It is no surprise that the world has at last woken up to the fact that humans are simply throwing food away. A very simple exercise to shock us into reality is to close your eyes and imagine you are throwing away a €5 note, €10, €20... Food is money. Do you really have all this money to throw away?

I imagine the food we throw away is mostly salad, bread, pasta, rice. Then there are the ready-made meals, pizza, quiche, pies and fruit. Probably oven -baked potatoes too. It is very sad to see people pile up their plates at a buffet lunch or supper only to leave half of it there. Plain bad manners too.

The problem is our way of life. Everyone is in a hurry. It is easier to throw food away than to use brain matter to recycle.

Bread freezes very well; you don’t have to throw it away. There is the traditional bread pudding...

Leftover salad makes a delicious summer soup when liquidised: just add tomatoes, onions and yoghurt, or mayo or both. They call it a smoothie. It takes a few seconds. Without dressing, the salad lasts a few days in a sealed bowl in the fridge.

If you made too much pasta turn the leftover into a froġa... delicious. Just add a couple of eggs and lots of cheese and fry up the mixture like an omelette.

Why throw half a chicken away? Just pick out all the fleshy bits and make a curry with it. You can also go for a chicken salad.

Leftover rice is quite delicious as a soufflé. Just add eggs, milk and cheese, mix into the rice and microwave it or bake it. Too many ravioli? Fry the extras: they make delicious ravioletti.

There are endless recipes for leftovers if we bother to utilise them. This is not gourmet cooking, I admit. The point is that if everyone makes an effort not to throw everything out it will make a difference. Naturally, it would help if children were taught to use brain power, to be thrifty and to recycle food in their home economics programme.