Hit 500 pounds of trim on my first month and it changed how I think about waste

I started tracking every scrap that came off my cutting table back in March. By April 30th I had 520 pounds of fat, silver skin, and odd ends. That number surprised me because I always assumed we lost maybe 200 pounds a month. Now I'm selling the fat to a local soap maker for $0.50 a pound and the dog chew guy takes the gristle. Anyone else ever run the numbers on their trim and realize they're sitting on free money?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_hart11h ago

Kept mine for stock once and found a butcher knife I lost three years ago.

hayes.tara3h ago

Wow @wesley_hart, a whole three years?! That's wild you found it in the stock pile of all places. I'd be kicking myself for not checking there sooner.

margaret_flores173h ago

Is there any chance you can put reminders on your calendar to check that stock pile every few months? I started doing that after I lost a good knife for almost two years and found it in a box I had stored away. If you set a recurring reminder for every three or four months, you can just do a quick scan of the pile without digging through everything. That way you don't lose things for years and you also keep the pile from getting too big to handle. It saved me a lot of frustration once I got into the habit.