Don’t be too quick to throw away those Thanksgiving leftovers. By saving that turkey and stuffing to eat another day, you can help save a lot of energy from ending up in the garbage bin
twice the amount of energy that Switzerland (with its more than 8 million people) consumes in an entire year
In their study, UT Austin Professor Michael E. Webber and his former graduate student, Amanda Cuellar, estimated the energy that is embedded in wasted food in the United States. In other words, they calculated how much energy was used to get food to our tables, which is wasted when that food ends up in the garbage bin. Their process involved calculating the energy intensity of the food production supply chain including the following steps for different types of food:
agriculture (i.e. growing/raising food)
transportation (i.e. moving food from field to processing plants)
processing
food sales
storage
preparation
You can read more of the details of the findings in this study here.
In the week after Thanksgiving, Americans will throw away almost 200 million pounds of turkey according to the Natural Resource Defense Council. If you want to save some money (and energy), explore some ways to use those leftovers (for those who like to cook, NPR has some ideas).