With the holiday season fast approaching, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the topic on all of our minds…. food.
Despite our love of Thanksgiving leftovers – it turns out we aren’t that good at gobbling up all of our food, especially at the holidays. Each year we throw out over 200 million pounds of turkey alone during the week of Thanksgiving[1]. Over the course of a year, up to 40% of the food in the U.S. goes uneaten[2] – food that could have benefited the one in 11 Massachusetts residents that is considered food insecure[3].
The good news is that there are simple things we can all do to decrease wasted food (and save money). Here are 5 tip to reduce our “foodprint” during the holidays:
Gail Bernard, Program Coordinator for Danvers DPW, accepts the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC)’s Public Sector Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award at the 2019 NERC Conference in October.
Ever wonder if your recycling outreach efforts really make a difference? The Town of Danvers has shown that a well-planned educational campaign can positively impact the quality (and quantity) of residential recycling. After a 5 week campaign – this award-winning recycling program saw an increase in residential recycling tons and cleaner material. Danvers collects recyclables in two streams – paper and containers. Paper contamination dropped 10% and a container contamination dropped 15%. The campaign included regular posts on Facebook and Twitter about recycling contamination paired with tagging and leaving behind contaminated bins at the curb.
Danvers used several Recycle Smart resources in their campaign – including a customized dual- version of Smart Recycling Guide, sharing Recycle Smart social posts, embedding the Recyclopedia on their website, and adapting the Recycling IQ Kit “oops tags” into stickers for their recycling hauler to leave on contaminated bins.
For more on how Danvers is utilizing Recycle Smart MA materials to get the word out, visit: www.danversma.gov/recycling-guidelines/.To become a Recycle Smart Partner, click here.
You can download the guide online at: recyclesmartma.org/smart-recycling-guide. Want to customize the guide for your community? Find the fillable pdf versions here.