Woman reveals the easiest way to avoid one major pitfall of Thanksgiving: ‘We’re not having that’

Jeremiah Budin
·2 min read
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Food waste is a huge problem in the United States, and with Thanksgiving right around the corner, we are fast approaching the holiday on which likely more food is sadly wasted than on any other day of the year.

But there are steps that we can take to mitigate this waste, and one TikTok content creator has made a helpful video to explain how.

The scoop

“Sustainability & low-waste living” content creator Happy Earth Habits (@skysaba) made the short video to educate her 79,000 followers on how to avoid sending food to landfills this Thanksgiving. “On Thanksgiving Day alone, 200 million pounds of turkey end up in the landfill, and a 150 million pounds of sides,” she said. “We’re not having that.”

She broke it down into three tips: 1) Compost your veggie scraps — if you don’t have your own garden to make use of the compost, you can always find your nearest compost center and take them there; 2) eat your leftovers; 3) instead of making as much food as you possibly can, do your best to cook for the actual number of people who will be at your Thanksgiving.

How it’s helping

Happy Earth Habits’ statistics about the amount of food wasted on Thanksgiving are similar to those provided by the University of Minnesota sustainability program, which estimates that a total of 305 million pounds of food is wasted from our collective Thanksgiving dinners.

And food waste isn’t just a problem on Thanksgiving, either. According to one study, the average American household throws away $1,500 of food per year.

According to Feeding America, a total of 119 billion pounds of food is wasted every year in the United States — nearly 40% of the total food supply. Instead of going toward feeding the 44 million people (including 13 million children) facing hunger in the U.S., that food ends up sitting in a landfill, where it releases planet-overheating gases as it breaks down.

What everybody is saying

Happy Earth Habits’ TikTok followers were very down to make their Thanksgivings as low waste as possible.

“Nice post!” wrote one commenter.

“Use veggie scraps for veggie broth and leftover turkey to make a turkey, veggie soup,” suggested another.

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