How Your Leftovers Can Help Save the Planet

One of the most promising outcomes of the UN climate summit in Glasgow was an agreement to cut emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

While carbon gets most of the headlines, methane is one of the biggest drivers of global warming and it is something that is surprisingly easy for all of us to do something about.

Instead of being paralyzed by our eco-anxiety, it is time to get smarter about our leftovers.

One of the major sources of global methane emissions is food waste from households that ends up in landfills.

While food waste occurs along the entire supply chain — including at farms, restaurants and grocery stores — the biggest portion is generated in our homes. In the United States, 37 percent of food waste occurs at the household level, according to the non-profit ReFED.

According to Durwood Zaelke, co-author of the book Cut Super Climate Pollutants Now! and president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, “Cutting methane is the single biggest and fastest bite out of the climate problem, and reducing food waste is a key part of this. It’s also something all of us can do.”

But where to begin?

Here are three steps we can all take, starting with holiday leftovers.

Use a grocery list

The easiest step is never to go grocery shopping without a list. Surprisingly, 34 percent of Americans rarely take stock of their groceries before heading to the store, according to the World Wildlife Fund. You cannot waste something you never bring home.

Eat what you buy

This is a tricky one. We all have good intentions, but a busy life can keep us from eating everything we bring home before it goes bad. These steps can help:

Check your refrigerator daily for items about to go bad and move these out of the fridge’s “dead zones.” I label a refrigerator shelf “Eat Me First” so everyone in our home knows what to eat next.

Easy refrigerator management. Photo: Stephanie Miller

Introduce a leftovers night, including go-to recipes for clearing out food that did not get cooked earlier. My favorite is a no-recipe stir fry, using cooked rice, soy sauce, sesame oil and uneaten vegetables and protein.

Make your freezer your ally. That extra portion of uneaten dinner tonight is a welcome defrosted meal on a future weeknight. Many foods freeze surprisingly well: soup, tomato paste and even dairy products.

Find a way to compost

Some food waste — apple cores, eggshells, and coffee grinds — is unavoidable. Diverting these from a landfill toward a compost system ensures food decomposes with the help of oxygen, thus avoiding methane emissions.

For those without the space or inclination to compost at home, the Washington area is blessed with a myriad of options.

Free drop-off service is provided in every D.C. ward, usually at farmers’ markets. For about $8 weekly, residents can have their compostable items collected at their doorstep by companies such as Compost Crew, Compost Cab, and Veteran Compost.

Arlington County recently introduced a residential food waste collection program, which involves the weekly pick-up of food scraps alongside trash.

But for composting to have an environmental impact, it needs to be more widespread.

According to Compost Crew CEO Ben Parry, “composting is currently a niche market. For composting to make a difference, it needs to be a mainstreamed activity. This means people need to have affordable access to this service.”

To expand access, Compost Crew partners with municipalities in the region to offer food scrap drop-off programs. Since not all of them subsidize this effort, Compost Crew works with businesses willing to host bins for free, and nearby residents pay a small fee to access them.

Here is what I do: I live in D.C. and started backyard composting two years ago. I now compost veggie scraps in my backyard instead of throwing them in the trash. Foods like stale bread and rice, I take to a nearby farmers’ market to avoid attracting rodents.

Who knew there could be so much satisfaction in finding creative ways to use leftovers, in composting, and in hauling a much emptier trash bin to the curb every week. While the climate crisis can seem overwhelming, I feel some hope knowing I am doing all I can to make a difference at home, starting in my own kitchen.