​

Instructions & Tips Taking the Challenge
(Downloadable PDF Available Below)

​

PREVENTABLE FOOD WASTE is both food you bought to eat but has since spoiled and food that was prepared but not eaten and was then thrown away.

​

NON-EDIBLE FOOD WASTE is everything you wouldn’t normally eat, such as banana peels, eggshells, apple cores and chicken bones.

​

Note: A scale is not required; however, it is suggested.  You can use a kitchen scale, or a digital bathroom scale will work fine too.

​

• Make sure you explain the challenge to all the members of your household.

• During the course of each day, fill out the Food Waste Diary and then place all your PREVENTABLE food waste into the container or bag. Close and store in an out of the way place in your refrigerator.  Note: Do not collect liquid waste such as soup.

• Discard NON-EDIBLE food in the usual manner.

• At the end of each week, measure both the weight and the volume of food waste in the bag. Record both the volume and the weight for the week on the attached worksheet. Once you get started, it should take no more than 15 minutes a week to measure and record your food waste.

• If the bag fills before the end of seven days, weigh or record the volume of the full bag and record how many days you collected food in that container or bag, then throw it out and begin begin collection in a new clean container or new bag. At the end of the week, total your weight and/or volume of food waste for the entire week.

• After you record the weight and volume of food wasted for the week, dispose of the the food, appropriately and as is acceptable for your collection service, by composting, through organics collection or in the garbage.

• Except for the new strategies you try starting in week 3, keep to your usual routine as much as possible during the challenge. For example, unless you regularly clean out your freezer, do not clean it throughout the challenge.

• At the end of week 6, you will compare your totals from week 2 through 6 and see how much food you saved from going to waste!

​

 

                                                  Download PDF 

​