Tips for Reducing Food Waste

1. Keep track of how much food you throw out. Adjust your grocery shopping list to make sure you only buy the amounts you really need.
2. Before you shop, shop your fridge first! Plan your meals around foods you have and buy only what you need to make them.
   Making a grocery list before you shop can save a family of four $1,600 a year!
3. Reorganize your fridge to keep produce and other perishables up front so they are used before they go bad. Find out how to store food and get recipes for leftovers here or follow BayROC on Facebook.
4. Having a party? Plan how much you need to keep your guests full and happy while minimizing excess with the Guest-imator.
5. 
   Going out to eat? Order smaller portions or plan a meal using up any leftovers. Don’t forget to bring your reusable container to take home leftovers! Get recipe ideas here or www.savethefood.com.
6. Understand manufacturer dates. “Best by” and “Use by” dates are mainly suggestions. Except for infant formula, dates do not indicate the product’s safety and are not required by Federal law.
7. Share your food! Share extras with neighbors or donate foods you don’t plan to eat to Second Harvest Food Bank. If your backyard fruit trees produce more than you can use, there are local groups that can pick and distribute the extras to others.
8. Food scraps are the unavoidable waste products from food preparation. To keep them out of landfills, learn how to compost. Otherwise, food scraps should placed in your garbage cart or bin. To find out more about what goes where, visit SanJoseRecycles.org.

Food Waste Facts

• More food ends up in landfills than anything else, accounting for roughly 18% of wastes.
• In an enclosed landfill absent of oxygen, food waste quickly generates methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) that warms the planet 86 times more than carbon dioxide.
• In addition to methane, organic materials high in nitrogen, such as food scraps, also produce nitrous oxide (N2O) during decomposition in landfills, a GHG that is roughly 300 times worse than carbon dioxide.
• Sending uneaten food and other organic waste into landfills releases more than 8.3 million tons of GHGs each year in California, contributing 20 percent of the state’s methane emissions.
• Nationally, discarded food costs consumers and industry $165 billion each year.

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