Want to reduce food waste, save money, help prevent environmental racism, save the environment, and educate yourself and those around you? Throwing away food means you’re throwing away money. Instead, why don’t you just reuse what you can?

1. Grow Better
By Zaya Osborn

2. Want to reduce food waste, save
money, help prevent environmental
racism, save the environment, and
educate yourself and those around
you?

3. Throwing away food means you’re throwing away money

4. Instead, why don’t you just reuse what you can?
Many foods can be REGROWN instead of thrown Many foods can be COMPOSTED

5. Regrowing food
Examples of foods that can be planted
to grow new food:
1. Green onion
2. Celery
3. Lettuce
4. Garlic
5. Potatoes
6. Herbs like mint and basil
7. Carrots
8. Even pineapple!
Save money now and in the future, grow
food of your own virtually anywhere.
Tip: Use old jars or containers that you
would otherwise throw away to grow
food in! Paint them for an even more
sophisticated feel.

6. Composting
A mixture of various
decaying organic
substances, as dead leaves
or manure, used for
fertilizing soil.
(dictionary.com)

7. Methods of composting for people without the space for compost to go
(ie a garden/yard) or with a need for a no stink solution.
1. Just dig a hole out by a plant in front of where you live and bury your compost to enhance the soil
for that plant!
Or just dig a hole in the ground in general and bury some compost. Enriching the soil is so good
for the soil, especially in New Mexico. I like to just do this in my yard and I keep getting natural
grass that doesn’t require too much water since the soil is so nice.
1. Drop off your compost at any of the many selected locations (google where you can drop it off) to
give plants elsewhere a chance to live better.
2. And my favorite, vermicomposting. Using a bucket, soil, and worms to create AMAZING soil that
you can actually sell to plant nurseries, farmers, etc. So MAKE money off of your food waste.

8. Just a few foods that can be composted (many cannot be
composted though, so be aware of what you’re doing!)
Fruit and vegetable scraps
Egg shells (crushed)
Coffee grounds and filters
Spoiled soy/rice/almond/coconut milk
Spoiled pasta sauce or tomato paste
Spoiled tofu and tempeh
Pizza crusts
Pasta/rice
Avocado pits (chopped up so
they don’t sprout)
Stale beer and wine
See more at
https://www.smallfootprintfami
ly.com/100-things-you-can-
compost

9. A few things from all over the place that can be composted
Toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls
(shredded)
Used cotton cloth (clothing, sheets,
whatever they may be) (shredded and in
small amounts)
Pencil shavings
Newspapers (shredded)
And of course, manure.
See more at
https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/100-
things-you-can-compost
A big tip is to leave your dead
autumn leaves on the ground,
they are so good for soil

10. How does this help areas and peoples affected by environmental racism?
“Go looking for the local landfill or toxic waste treatment facility in any US county with a mostly
white population, and you’ll likely find it in the black or Latino neighborhoods. That’s because in the
US, your race is the single biggest factor that determines whether you live near a hazardous waste
facility.”
“Living near a hazardous-waste landfill is not just a gross nuisance; it makes you sicker. Air
pollution from these sites can lead to a range of health problems.” (Zoë Schlanger in https://qz.com/939612/race-is-the-
biggest-indicator-in-the-us-of-whether-you-live-near-toxic-waste/)
Reducing what you throw away lessens the amount being thrown into landfills, and therefor lessens the amount of
waste in these landfills.

11. Another issue this revolves around
Big box, corporate greed, pollution, and plastics.

12. Using these methods combats the poison of plastic:
When you regrow your own food or compost, you don’t buy food that is otherwise
shipped or packaged in plastic that goes on to poison drinking water, land, oceans, and
much more.
Using these methods combats the overuse of fossil fuels:
When you regrow your own food or compost, you don’t actively participate in food being
shipped across land and sea unnecessarily.
Using these methods means you aren’t giving your money to these corporations that
already have too much money and power, while we have none.

13. More solutions:
#buylocal
You can also combat these issues by buying
local, supporting farmers markets and ONLY
buying local meat.
Another aspect of this is giving away your
vermiculture soil to local institutions.

14. Helping to grow plants also actively fights
global warming. Growing plants creates
carbon sinks, in other words growing plants
takes carbon out of the air and pumps back
fresh oxygen into it.

15. One of these reasons ALONE should be enough to encourage
people to think before they throw their food away.
To share the knowledge and information with those around you.
Expand our collective education.
And to help grow cute lil plants, not toxins.

16. A good resource also is the Albuquerque Residential
Composting Program
https://abqstew.com/2018/04/18/albuquerque-residential-
composting-program/
Also always just google how to do things you don’t know
how to do.

17. Citations:
“Albuquerque Residential Composting Program.” ABQ Stew, 15 Apr. 2018,
abqstew.com/2018/04/18/albuquerque-residential-composting-program/.
Schlanger, Zoë. “Race Is the Biggest Indicator in the US of Whether You Live near a Toxic
Waste Site.” Quartz, Quartz, qz.com/939612/race-is-the-biggest-indicator-in-the-us-of-
whether-you-live-near-toxic-waste/.
“Vermicomposting: All You Need to Know.” Planet Natural, 14 Apr. 2019,
www.planetnatural.com/composting-101/indoor-composting/vermicomposting/.
Staff, Farmers' Almanac, and Farmers' Almanac Staffwww.farmersalmanac.com/author/fa-
admin. “Don't Toss It, Plant It! 12 Vegetables You Can Regrow From Scraps.” Farmers'
Almanac, 8 Mar. 2021, www.farmersalmanac.com/regrow-vegetables-from-kitchen-scraps-
24373.
Gifford, Dawn. “100 Things You Can (and Should) Compost.” Small Footprint Family™, 29 Nov.
2019, www.smallfootprintfamily.com/100-things-you-can-compost.