It is shocking that 30-40% of food produced in America was thrown away (2017), which is without doubt a serious social problem. Let's discover with me how you can cut down food waste, and reuse food scraps for so many other useful stuffs at 0 cost!
To reduce food waste
In order to reduce food waste, simply buy only WHAT YOU NEED and learn how to store them probably. One of the main reason of global food waste is that people forget they already have the ingredients, and keep buying, ending up having too much more than they need. There are many simple strategies to control your amount of food waste at home:
Making shopping list, make sure only buy what you will eat and you don't have at the moment
Only cook in reasonable portions if you do not wish to freeze them for later. If you overcook, freeze the portions and eat later
If there is leftover, be creative, make a new dish from that
Buy locally, seasonally and try to avoid ready prepared items in plastic bags.
To reduce food scraps
Fruit scraps
Make jam from too ripe to eat fruits like apple, strawberry, berries,... that you can not eat them all in the season. You can also make jam from apple peels and cores, apricot peels, strawberry tops. (Check out best tips for making jams here!)
Use fruit scraps to make air freshener, you can boil them a little bit and the whole house will smell amazing
Soak lime peels in water and use this liquid to clean surface (you can add baking soda to the liquid)
Make a potassium and phosphorous-rich compose liquid for your plants by soaking banana peels in water for few days (More information on banana peel here!)
seeds of all kinds of fruits to plant new trees (you can soak them into water for up to 24 hours to make them easier to grow) (This is my great tip on how to cut down on plastic and save money)
Vegetable scraps
Use the roots of vegetables to plant new plants, having unlimited supply of veggie (soak them in water until you can see new roots)
Keep the green trunks of your broccoli, they are normally thrown away but they are perfect for soup!
Save carrot peels, potato skins and any other edible peels that you love to make homemade stock or broth, perfect for gravy
Turn potato scraps into chips! I definitely love this one. You can use oven or air fryer, all super easy (10 mins) - Check this easy recipe here!
Use peels of beetroot, red cabbage, spinach,... for food dye, like if you want to make colourful pasta or dough! Lots of fun for the kids!
Use cucumber peels for detox water or leave it at entrance points of your home to send away ants
Others
Save coffee grounds! This is one of the most wonderful thing that you always throw away. Coffee grounds could be used as DIY face, body scrub, fertiliser for plants,...
Turn dried bread crusts into Breadcrumbs for soup, frying,... or feed birds and chickens
Preserve used cooking oils in a jar, use it later for handmade soap or make suet for birds during the winter. Never pour cooking oil into the sink!
Save egg shells for your plants, simply clean them, crush them and put into the soil (as they are now calcium powder)
I hope my tips help you live a bit greener everyday, reducing food waste and reusing more food scraps! They might look difficult to you at first, but actually they are SUPER easy, and completely FREE! You can watch inspiring documentaries about food waste to learn more here!
Do you have any other tips? I would love to hear from you!
Love,
Tram Anh