Think about every piece of food you have thrown into your garbage disposal within the last week. Our garbage disposals have one of the best diets across the globe! Unfortunately, the food and scraps that Americans throw down the drain could also be used to increase food supplies. Instead of risking a garbage disposal repair by dumping pounds of food down your drain, there are a few ways that you can help to curb this trend. However, a Ritz plumber Los Angeles expert will be right over if you’ve already over fed your garbage disposal!

If the thought of consistently throwing food away makes you think twice about doubling your slow cooker recipe, there are small things that you can do around your own kitchen to help out the country on a larger scale. For food that isn’t edible, an increasing number of cities and states are offering programs to consumers, grocery stores and restaurants to compost it or to donate it to farmers for their livestock. Restaurants are also starting to cut down on their portion sizes, and at-home chefs are following in the same footsteps.

Many families are finding that grocery bills are increasing every day and food banks are running out of donations. Food shortages are causing riots in poorer countries around the world. However, you’d never know it if you saw what was ending up in America’s landfills. The United States wastes nearly 27% of the food available for consumption, or one pound of food each day for each American. Not only does it happen in homes but in cafeterias, restaurants and the supermarket, as well.

Grocery stores discard products that have expired or ones that have cosmetic blemishes. Restaurants throw out unfinished food that customers can’t finish. Consumers toss everything down their sinks – from last week’s Chinese leftovers to bananas that have turned brown. It is no wonder that if garbage disposals could talk, you could hear them burping all over the country.

While simply cooking or purchasing what you can eat at the time is smarter, it’s not always feasible. However, rather than stocking up on a soon-to-be-expired product just because it was on sale, maybe only buy it if you know you’ll use it then or if it will freeze well. The country still has a long way to go in eliminating waste. However, it’s the small steps that add up. Give your garbage disposal a few nights off this week!