Shrink‑wrapped vegetables and fruit on polystyrene trays, rice and groat portions in separate bags, individually‑wrapped cheese slices… More and more food products are being sold in redundant packages. And we’ve known for a long time that the most effective waste reduction method is to refrain from buying packaged products.

 

Fight excessive packaging (waste):

Drink tap water instead of bottled water! Its quality is similar to that of popular “mineral” waters. Read expert opinions at pijewodezkranu.org.

 

Choose products without redundant packaging—you can (and should) just as well buy vegetables and fruit in bulk! Rice and groats are available in collective packages—you can measure an appropriate portion yourself before cooking.

 

Buy fresh unprocessed products! You will limit the amount of packaging and your health will benefit from this: less artificial ingredients in your diets, less preservatives.

 

Buy products by the pound and take advantage of reusable packages! More and more stores allow you to buy products in the amount you need. Furthermore, you reduce the risk of wasting food.

 

Buy larger packages: instead of six small bottles of beverage buy one large bottle!

Do it yourself. Isn’t juice squeezed from fresh fruit or home‑made pâté tastier?

“Fast fashion” is cheap, addictive and harmful to the environment. Clothing companies introduce new collections to the stores several times a month, which results in tons of clothes that no one wants, which later end up on a landfill. Clothes that were made using enormous amounts of energy, water and other resources.

 

Fast production does not go hand in hand with quality—clothes quickly get damaged, washed out and end up in a bin. Many clothes that instantaneously go out of fashion also end up on a landfill. Made of plant- or animal‑based fibres, they decompose and generate methane. Clothes made of synthetic fibres, like plastic, decompose over a period as long as several hundred years. Moreover, before the fibres become clothes, they are bleached, dyed, chemically cleaned… these chemicals can be washed out during decomposition, pollute the soil and enter groundwaters.

 

For the environment (and our finances), it’s more beneficial to make clothes last longer. How? There are many methods:

 

Think about what you buy! Don’t just follow what’s fashionable. Invest in good quality; clothes made of natural fabrics will last longer. Pass them on! If you don’t want to wear a sweater your grandmother gave you, or if the colour of your dress seems boring to you, maybe your friends can benefit from this? Swap Parties have become increasingly popular. Look for groups for swapping clothes and accessories on social media.

 

Textile upcycling (upcycling means reusing raw materials, not just clothes): you can change the function of a piece of clothing by making e.g. winter pet clothes from a sweater, or transform an old pair of jeans into shorts.

 

Popular second‑hand stores save unwanted clothes. You can often buy good‑quality items there, sometimes even new.

 

Unwanted clothes are also being used by the industry. For example, cotton clothes are used as cleaning cloths in the construction industry (they absorb moisture and are good for wiping grease and paint smudges), damaged mohair is remade into carpets, while recycled non‑woven fabrics are used by furniture companies to make mattresses and furniture upholstery.

 

Plenty of grown vegetables and fruit can be found in gardens during the summer season. It’s often troublesome to eat them all at once. What can we do to not let them go to waste? The answer is simple. Preserves!

 

We can put various vegetables in jars, like cucumbers, make a vegetable salad in vinegar, or tomato paste. We can use fruit to make jams, conserves, or compote. We should preserve the taste of summer—and there are many options!

 

Try out our recipes:

 

Pickled zucchini

 

Ingredients:

 

– zucchini

– garlic

– dill

– horseradish

– chilli pepper

– salt

 

Preparation:

 

Wash the zucchini. Place it in washed jars, add garlic, dill, horseradish and other additives, e.g. oak leaves. Adding e.g. some fresh chilli peppers is a good idea. Boil water in a pot and dissolve some salt in it (1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 1 litre). Wait until the water cools down and pour it into jars. Close the jars and put them away for 1 day in the house in a dark, calm place. Later move them to a larder or basement to let them slowly pickle.

 

Tomato pizza sauce

 

Ingredients:

 

– 3 kg of tomatoes (e.g. elongated Lima tomatoes)

– 3 cloves of garlic

– 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

– 1 tablespoon of dried oregano

– 1 teaspoon of sea salt

– ½ teaspoon of pepper (freshly ground is the best)

 

Preparation:

 

Put tomatoes in boiling water for 1–2 minutes, then remove and peel them. Cut them into quarters and remove stems. Remove excess juice and seeds. Dice the flesh. Gently sauté pressed garlic in olive oil in a large and wide pot. Add tomatoes and boil over high heat, adding salt, pepper and dried oregano. After bringing it to a boil, reduce heat and simmer without cover for about 1 hour (stirring from time to time). The sauce should gently bubble during cooking. Near the end you can run the tomatoes through a tomato press, if necessary. Ultimately you should obtain a rather thick sauce that should be poured into scalded dry jars, which should be immediately closed and pasteurized.

 

Plum jam (without sugar)

 

Ingredients:

 

– 2 kg of ripe Italian plums (soft)

 

Preparation:

 

Wash and pit the plums, cut them into smaller chunks or leave them whole. Place the plums in a large wide pot with a thick bottom and cook without cover for about 1.5 hours, stirring from time to time. Take them off the fire and cool down, cover and leave them in a cold place until the following day. On the next day cook them again for about 1.5 hours, this time over a slightly lower heat, stirring a bit more often. Cool them down again, cover and leave until the following day. On the third day cook the jam like before but over a very low heat and slightly shorter (for about 1 hour). Stir more often so that the jam does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Place hot jam into clean and dry jars (2 jars are enough). Pasteurize.