christmas Dinner portion sizes, and end up cooking far too much food. Portion calculators such as the one at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions will take the guess work out of planning for your meal.
Better planning will also help us to buy the right amount of food at the supermarket, so we don’t end up with too much food at home which may then go off uneaten.
“However, with a few simple actions this Christmas, we can reduce the amount we throw away which, as well as reducing how much we send to landfill, will also help reduce our Christmas food shopping bills. Wasting food already costs the average household £420 a year. And remember, by reducing food waste it means there will be more money to spend on Christmas luxuries.
“Forward planning is key. Write a list of everything you need to buy so you don’t just end up picking up everything you think you might need once you get to the supermarket. Don’t be tempted to buy more than you need or buy offers that you realistically will not get through. For example, we often don’t take into account that we often serve up several different types of vegetables for Christmas dinner and so will need a smaller portion of each than normal.
From making the most of the leftover turkey to recycling our Christmas cards, we can all do our bit to help reduce the amount we send to landfill this Christmas. Here are Waste Awareness Wales’ top tips to help reduce festive food waste:
- Make the most of your Christmas leftovers – not only is leftover turkey great for making sandwiches, salad and pies, but leftover vegetables can be used in soups or curries. There are many recipe available online – visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for lots of recipe ideas for leftovers.
- Plan ahead and make a shopping list. It will help you only buying what you need and will help you not to forget everything.
- Buy Christmas vegetables loose rather than pre-packaged so you don’t end up with too much.
- If you’re struggling to work out portions, try the portion calculator online which removes the guesswork from your planning: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions
- Leftover cheese can either be frozen or used for cheese sauces in meals for the following week.
- Keep fruit, vegetables and nuts in the salad drawer of the fridge to make them last longer.
- Fruit and vegetable peelings can be put into a home compost bin
- When doing your Christmas food shopping, remember to take your reusable cloth bags, ‘bags for life’ or reuse carrier bags you already have.
- For a sweet treat, create your very own ice-cream using leftover Christmas pudding.
- Our most perishable – and often most expensive – Christmas food is kept in the fridge, so keep tabs on their use-by dates – the freezer may an option for food you won’t get round to eating in time allowing you to enjoy them well after Christmas is over
If your household does produce more food than you were expecting, please remember to put the food waste in your green organic waste bin. Any corrugated cardboard from bulky Christmas presents can also be put into the green wheelie bin. It is important that Wrexham residents note that the green organic waste bin and black/blue rubbish bins will continue to be collected on alternate weeks throughout both the festive period and winter this year. Recycling boxes and sacks will continue to be collected weekly.
To learn more about how you can help future generations by reducing, reusing and recycling your waste please visit the website at www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk
