Leftovers sometimes lead to interesting and creative new types of food. One of my favorites of this type of invention is fried rice. People living in China during the Sui dynasty around 1500 years ago came up with the perfect way to prevent throwing leftover rice and other food away.
One area where there can be significant waste in lithium production is in the extraction and processing of lithium from mineral sources like lithium brines and ores. These processes can generate waste in the form of tailings, which may contain leftover lithium and other potentially valuable minerals, as well as by-products and emissions that need proper management to minimize environmental impact
Preferences that have unintended consequences we don't like, e.g. single-family detached housing, are a different type of issue. Your post is about literal leftovers and in that category, plastic containers and covers and whatnot seem like the clear best answer to your closing question.
My mom taught me to cook with always having leftovers in mind. It does make things easier when I'm all WTF to cook for dinner, oh, look, I've got leftovers.
One area with a lot of waste, in America, at least, is our preference for single family housing. Vast sprawls of sparse living space, most of it utilized for small fractions of the day, requiring expensive, space-and-resource-intensive transport infrastructure to get its inhabitants to the places where they earn their living (work or school). We devote large portions of our time and money to the acquisition and maintenance of this form of shelter, a high overhead cost to our personal lives!
Not that I've got an alternative vision to propose...
Does turning used coffee grounds into fertilizer count?
One area where there can be significant waste in lithium production is in the extraction and processing of lithium from mineral sources like lithium brines and ores. These processes can generate waste in the form of tailings, which may contain leftover lithium and other potentially valuable minerals, as well as by-products and emissions that need proper management to minimize environmental impact
Surely waste plastic is a huge contender here?
Plastics.
Preferences that have unintended consequences we don't like, e.g. single-family detached housing, are a different type of issue. Your post is about literal leftovers and in that category, plastic containers and covers and whatnot seem like the clear best answer to your closing question.
My mom taught me to cook with always having leftovers in mind. It does make things easier when I'm all WTF to cook for dinner, oh, look, I've got leftovers.
One area with a lot of waste, in America, at least, is our preference for single family housing. Vast sprawls of sparse living space, most of it utilized for small fractions of the day, requiring expensive, space-and-resource-intensive transport infrastructure to get its inhabitants to the places where they earn their living (work or school). We devote large portions of our time and money to the acquisition and maintenance of this form of shelter, a high overhead cost to our personal lives!
Not that I've got an alternative vision to propose...