Drop off cooking grease from holiday meals at Bakersfield wastewater plant

<p>For many, the turkey is one of the highlights of Thanksgiving. So why do we waste so much of it?&nbsp;</p><p>The&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/134674/tb1927.pdf" target="_blank">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a>&nbsp;estimates the country wastes 35 percent of all turkey meat over the course of the year. And it&#39;s not hard to guess the day it&#39;s cooked the most.&nbsp;</p><p>A lot of that waste ends up in landfills a situation made worse by the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/food-waste-apps-thanksgiving_5654e645e4b072e9d1c10322" target="_blank">greenhouse gases</a>&nbsp;the food then releases into the atmosphere.&nbsp;</p><p>Supermarkets could be partly to blame. They&#39;ve historically made turkey cheaper as Thanksgiving nears to get shoppers to buy the rest of the meal&#39;s ingredients and other impulse purchases from their stores as well.&nbsp;</p><p>Turkeys aren&#39;t only cheaper; they&#39;re bigger. Artificial insemination practices since the 1940s have now made the birds more than&nbsp;<a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/11/25/9795692/turkey-large-size-grown" target="_blank">twice as big</a>&nbsp;before slaughter than they were in the 1920s.&nbsp;</p><p>But a final reason for all the Thanksgiving overabundance, and waste in general, may be due to the best of intentions.&nbsp;</p><p>A senior advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council&#39;s Food and Agriculture Program told The Huffington Post a lot of overabundance comes from trying to accommodate guests&#39; individual tastes and dietary restrictions.&nbsp;</p><p><i>This video includes images from&nbsp;</i><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/christinyca/15714052278/in/photolist-pWACgQ-6TmrU-74d8N-6Yd8X-6YdPd-6YdHd-6Ydvh-6YdeC-6YcTT-6YdB6-2XcM5-48PM7y-5FxQrR-6TGDP-6T7NS-6Vka3-6Vkdn-6iJSv-9UWL-6TJ8C-urRaq-5CLxKK-6TFtK-5BQCBB-8ivudm-8WbLCk-8VZJ8Q-8VMcQH-aK6DqD-8UEeL9-dvsfNA-qbMwTT-729XP-beoUXF-5ESdmU-7iCwJ3-BwW5E8-ACEqfF-5EMVua-q8x1pX-hSickX-dvLJqV-7kq8B9-hV2uv5-8Trteu-8VMcRT-hUYAH8-aHj1RF-8W5f2v-7hzGwG" target="_blank"><i>icoNYCa / CC BY 2.0</i></a><i>&nbsp;and&nbsp;</i><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/widnr/6589525327/in/photolist-b3i3iD-JMKJ9-5aoNF5-dUWDGh-8TzAA6-hKrATN-84fkBW-51xPC3-dP8QqE-b3i3zg-2TFce-6hBZ7Y-b3ifPF-6P81Cj-2uhpBZ-sEmNfP-JaBHP-hKsjJZ-6P81y3-hKunTx-bpW1Uy-JavZm-bf4frR-93WiUz-tpVFTd-8VWFY4-9day3k-84baHM-84b8fx-84b7iZ-84b6jH-84b5kv-84b4p4-84b3tD-84b2x2-84e5vj-84e3wb-84aXJz-84dYJu-sEfqTo-abyKgF-5PLq97-75wgNf-9tQiXH-75sqh2-84chux-84b9Mr-84b9op-84b8QP-84e1Cq" target="_blank"><i>Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources</i></a><i>.</i></p>