This month we need your help. We have had so many wonderful conversations and started so many initiatives around the town that we now need to build momentum across all our projects in order to reduce food waste, farm to fork, throughout Clonakilty! Here are five ways you can support Waste Not, Want Not Clonakilty:
1. Bring your own container for refill to the market – this month we’ve paired up with our new Champions the Clonakilty Market, to look at ways to reduce food waste and encourage customers to bring their own containers to fill. Every Friday please BYO containers/cups to fill up with coffee, olives, chocolate, fish or a hot lunch. We’ve consulted with the HSE (make sure your containers are clean!), made signs that are now on display across the market and now need everyone to get involved!
2. Eat those leftovers – don’t let those lurking vegetables from last night’s roast dinner, or the bread crusts getting stale in the bottom of the bread bin go to waste. Bread pudding, soup and potato cakes are all easy ways to save good food from the bin. With thanks to another new community food waste Champion the Clonakilty Womens’ Shed, we have produced a mini-cookbook to get your creativity flowing and loving your leftovers! Rediscover traditions from our own community when leftovers were seen as the prep work done for tomorrow’s lunch! With an average of €700 worth of good food wasted per household each year in Ireland “we need to be reminding people that it’s a lot of money wasted, enough for a holiday just thrown away!” says RoseMarie Dempsey, chair of the Clonakilty Women’s Shed. You can find printed copies of ‘Love your Leftovers’ in the library or drop us an email and we’ll send you one to print at home.
3. Share your apples this autumn – every year hundreds of apples trees go unharvested in Ireland and the fallen fruit is left to rot, but this doesn’t have to be the case! Do you have an apple tree and need help harvesting? Why not take part in an Apple Share? Ask for help from neighbours or friends to harvest the apples for you and split the harvest! If you don’t know anyone that would like your excess apples get in touch and we can help organise an Apple Share with someone who could make good use of your crop. SAVE THE DATE – on Sunday, September 29 we will be co-hosting the first annual Clonakilty Apple Festival! The event will be held at the Clonakilty community garden with help from the Clonakilty Friends of Asylum Seekers from 12-6pm. There will be ‘apple games, apple identification, and of course, an apple pie competition! Save up your bottles and bring your apples to press at the community apple press or donate them to our Apple Share. See next month’s column for more information.
4. Spot the sachets – Over 900 billion sachets are produced worldwide each year – placed end to end that’s enough to circle the world 189 times!
If you agree that that’s a few sachets too many, we would like your help to make Clonakilty the first town sachet-free town in Ireland! With several restaurants, hotels and cafes already having made the switch from individually packed ketchup, mayo and butter to pumps, bottles and ramekins we are well on our way. Help us spread the word about our goal for Clonakilty to lead the way to sachet freedom and work towards freeing yourself from sachet-shackles by noticing your own sachet use and by asking for alternatives.
5. Get a brown bin at your home and office – Did you know that a new law stipulates that all Irish householders are entitled to a brown bin? This legislation came out in January 2024 as only half of all Irish households had a brown bin. In a perfect world we would not create ANY food waste, but this is hardly realistic. After reducing the food waste we create, it is also essential to value what we dispose of. The brown bin system allows for nutrient and energy recovery through composting and is an important part of a more circular economy. So if you don’t have a brown bin yet please request one from one from your waste collection provider – at home and at work. Visit mywaste.ie for more information and find printable bin segregation posters to help keep all your waste properly sorted wherever you recycle, bin or compost.
We are working on a fabulous line up of events and workshops for the autumn so please check back next month for our update and join our mailing list at
www.voiceireland.org/wastenotwantnot.
For other queries or to get involved as a business or community group email allison@voiceireland.org.
