Looking at two months of weekly data, have you been wondering about why the food diversion totals among households range so greatly? This week I reached out to a couple of households with the greatest totals and a couple with the least, inviting them to share a scoop from their pail, as it were. Forget Historic Garden Tours -- what we’re really interested in is what’s happening in your kitchen!
Thank you to the participants who took time to share a glimpse of their waste management worlds -- and to all households participating in this project. This week we’ll feature the comments from the composting giants. Next week, we’ll hear from those on the other end of the scale. Wherever your household is in the food diversion range, know that you’ve good company, and we’re all in this together: more than 2,500 pounds of food kept out of the landfill so far!
Below are lightly edited replies from the compost giants:
98.7 lbs. (RC09)
We have a large family so our kids go through large amounts of apples, bananas, and oranges each week but I feel that pasta is our big weight item. The kids eat a large amount of different types of plain pasta that they usually won’t eat reheated. We have large amounts of salad waste because our fridge does a poor job of keeping salad and with kids you never know how much they will eat.
93.4 lbs. (RC05)
So, one of our biggest numbers came from cleaning out the fridge. Also, we have lots of family who live close, so family dinners make for extra scraps.
90.6 lbs. (LC26)
Our totals are most likely more in the high range because we are a family of five with three growing boys. Each week we prepare fresh fruits and vegetables for everyone to eat throughout the week (mango, pineapple, carrots, bell peppers, etc.). Our meals are also made almost entirely from scratch (fresh pasta, homemade breads, eggs for breakfast, etc.) and have lots of veggies included with them. I would say most of our scraps are from preparing these foods - not throwing them away. That’s not to say that some things go to waste, but it’s not a big portion.
