7 Simple ways to reduce food waste this Christmas

by Jodie Berndt | Oct 10, 2022 | Bokashi

Reducing food waste this festive season is easier than you think!

Let’s enjoy food, not waste it.

In Australia, we love food. But sometimes we order, cook or buy more than we need, especially during the festive season. This leads to food wastage that ends up in landfill. Approximately 40% of our average household bin is food waste.

Where does food waste go?

The Government estimates food waste costs the Australian economy $36.6 billion each year. 7.6 million tonnes of food ends up in landfill, enough to fill 15,900 Olympic-sized swimming pools. One in five shopping bags ends up in the bin = approx. $4,000 worth of groceries per household each year. We can do better! During this time of gifting and feasting, larger than-normal amounts of food are often wasted. Here are our tips to help you reduce food wastage.

TIP #1. Prepare just enough

Plan your meals, make a shopping list and check it twice. Buy only what you need. Cater for 10-15% less than the number of expected guests. Determine the amount to be cooked with the diners’ appetites and eating habits in mind.

TIP #2. Give with thought

Avoid highly perishable items. Choose food gifts that you know the recipient would enjoy.

TIP #3. Go small

Provide smaller plates for guests to encourage smaller portions, reducing the amount left on plates. This is great for the waste line too as you tend not to eat as excessively.

TIP #4. Make chips crispy again

Keep open packets of nuts and chips in the fridge so they last longer. Chips and nuts that have turned soft can be made crispy again after baking for a few minutes.

TIP #5. Freeze your leftovers in small portions

Divide leftovers into small portions and pack them into airtight containers before freezing them.

TIP #6. Give away excess food from your meals or from hampers

Pack any excess food for your guests, friends or neighbours. Consider sharing or donating excess non-perishables.

Organisations such as Food Bank, Secondbite and Ozharvest only tend to take donations from larger businesses, however, look up your local charities and see if they will accept food donations. It’s a great way to prevent food wastage and help the needy at the same time.

TIP #7. Compost your food waste

Anything that is left over at the end of the day can by conveniently placed in the Bokashi in-kitchen composter to turn into fermented compost matter and nutrient rich fertiliser for your plants and garden. The perfect gift for our Mother Earth!

Gifting to our Mother Earth this Christmas

Let’s be less wasteful this Christmas. 47% of the average household bin is organic waste. Most of that waste can break down naturally in a household compost bin and be turned into a rich and valuable resource for your garden. Consider all the savings that go along with composting – save money, reduce single-use plastic bin bags, reduce trips to the bin, and reduce tonnes of food waste ending up in our landfill.

Choosing to action any or all of the above waste-reducing-tips will be a beautiful gift for our Mother Earth this festive season.

Take a look at the easy and convenient Bokashi Ninja® in-kitchen composting system. Our Ultimate Eco Kit is the ideal gift fo the eco-conscious person this festive season

8 ways to turn your children into happy eco warriors

by Jodie Berndt | Oct 29, 2021 | Bokashi

Here are 8 quick tips to bring out the ‘eco warrior’ in your kids at home

Bokashi Ninja is all for teaching kids the importance of sustainable living at home, so it becomes an everyday part of their life. What we do now affects the health of our planet into the future and our kids play a huge role, just as we do.

Here are some simple eco ninja tips from the Bokashi Ninja tribe to inspire everyday planet-saving habits with your children while at home.

TIP #1. Choose toys to keep

Have your children go through their toy box and wardrobe and empty out what they don’t play with anymore. Have them choose what toys and clothes they will pass on to a child less fortunate than them. This is especially a great thing to do before a child’s birthday and Christmas.

TIP #2. Waste less food

Eat smaller amounts. Food waste going to landfill is the second largest contributor of methane gas in our atmosphere. Food that is leftover, put in the Bokashi Ninja, a worm farm, or compost bin to return back into nature as nutrient-rich compost. Give children the responsibility of popping the food waste in the compost.

TIP #3. Get out in the garden

Encourage children to help in the garden, especially a little herb garden or veggie patch in the backyard. Give them their own plants or veggies to look after, water, fertilise and watch grow. We all receive a little joy when we grow our own veggies.

TIP #4. Drop (recycled paper) flyers for bottles locally

Encourage your children to drop a flyer in their neighbours’ letterbox and collect all the recycled bottles in the street once a week. It’s a way they can make money or even more special would be to have them choose a local wildlife charity that they can donate the money to.

TIP #5. Don’t litter

Teach your children not to litter! If they see rubbish on the ground, and they are supervised and it’s ok, encourage them to pick it up and put it in the rubbish bin. Rubbish left on the ground can lead to disaster for our wildlife and marine life. There is not such thing as ‘AWAY’, when you throw something away, it must go somewhere. The biggest lesson we can teach our children is not to waste in the first place.

TIP #6. Say no to plastic straws

Get kids to say no to plastic straws.

TIP #7. Make it their job to take care of the composting

Give the kids the job each weekend to empty the Bokashi and water the plants.

TIP #8. Teach kids 2nd hand

Instead of throwing things away, always ask what stuff could you use it for. Clothes never go in the rubbish bin, they go to someone who is in need. Show your kids how second-hand goods are better, ie bikes, so you’re not manufacturing more that will end up in landfill.

Happy tipping!

What is bokashi composting? Is bokashi for me?

by Jodie Berndt | Apr 17, 2019 | Bokashi

Are you concerned about continuously binning your food waste and contributing to disgusting rotting landfill? Have you ever wondered if there is a sustainable, time efficient way to easily discard your kitchen scraps at home?

Well there is, and we’ll run through why we believe that bokashi is the easiest and most convenient composting method of all!

Everyone has a kitchen – so everyone can bokashi!

Manage your kitchen food waste with ease

Did you know that food waste accounts for around 40% of total landfill, and upwards of 20% of all the food produced every year in Australia?* It doesn’t seem right that our clean diet can be making us healthy but our planet sick… It’s time to chuck it in the Bokashi Ninja®, not the bin and start turning your food waste into something valuable!

% of food waste going to landfill 40% 40%
% of all food produced every year 20% 20%

*Source: foodwise

The Bokashi Ninja® is one of the smartest composting methods in the world. One of the finest, most convenient and compact ways to easily manage in-kitchen composting at home. It’s rubbish how much food we throw out. Don’t waste, create with Bokashi Ninja®.

Whether you live on acreage, have an outdoor compost bin, live in a traditional home with a backyard, or an apartment, bokashi composting provides a multitude of benefits for all users.

BENEFIT #1 – With bokashi, you can compost almost everything from the convenience of your kitchen!

Bokashi is the Japanese term for fermenting food waste. So food waste isn’t actually rotting in the bokashi bucket, it’s fermenting in an anaerobic (airtight) environment.

Created from waste and at the helm of innovation, our sophisticated airtight 20L Bokashi Ninja® bucket is made from recycled materials and a small amount of EM ceramic to enhance the microorganism spray and eliminate odours and stains.

Unlike traditional outdoor compost bins or worm farms our Bokashi Ninja® bucket can process:

daily scraps, such as fruit, veggies
leftovers
cooked and raw meat/fish
egg shells
tissues
bread
cheese
wilted flowers
citrus
onion
tea bags
coffee grinds

BENEFIT #2 – Bokashi juice: The magical by-product that invigorates your plants and garden

Simple and functional the Bokashi Ninja® is not only great for the planet it’s magic for your garden!

Follow the instructions, use the masher to press down waste and spray with the all-natural, Australian-made Bokashi Accelerant Spray. This technique will turn food waste into soil enriching fermented matter and bokashi extract, a nutrient rich soil and plant booster.

Once you drain the liquid magic from your bucket there are many things you can do with it. It is fermented liquid and highly nutritious, but very strong.

For those with a green thumb, make a spray for flowers or vegetables (dilute 1tsp to 2 cups water) and the formula will act as a fantastic fertiliser and soil conditioner, it’s like kombucha for your plants!

Undiluted use as an antibacterial to pour down and clean drains, toilets or septic systems. However, be sure to use the liquid within a day because it will tend to turn sour.

BENEFIT #3 – Enrich your soil

Once your fermented compost matter is ready, (4-6 weeks) you can bury it in your garden beds which provides enriching nutrients to your soil.

Alternatively, you can move the waste to your outdoor compost bin, local community garden, sign up to sharewaste.com or bin in it a biodegradable bag

Bokashi composting, albeit an ancient method, is even more significant these days as a sustainable choice to reduce the huge amounts of toxic household food waste going to landfill.