This is great. What city do you live in?

Thanks craftyvegan! I live in San Francisco where composting has been mandatory since last fall.

life is too short to dwell on guilt - please don't beat yourself up about it. you're doing your best and that's all you can do! and the fear that someday you too will be starving - that's why you contribute to food banks and donate to homeless shelters now. i'm not religious, but it's good to keep this perspective, "there but for the grace of god go I" so you do as much as you can to help/donate in times of prosperity and hope it'll be there for you when you need it. sorry to get all buddhist but it makes me feel anxious people are guilt-ridden - i guess it's my catholic background coming out - it's the right day for it!

When I toss food, it's only fit for the worms to eat. I would never try to feed it to another person and make them sick. For the past 15 years I've buried all my kitchen scraps and food mistakes in the garden. It saves garbage space, enriches my soil and comes back through the food I grow in the garden . My kitchen discards are well used and, occassionally, expensive compost. At least I get some value from the old food, whereas putting it in a city recycler leaves me with nothing.

Question, does the mandatory law mean you just have to have all three cans? or that you have to compost? I ask because my upstairs neighbors refuse to compost and it drives me bonkers. Just curious, not going to call the compost police or anything.

Honestly, I have ditched this whole attitude that throwing away food is the world's most terrible sin. It's not. There are much, much worse things one human being can do to another than throw out produce that has gone bad. The clean-you-plate-children-are-starving mantra has got to go. That's one (of many) reasons we have a nation of fatsos.

How's this for a killing set of attitudes: you must always offer food to guests (ok), in fact, you must offer TOO MUCH food to guests (not so good), who then feel obligated to eat it (this really wasn't the gracious host thing I was going for) and then I'll push it on them to take home (there's still too much) and then they, and I, will eventually throw it out and feel bad or eat too much of it and be unhealthy or BOTH.

I am learning to buy less, prepare less, and offer less. I'd love it if my building complex had a composting box--I think that's a very positive thing to do. When I feel bad about people without enough to eat, I give money to reputable organizations like City Harvest. In fact, I give them money whether I feel bad or not because it's not about my feelings, it's about feeding people, which is a good cause in my book, always.

I'm with cmcinnyc. I've always found the message to clean your plate because there are children starving somewhere odd. Wouldn't a better message be not to purchase/prepare/serve more than you need to eat because there are children starving somewhere. It would also probably help the obesity epidemic.

I'd love composting facilities in my building. I don't like buying organic matter for my little balcony container garden when I'm throwing little bits of food away constantly.

Does anyone know about worm farms in apartments? My understanding is that they don't do well in sunlight but the only areas where we could keep one are in sunlight or down 5 flights of stairs.

I agree that throwing out food is far from the most heinous of sings. Although I would caution that throwing out meat is a lot worse than throwing out vegetables - someone died for that, after all. As a single person it is almost impossible to avoid throwing away copious amounts of bread and vegetables that have gone bad. The stores simply do not sell food in small enough amounts, and I always end up buying a lot more of many foods that there is any realistic possibility I would eat before they go bad - and my freezer can only hold so much (especially since I try to only buy meat once a month from a local farm). Consider yourself lucky that you live in a building and a community that supports composting - many of us (including me) do not. I'd have to go dig a hole (in a yard that does not belong to me). Oh well, at least it's all biodegradable.

Some great points here! I wholeheartedly agree with all the above posts so far

The clean plate club has clearly led more to obesity problems than hunger solutions, and unless you're psychic, you're bound to occasionally buy food that you are unable to use in time.

Remember that worrying and feeling guilt over something you cannot control is an exercise in futility. Work on what you can control: shopping conscientiously, making donations, and doing some volunteering. Losing sleep over the rotting pepper you threw out does no one any good.

I found that when I do more planning before I go grocery shopping way less stuff gets thrown out. I make a list on google docs with all of the recipes I'll make for dinner, then look in my pantry to see what we already have, then organize the remaining ingredients by area of the store in which they're found. It saves money because you're not buying random just-in-case stuff that goes bad.
If I do buy things for a dinner on the fly, it's usually frozen veggies, rice/pasta in bulk, canned beans, or meat that can be frozen. this way very little gets wasted.

I have a worm composting bin in my small apartment, I just keep it under the sink. You can't really leave worm bins in the sun, they would definitely overheat. You can pretty much tuck them under anything- a table, cabinet, bathroom sink. My bin never smells and is incredibly easy to take care of. http://www.redwormcomposting.com/ <--has been a great resource!

@nordynono - mandatory to have the bins, pretty sure.

I agree, don't beat yourself up over this. If you are already trying to be thoughtful about what you buy, you do better than most. We plan all of our meals and only buy what's needed on the list AFTER checking the pantry and fridge to make sure we don't have it already. Plus, we do our best to plan next week's meals keeping in consideration with what we already have (i.e. a meal to use up that basil before it goes bad).

If you need something else to make you feel better, haven't you read any of the articles that were published after the composting became mandatory? There were some interesting pieces in the Chronicle about how the city is selling the compost. It is very valuable and a lot of it is going to vitners in Napa and Sonoma. So, the cash-strapped city is certainly getting a boon out of it. And it's the best compost around, so it's going to make your wine!

This is one lesson I've learned from my husband. Don't waste food.

Like you, I've found the best way to do this is to be a meticulous planner and grocery shopper. I never go to the store without a menu planned for the entire week, which means all the food I buy, I make.

Obviously things fall through the cracks, but I try to come up with ways to use the leftovers. Like when I have spinach border-lining slimy, I'll wilt it and make a spinach calzone. Stocks and soups are also a great way to handle these situations.

I agree with others that it isn't a huge sin, and I don't agree with the clean plate club either, but it's a great thing to be aware of, if not for the hungry in the world, for your own wallet. You buy less food, you spend less money.

I am moving to SF thats the coolest rule ever!

We just recently got weekly recycling pickup with a big bin that needs to be registered. I guess my landlord could ask for more bins, since I "inspired" him with my ginormous pile of recycling.

I hear you on throwing food away, and agree with all of the above, because I live alone I tend to cook smaller portions halving and sometimes quartering recipes. The easiest way to cut down on throwing food out is the split rule, I split most of what I make between 2 portions dinner tonight and then lunch tomorrow. :) Sometimes its inevitable that a bunch of cilantro or parsley maybe a half eaten pepper gets tossed. Some weeks just end up being way busier than anticipated. Alot of times during busy periods I skip the grocery store completely and eat Amy's or a yogurt, piece of fruit, etc since I know there just isn't time.

I freeze absolutely anything I am not 100% sure of eating (like the roast you got on on sale you don't feel like making) before it goes bad and I also spend time cooking real meals. We systematically freeze half of what we makke right away so as to avoid either eating the same thing several days in a row or compulsively overeating. And what fun to find a lasagne or cake you forgot about weeks or months later in the freezer! I also think that it's important not to view ingredients on a per-dish/meal basis; they should be seen holistically--if you only use yolks in a recipe then plan something for the whites; if you make a chicken then be sure to use the bones for a soup base. Old bread for bread crumbs or croutons. My cooking teacher says that almost nothing should be thrown away. Make it a game. Don't have time to cook? Takes half an hour to make something yummy and fresh. Turn off the tv or internet!