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1. Reduce, reuse, recycle
Try to reduce food waste.
It tells people “eat healthier and reduce your carbon footprint”. According to a food and agriculture report by the United Nations a massive 1, 3 billion tons of food gets wasted each year.
At the same time 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry, while lack of food also takes its daily toll on the 20 000 children under the age of 5 who die every day from hunger. With these statistics in mind, World Environment Day encourages you to become aware of the environment around you and to realise the impact your food choices can make.
2. Start your own vegetable garden
Growing your own vegetables can do more than provide tasty produce; gardening can improve health, save money and even boost your mood.
Making your own vegetable garden is an easy way to help the environment and to fit into World Environment Day.
By growing your own produce you ensure that you only pick the vegetables or fruit you need, thus eliminating wastage. You also reduce the carbon emissions and waste created by transporting fruit and vegetables in man-made materials (such a plastic packets and polystyrene containers), which often go to waste as well.
3. Keep your food fresh for longer
According to the Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africans create over 9 million tons of food waste per year.
One reason is that many people don’t understand how to store food and don’t have proper storage for the food they buy. There are ways you can keep you food fresh for longer. An example is to avoid keeping fruit and vegetables in airtight containers, which will speed up decay.
Take note of the fact that fruit such as avocados, bananas and pears are ‘gas releasers’; they give off ethylene gas, which causes premature spoilage. Do some research on ways you can store or pack food to retain their quality and freshness for a longer shelf life.
4. Store food to eat later
Not all food has to be thrown away after you’ve had enough. Making what’s left-over from last night’s dinner part of today’s lunchbox is an easy art. If you cannot or do not want to pack leftovers for lunch, try them on another occasion.
Just make sure you seal the container properly and have left food to cool down before putting it in the fridge. Open food can attract pests and must be thrown away.
When pests around the house turn into a severe problem, the assistance of a professional pest control company should be called for, but it may be wise to familiarise yourself with all the signs of pests and how to safely eradicate them before calling for assistance. Rats require three things to survive: food, water and shelter.
Remove these and the rat population disappears. Read more about this on the Rentokil website.
5. Don’t waste food, give it to others
Wasting food in any way is not good for anyone, any economy or any environment.
Whenever there is a gathering, occasion, get-together or function and there is left-over food which you don’t want or can keep, phone a charitable organisation and make arrangements to donate the surplus to them.
Be the one who encourages friends, family and colleagues to donate excess food to the beggars you find at every second street corner or traffic light.
In order to always be part of World Environment Day, no matter what year, look for opportunities to always reduce, reuse and recycle. At the end it is our responsibility to THINK, EAT, and SAVE and be more aware of what causes pollution to our environment.
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