CBS News
About 200 million pounds of turkey are thrown out around Thanksgiving. Here’s how to reduce food waste.
Roughly a third of all food is lost or wasted from the U.S. food supply each year and, with its big holiday meal as the centerpiece, Thanksgiving can be one of the most wasteful days of the year, according to experts.
With the price of sweet potatoes, cranberries, potatoes and wine up compared with last year, shoppers may want to carefully consider how much to make for the holiday. Minimizing food waste also keeps food out of landfills, cutting down on emissions of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas.
“The food on your table is the result of many resources,” said Dr. Jean Buzby, liaison for food loss and waste at the United States Department of Agriculture. “Fresh water, energy, land and labor are used to create, process, transport, store, market and prepare that food. Do what you can to keep your food out of landfills so that all those resources are not wasted.”
How bad is food waste on Thanksgiving
About 200 million pounds of turkey are thrown out over the Thanksgiving holiday week, according to estimates from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Throwing out all that turkey also means the resources used to produce it are being wasted.
According to NRDC estimates, producing just one pound of turkey meat uses 520 gallons of water —the equivalent of seven bathtubs full of water. And greenhouse gas emissions from a pound of turkey are equivalent to those from burning a half gallon of gasoline.
“While no one sets out to be wasteful on Thanksgiving, nor throughout the year, people want to be celebratory and enjoy a special meal,” Natural Resources Defense Council expert Anya Obrez said. “Most of us have deep-rooted associations between food on the table and our ability to care for our loved ones, and so we go a little overboard to ensure we won’t run out of food. On top of that, cooking for a large party can be difficult!”
How to minimize food waste while preparing for Thanksgiving
Ahead of the holiday, the NRDC recommends figuring out exactly how much to prepare. The organization has a tool to help: people can plug in the number of guests and how much of an eater those guests are. The next step is selecting how many meals of leftovers you want and the type of meal being prepared. Types of food can also be added to your menu in the tool to get an estimate of how much to buy and cook.
It’s also important to make a grocery list, said Buzby. Research shows it can help shoppers avoid impulse buying.
While cooking, experts advise saving peels and scraps for future broths or creative snacks, like potato skin chips.
Once everyone is at the table, Obrez suggests serving smaller portions.
“If your guests tend to have a lot left on their plates at the end of the meal, use smaller plates for serving,” she said. “That way, when guests pile food on their plates, the amount they’ve got is more closely aligned with what they will actually eat. If anyone is still hungry after the first pass, they can always go back for seconds —or thirds.”
Making the most of your Thanksgiving leftovers
Thanksgiving hosts staring at dishes of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and more should get excited about leftovers, Buzby said. Her favorite post-Thanksgiving treat is fritters her mom made with leftover mashed potatoes.
She suggests making bread pudding with extra bread, use bones or leftover meat for stock or chili, and prepare French toast with extra buttermilk or cream.
“Think about what your family did to save food from being wasted and add your own touch of creativity,” Buzby said.
To extend shelf life, Obrez suggests freezing before tossing.
“Freezing food is like hitting a pause button; nearly anything can be frozen and rediscovered for a dark winter weeknight when you don’t have the energy to cook something from scratch,” Obrez said.
Sending food home with guests is also an option, as is making a donation.
A judge has denied rapper and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs’ request to be released on bail ahead of his trial for federal sex trafficking charges.
Combs’ lawyers had asked he be released on $50 million bond, saying he would stay in a three-bedroom apartment on New York’s Upper East Side and pay the cost to have private security monitor him around the clock.
District Judge Arun Subramanian denied the request, ruling, “The Court finds that the government has shown by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community.”
Subramanian concluded that “there is compelling evidence of Combs’s propensity for violence” and that if released while awaiting trial, “there is evidence supporting a serious risk of witness tampering.”
Combs was arrested in September and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky at the time ordered Combs be held without bail, but the rapper’s legal team has filed several requests to have him released since then. They have all been denied.
Combs is being held at a detention center across the East River from Manhattan in Brooklyn, New York, according to online records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Combs is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women at events Combs referred to as “Freak Offs.”
“The ‘Freak Offs’ sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers and often involved a variety of narcotics, such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB, which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, of the Southern District of New York, told reporters last month.
Combs has denied any wrongdoing. One of his attoneys, Marc Agnifilo, said last month, “We’re going to fight this case with everything we have, as is he, and eventually, he’s going to be shown to be innocent.”
His trial is scheduled for May 2025.
contributed to this report.
CBS News
New Orleans community hopes to find rescue dog with a knack for escaping in time for Thanksgiving
New Orleans — A scraggly white Terrier named Scrim has captivated the hearts of many in New Orleans hoping to help him back to a safer, easier life in the Big Easy.
Scrim, already twice rescued this year, doesn’t seem to know what’s good for him. His knack for escaping helping hands and his catch-me-if-you-can elusiveness has led the doggo to go viral.
Zeus’ Rescues
Michelle Cheramie, with Zeus’ Rescues, first saved Scrim from a life on the streets earlier this year — but in April, he broke loose.
For months following his spring escape, Cheramie and many New Orleans neighbors searched for Scrim relentlessly to no avail. Hundreds of people commented and posted on social media with photos of his whereabouts and words of encouragement for the people trying to help the lost dog.
“He was shot twice during those six months that he was on the street, so yeah, humans are pretty scary to him,” Cheramie said.
It had seemed as though Scrim was more tricky to track down than Bigfoot, but finally in October, Scrim was found.
Once again, he found himself with a roof over his head. He received medical treatment for his wounds and he was even recognized by the New Orleans City Council.
But his life inside didn’t last long.
“We were just trying to teach him that human hands are actually good, and not all human hands hit you, and not all human feet kick you, and it took us the first couple of months that we had to convince him of that, and he had finally come around,” Cheramie said. “He’s just in that flight mode again where humans are scary.”
On Nov. 13, he jumped 13 feet out of a second-story screened window in Cheramie’s home.
“He actually broke out of the screen,” according to Cheramie, who said Scrim also managed to squeeze through a small gap in her front yard fence to complete his escape.
Now Cheramie’s back to searching the city streets, and dozens of people have called in to report Scrim sightings. This map has been tracking Scrim’s movements over the last 11 days.
Cheramie drives the streets daily in her rescue van in search of Scrim.
Zeus’ Rescues
“Everything we need to rescue Scrim when we get a sighting,” Cheramie said. “I have a dart rifle, we have net guns… it shoots out and it encapsulates him, and then we can jump on him.”
Cheramie has also been placing cameras in different locations where Scrim has been spotted.
One night, a camera captured him chowing down on some food left out for him, so Cheramie is comforted knowing he’s still alive and well.
Now she’s hoping to get Scrim home permanently — ideally just in time for a proper Thanksgiving feast.
“I’m pretty sure he’s cold wherever he is,” Cheramie said. “He’s smart enough that he probably is under a house somewhere and getting some heat that way, but no one knows for sure at this point.”
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.