At home, there is minimal food that gets thrown out as my family and I tend to eat most of the food we make or take out to eat. If there are leftovers after the first night of making a meal, then we eat the same meal the next day to avoid wasting any. Sometimes we eat it for a third night in a row if need be. Food waste, though, is inevitable. The times where there are food scraps left over after a meal, it goes into the compost which my mom is very strict about. She is also very strict on recycling so in my household, we separate our waste. We are also fortunate in that we have a good recycling system at our school. Within my friend group, we separate our waste to the best of our ability. It’s efficient that there are labels that direct us on what goes where. In our community, the ability to separate our waste has got better throughout the years. Even in the mall food court the waste is separated. I think the ability to separate our waste when we are around town could be better though. I haven’t seen much of a difference in the types of recycling such as a compost, recycling, waste. Even if there is some type of separation, it’s difficult to know what goes where without a guide to direct us. One way I could improve my food waste is by not overserving. There are nights where I feel I am so hungry I could eat so much food, so I serve myself a lot of food. In the end, I don’t end up eating all of it and throw it away. Instead of taking out too much food, I could take out a little bit, finish it, and go back for some more. Another way I could improve is by not taking food expiration dates so seriously. My mom buys a tub of Greek yogurt and almond milk and I am typically the only one that eats it. But when I see that it has expired a day ago I tend to not want to eat it. I have read and been told multiple times that certain things can be eaten after the expiration date, so instead of wasting it once it’s out of date, I should still eat it because it’s still perfectly fine to eat for a while longer. One way that I could cut down on my waste is by freezing foods that aren’t going to be eaten right away. In my family, my mom buys different types of bread because of how picky my family is, but if she feels like it’s not going to be eaten by the time it becomes spoiled, she can freeze it and save it for later. I could also do this with many other different types of foods, not just bread! Another way to cut down on waste is preservation by canning which we did in class. My mom buys a lot of fresh fruit which can spoil quite quickly. Instead of letting them spoil, we could try turning them into a jam since I have the skills to do that now! It will allow for us to not have to throw away fruits that are spoiling, instead we can preserve it for a longer time. Minimizing food waste is important. Everyone should find ways on how they can reduce their food waste and stick to it to not only save money, but to save the environment as well.