How often does food just pass time in your house before being thrown away? If you’re like a lot of Americans, you probably do this every week. Our friends at Glad sent us a cool infographic about this. Evidently, food waste is the largest component of solid waste in landfills. This means, if you care about the environment, you should stop throwing away food. Pretty simple stuff. The next time someone criticizes your gas guzzler, point out that you’re doing your part for the environment by eating leftovers.
Not that we would advise you to eat leftover fruitcake. (All fruitcake is technically “leftover”, since it’s been in circulation for decades.) Instead, stop fruitcake from getting ending up in the landfill by not buying it or baking it. If you do get one, don’t throw it away!
Reuse the fruitcake in a variety of crafts. If you already have a doorstop, your fruitcake can easily be turned into a lovely centerpiece that will last all year, or a handy knife rack for the kitchen. You’ll find more craft ideas here.
We still have several weeks of winter, so make sure you have plenty of fruitcake in your trunk. The weight will help with traction, and, if you’re parked on an icy incline, a fruitcake behind your wheels will make sure your car doesn’t slide down the hill. We have plenty of Winter Safety tips here. The most important one is to mark one fruitcake as food, because if you ever do get stuck, that fruitcake will motivate you to find a way out before you get desperate enough to consider eating it.
If you find that you still have fruitcake leftover after making all your crafts and stocking your car, save them to regift next year. If you’re like us, we keep a list for just such things. The people who gave us a fruitcake are usually at the top of the list.
Disclosure: I’ve partnered with Glad this year for their #SAVEITSUNDAY program. With #SAVEITSUNDAY, Glad hopes to educate the public about the consequences of food waste. Please send us your fruitcakes for recycling, and we’ll find them a good home. Glad is sponsoring the fruitcake recycling program through January 24, 2014.