how to create a zero food waste kitchen

Putting aside the fact that there are starving children in Africa, wasting food is unforgivable for many reasons, of which I’ve ranted off below. 

Firstly though, I just want to be open and honest for a minute and share that, in the past, I was no angel when it came to food waste. I was a repeated perpetrator of leaving leftovers in the fridge until a colony of mould moved in. I often left celery in the crisper long enough for it to bend right over on itself. And then I’d throw it out. No more. I’ve now created a zero food waste kitchen and I want to show you how. So you can too. It’s so very important.

don't waste ANY food I say!

Here’s why:

• Food waste is a waste of resources. It takes a lot of precious resources including water, energy and fuel to grow our food and get it to our tables. Throwing leftovers in the bin or letting food rot in the fridge is literally wasting those resources for nothing.
• Food waste is a waste of money. The average Aussie household throws away up to $1,000 worth of food every year. That’s enough to feed a family for a month.
• Food waste ends up in landfill. As a nation, that’s 400,000 tonnes of food in landfill each year. Why does that matter? It matters because when food rots in landfill it emits methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than the carbon pollution that chugs from your car exhaust.
• Food waste puts unnecessary pressure on an already overloaded food system. Think about this – if we all grew some of our own food and stopped wasting the food we bought, we could give our farmers and livestock a little space to breathe... and to farm more sustainably.
• And yes, there are still 1 billion people going to bed hungry every night. A little respect, I think.

These two facts I also find very interesting:

1. Up to half of the average household’s garbage bin is full of food waste.
2. Young people, households with incomes over $100K and families with children are the worst wasters.

Alrighty then, how to solve the problemo? I’ve spent many months fine tuning my shopping, cooking, eating, food storage and food disposal practices to the point where I can now safely say that my kitchen produces no food waste.

In fact, my 2-person 2-pet family has minimised all household waste so that we send only one small bucket of non-recyclable non-reusable guff to landfill a week. That part is a work in progress and as I continue to try to reduce the guff further and further down, I’ll share my trials and triumphs here so you can too.

Back to a zero food waste kitchen. Here’s how I do it:

First up, I try to avoid food waste in the first place:

I grow some of my own food

You can catch up on what I grow here. This means I don’t have to harvest and keep veggies in the fridge for a week or longer. I pull out a few carrots and a few beetroot bulbs as I need them. I pick herbs fresh. It gets rid of all that hoo-ha of wrapping herbs in wet tissue paper to keep them fresher for longer etc.

I store food properly

• For the veg and fruit I do buy, I invested in a range of recycled reusable produce bags that lock in moisture and help to keep things fresh and crisp for longer. If you have a good quality fridge, the crisper should do a good enough job. Alternatively you can keep your fresh produce in glass or BPA-free tupperware.
• I buy raw milk in bulk and freeze it in 1L bottles so it won’t turn too sour before I get through it (fresh raw milk doesn’t last as long in the fridge as its pasteurised inferior does).
• I freeze meat and fish as soon as I buy it unless I know I’m cooking it within the next two days.
• If I have leftovers I know I won’t want to eat again too soon, I store them in portions in the freezer.
• Tip: if you’re usually slow to use up a block of butter, store it in a container filled with water. A tip from my cheese dude who also makes fresh butter.

I don’t peel

• I eat pretty much all peels; pumpkin, beetroot, potatoes, carrots... you name it. Much of the nutritional content of vegetables is found just under the skin.
• I use lemon peels to wipe down my wooden chopping board before composting the peels. This helps to disinfect the board.
• Sometimes I make this traditional greek lemon or orange peel spoon dessert, using some rice syrup as sweetener. My dad loves it and it’s terrific on yoghurt or cakes.
• I dry ginger peelings and use them to brew ginger tea.

I make simple meals

I abhor complicated recipes that call for 31 ingredients, more than half of which you’ll never use again. I cook with what I can use from my garden or can find at the market.

I eat the leaves & stems

Many people don't realise you can actually eat the leaves and stems of veggies like beetroot, radish, kohl rabi, broccoli and cauliflower. Use them as you would silverbeet or spinach (just don't eat rhubarb leaves, they're poisonous!).

I eat until I’m 70% full

I’ll be posting about this topic in more detail soon, but for now know that I’ve changed my eating habits so that I’m not eating until the point of bursting any longer. I stop just before I feel that familiar full feeling, which means that, over time, I’ve adjusted the amount of food I buy and cook. Smaller portions, fewer leftovers to worry about.

When I do end up with scraps:

I compost

I have two compost bins which I’ve vermin proofed to the nth degree and that feed my garden. Any food waste (including tea leaves and coffee grounds) I do end up with gets popped in there. If you don’t have a garden or the space for a regular compost bin – i.e., if home is an apartment without even so much as a balcony – get your hands on a bokashibucket.

I crush eggshells and use them in the garden

I get through my fair share of eggs. Instead of chucking the shells or composting them, I wait until they dry before crushing them and sprinkling them around my plants. A) this helps to keep snails off and B) the shells leach calcium into the soil as they break down.

I keep meat and fish bones in bags in the freezer until I have enough to cook a big batch of stock

I then freeze the stock in portions. Some councils collect bones for composting, so check with yours first. Mine doesn’t, so I’m trialling composting dem cooked bones in my home compost. P.S if you’re going to try this at home, pound the cooked bones into smaller pieces before you place them in the compost bin and make sure your compost heap is hot.

I sprinkle used coffee grounds over and around my plants

It prevents pests from attacking said plant and acts like a bit of fertiliser too.

I feed ratty leftovers to my pets

I give bits of pork fat or scrappy bits of cheese I don’t want to Wilfred (the dog) and Mishka (the cat). They are two well fed little petals.

P.S I wrote this article on 21 clever tips for using food that’s on the way out a while back on Sustainable Table’s blog site. Check it out here. 

Also check out the FoodWise website for more info and useful tips on food waste, as well as yum recipes. The stats I listed above are from their terrific infographic here.

P.P.S Stay tuned for my next post in this series as I'll be sharing my tips on how to reduce non-food waste in the kitchen too.

I’d love to hear some of your ideas and tips on how to avoid/deal with food waste. Feel free to share below!