Thanksgiving is about counting our blessings and taking the time to be thankful for all that we have in our lives. However, we should all be careful not to take that sentiment too far, turning an appreciation for what we have into an unnecessary practice of gluttony, excess and, ultimately, waste.

Here is why food waste is a problem, especially during Thanksgiving, and what you should do to avoid becoming part of staggering food waste statistics.

Sure, Thanksgiving is a time to go little overboard with what you consume, but at some point there is a line that would be better not be crossed. Instead of preparing more food than you can actually eat, or tossing out leftovers, respect your actual hunger level and avoid filling yourself to the brim or creating more waste than necessary. Food waste has hit new levels of embarrassing and there are ways you can be part of the solution, not the problem.

Did you know that during Thanksgiving 2013, 204 million pounds of turkey were thrown out in the US? That’s an equivalent of $277 million, 100 billion gallons of water and 1 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent gas emissions.

While Thanksgiving exhibits a peak in food waste behavior, it represents nothing special in the grand scheme of America’s food waste habits. Each year, Americans throw out 40 percent of the food supply, an amount that tallies to approximately $165 billion – for a family of four, such food waste is equivalent to $2,275 per year. It’s no wonder food waste makes up most of the solid waste in U.S. landfills.

Imagine this: if we cut the losses in the U.S. food supply by a mere 15 percent, we would save enough food to feed 25 million Americans per year. The USDA estimates that 17.9 million households in the US are food insecure. Such a fact reflects poorly on our excessive habits (not just at Thanksgiving). When Thanksgiving rolls around and excessive food preparation and eating behaviors are for the most part celebrated, it’s important to use the opportunity to consider your own actions.

So many resources go into the production of the 204 million pounds of Turkey that never got consumed. The resources that went to raising these birds are equivalent to the amount of water it would require to supply New York City for 100 days and to the level of greenhouse gases used in 800,000 car trips between San Francisco and New York.

Knowing the effects of food waste and how our resources can better be appropriated, try to make shifts in your Thanksgiving menu. Make less, serve less and reuse all the leftovers. If it is clear that you have far too many leftovers to eat yourself or by your family over the next week, try donating some leftovers to nearby shelters or individuals who you know are in need.

As for eating leftovers yourself, there are many interesting and exciting ways to re-use them without getting bored. Get creative with sandwiches, soups, salads and casseroles, re-using turkey and vegetables in ways that accent and add more texture to new dishes. You don’t have to just heat up leftovers and eat them as they are. Whatever you do, avoid making trash out of perfectly good food.

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Photo Credit: tuchodi, Kristen Taylor

The post Reduce Food Waste this Thanksgiving: Prep Less, Eat Less and Be Thankful for Enough appeared first on EcoSalon.

Lucky for us, when we don’t know what to do with clothes or items that no longer fit (either our bodies or our style tastes), we can turn to Swapdom.com, a site dedicated to trading people’s beloved items that also specializes in the benefits of recycling!

We’ve all had what many like to call the “closet crisis.” You know, where you open your closet doors and brace yourself in fear of the rack snapping and your clothes devouring you like an angry ocean. Or the shoebox mountain that took you months to build comes down like an avalanche similar to a round in Jenga gone wrong. Some may refer to you as a hoarder (you prefer “clothing connoisseur” or just simply “collector”) because you can’t seem to let anything go. What if there was a way for you to feed your habit but also clean out your closet at the same time? That’s right, cleaning and shopping simultaneously can be done on this gem of a website called, Swapdom.

At first glance Swapdom may seem like just another e-commerce website similar to eBay or Amazon. Alas, it is like no such thing out there right now! Normally on those sorts of typical ecommerce websites, you usually have to negotiate with a seller and put bids on items (which you are then feverishly checking on the item 467 times a day, praying that no one has out-bid you). Talk about stressful shopping! It sounds just as bad as going to the mall on Black Friday …no thank you. Good thing Swapdom has taken big strides in changing the game when it comes to the benefits of recycling used and much loved items and giving them a chance at a new life while making all of the sellers and recipients super happy.

The major difference that completely sets Swapdom apart is its swapping system. Gone are the days of wanting an item, hoping the seller will like what you’re offering, resulting in what is supposed to be a successful trade that actually just ends in disappointment because the seller isn’t the least bit interested. Swapdom doesn’t allow room for letdowns. Instead, Swapdom uses a really neat method of grouping people together that are all interested in different items from each other. Basically, the whole negotiation process is eliminated. For example, Person A can give something to Person B and Person B can give something to Person C until it comes back around full circle. That means every customer is satisfied! No more disappointments, frowny faces, or feelings of despondency over a lost item! That’s something we can all celebrate.

Also, Swapdom does ALL the work for you. Seriously. All you’re required to do is request what you want, show what you have to offer, then hang back in your hammock with a nice, cold drink while Swapdom creates a group of individuals looking to swap with each other. Once that’s been done, you have 10 days to approve your swap, then pack and ship the item you’ll be trading and VOILA! Bing, bang, boom, done! How easy and effortless is that?

The best part about this whole site is that so many articles of clothing and accessories (even houseware items and kid stuff!) are saved from ending up in the trash. That’s huge. All of these once-loved pieces and items are blessed with the opportunity to be loved again in a whole new way and continue to fulfill their purposes. Easy and fun with a conscious intention, Swapdom epitomizes the benefits of recycling in the coolest, most innovative way.

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Image via Swapdom

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