MANILA, Philippines — Christmas is a time for feasting, with families creating new memories while enjoying sumptuous meals together. The holiday gatherings with family and friends, however festive, can also create a problem for the environment.
As Filipinos follow the traditions associated with the season, including having so much food on the table to signify joy and prosperity, they can also exacerbate the food waste problem that the country is already facing.
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The Department of Science and Technology–Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) study titled “Does plate waste matter?: A two-stage cluster survey to assess the household plate waste in the Philippines” revealed that 1,717 metric tons of food are wasted every day in the Philippines, with rice, vegetables and meat as the top three most wasted foods among Filipino households.
This may be exacerbated during the holiday season with large gatherings where food leftovers can end up being thrown out. These end up in our landfills, attracting vermin that can spread diseases. Food waste also biodegrades into a potent greenhouse gas called methane, which is one of the culprits behind climate change.
Clean plates
While everyone is having fun and feeling full, each person has the responsibility to protect the environment in their own little ways.
Andrea Valentine A. Villaroman, who heads the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Department of Quezon City, shares these tips on how to minimize food waste at your holiday parties.
Plan well. “While we want our holiday gatherings to be festive feasts, you can try to calculate ahead of time in terms of portions or kilograms to cook per dish. You can base this on how much your household usually consumes,” she said. “You can still incorporate variety by preparing different dishes, but you don’t need to prepare so many portions of each dish, especially if you are only celebrating in a small household.”
Think of your encores. Villaroman advised cooking food that will keep well and can be reheated for eating the next day.
“Magluto ng sapat lang para hindi nakakasawa ang pagkaing inuulit i-serve,” she added.
Share your blessings. One of the New Year’s traditions is to have 12 round fruits on your table to invite good luck in the coming 12 months. If your family cannot finish them before they spoil, you can consider giving them away to the less fortunate so they too can have a healthy start to the year.
Segregate your food wastes. Instead of simply throwing out your food waste with the rest of your garbage, you can ask if your barangay has composting equipment such as biodigesters that can process them properly.
There may also be urban farms in your community that can compost them and use them as organic fertilizer. Quezon City has over 700 urban farms that provide livelihood to thousands of urban farmers, there might be one located in your community.
As the new year begins it is a good idea to start fresh with a mindset of sustainability and environmental responsibility. Food waste is an everyday occurrence, and practicing these tips can be done at each mealtime and not just on special occasions.
With more Filipino households aware of the impact of even simple steps that can help fight food waste, there will be less of this type of trash that will end up in our landfills.
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