WASTE NOT

The first question people generally ask about Buy Nothing New Month is 'does this include food?' Well, no it doesn't (unless the freegan life is the life for you, ho ho) but it doesn't hide the fact that food waste is a huge problem in our convenience society (think about it, if we had no waste and ate less meat then we could easily feed, house and clothe 9 billion+ people). Collectively, we Westerners throw out anything up to 40% of the food we produce (this includes food that spoils or is discarded before it even makes it into our homes). I grew up in the New Zealand agricultural/horticultural sector and even by the late 80s, when I was still a young teen, I had a disturbingly clear picture of what soil to plate food production looked like, as well as an insight into how free market trade could crush a local industry.


Discounting the aesthetic demands that keep a lot of our food from even making it into a grocery display, statistics say we throw out 20% of the food we purchase in Australia (check the infographic below).

Still, you don't need to save the world in a day, just start with the wilted carrot in the bottom of the veggie drawer ;)
Here is a great resource for ideas on how to use some of that past its best produce at the back of the fridge.
And here's a few tips on saving food and money