When it comes to waste, we can all do better to lower the amount we produce, especially in the kitchen. Here are 9 more ways to cut waste in the kitchen.
I saw a post on Facebook the other day saying that the huge patch of garbage that is stuck in the Pacific Ocean is now twice the size of Texas. And let me tell you, after living here, Texas is a massive state! I can’t even begin to imagine that much garbage all in one place.
Every bit of plastic ever made still exists somewhere.
While it may be an exaggeration, or it may be true. Either way, this is a problem. This is a big problem. In our house, we have been trying very hard to reduce the amount of waste we produce throughout the entire home, but the kitchen is the biggest producer of trash.
We’ve already worked on a few ways to reduce waste in the kitchen, but there is always room for improvement. I’ve gathered ideas from other bloggers on ways we can all lower kitchen waste.
There is no such thing as “away”. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere. ~Annie Leonard

Originally Published On: April 17, 2018
Last Updated On: September 17, 2020
General Kitchen Waste Tips
How to Save Dough in the Kitchen… Without Clipping Coupons
We’re all guilty of buying chili powder for that chicken chili recipe only to get home and find out we have 3 more just like it in the pantry. Not to mention filling our crisper drawers with tons of beautiful strawberries, lettuce, and cucumbers, then realizing a week later you forgot about them. Oy vey! It’s all money down the drain! Literally.
5 Tips for Wasting Less Produce
I learned that approximately 1/3 of the food that is produced in the world gets wasted. That statistic to me was appalling. How do we have hunger in this world, if we are wasting that much food. It’s mind blowing really. I’ve done my best in ensuring our family wastes as little as possible. For the foods we do have to waste, I try to compost as much as I can back into our garden for the next year. Today, I wanted to share some tips with you about how we work on wasting less.
8 Tips for a Zero Waste Kitchen
I honestly thought I was doing my part to save the earth by recycling everything I could. Not until someone pointed it out to me did I realize that recycling is the 3rd R in the 3Rs. One should Reduce first, then Reuse next, Recycle last. Then I learned about that zero waste family in California with trash that fit in one small jar! From Bea Johnson’s blog and book, Zero Waste Home, I learned the 5Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot (Compost) in that order. When you think about it, it makes sense. Refuse what you don’t need, reduce what you do need, reuse what you can, recycle what you can’t refuse, reduce or reuse, and rot or compost the rest.
Using Scraps of Food in Recipes
Slow Cooker Bone Broth Using Kitchen Scraps
In celebration of Earth Day later this week, I’ve decided to share with you a sustainable recipe for homemade slow cooker bone broth using leftover kitchen scraps! It’s the perfect way to use up all of those “butts” of vegetables, chicken carcasses (in case you have a few lying around) and other kitchen scraps that you would probably throw away normally. I like to think it helps me do my part to reduce food waste just a little bit, plus it’s an inexpensive and healthy alternative to store-bought broths that can be filled with sodium!
Making Chicken Stock from Scratch
A good, high-quality stock is one of cookings worst kept secrets, and one of the simplest things to make. A staple of French cooking, stock, whether it’s the chicken, beef (veal), fish, or vegetable variety, is one of the most underutilised ingredients in todays home kitchens. Most home cooks will use canned broth or the dried concentrate powder. These products, while convenient, are often very salty and lack many of the health-boosting benefits a good homemade stock has. Besides being useful in the kitchen, making your own chicken stock or any other kind of stock, is a great way to reduce food waste and use all parts of the animal. Yes, it can take several hours to properly make a stock start to finish, it is well worth the extra effort though and I will walk you through how to make this simple chicken stock recipe.
Vegetable Stock Recipe from Kitchen Scraps
Waste not, want not. How many times did I hear this growing up? Countless! Making your own Vegetable Stock from Kitchen Scraps is a perfect way to utilize perfectly good ingredients that would have ended up in a landfill!
Using Food Scraps to Grow New Foods
How to Grow Green Onions From Scraps
Do you know How To Grow Green Onions from Scraps? Well, we’re going to share how today! It’s super simple, and you’ll get fresh green onions from a food scrap you’d usually throw away.
How to Repot Plants and Regrow Celery
Are you wondering how to repot plants and regrow celery? I love having a garden and indoor plants but I don’t always give them the attention they need. Several of my houseplants need repotting. They are too big for their current pots, and there isn’t enough nutrition in the soil for them to be happy. My houseplants are all in different rooms so I forget about them. I repotted them with new soil, in larger pots, and created a centerpiece.
Grow Your Own Avocado Tree
Have you ever wondered how to grow your own avocado tree? I know I love growing plants outside in the garden. We have several fruit trees as well as vegetable and flower gardens. Watching things grow is so rewarding. When the kids were little, they had fun helping me out as well. But, we had never tried to grow an avocado tree!

More Posts about Working in the Kitchen
- How to Make Meal Prep Quicker with these 9 Gadgets
- Do this ONE THING to Make Cleaning After Meals Easier
- 7 Ways to Totally Fail at Cooking
- My 10 Favorite Kitchen Gadgets for Cooking Whole Foods
- How to Use the Amazon Echo in the Kitchen
- Healthy and Safe Kitchen Habits to Teach Children
- 7 Helpful Apps to Use in the Kitchen
- How to Use Yummly as a Cook or as a Blogger
- 30 Ways to Cook Healthier in the New Year
- How to Read the Basics of a Nutrition Label
- Step-by-Step Guide to Easy Meal Planning
- 9 More Ways to Cut Waste in the Kitchen
- 4 Important Tips for Successful Batch-Cooking
- How to Store Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
- Essential Kitchen Equipment for Prep and Cooking
- Cutting Waste in the Kitchen
- Common Kitchen Knives and their Uses
- What Do They Really Mean? Commonly Confused Cooking Terms
- 7 Quick and Easy Steps to Perfect Cooking Workflow
- How to Read a Simple Recycle Label
- 6 Easy Tips for Cleaning the Dishes Quickly
- 7 Favorite Organizing Products for the Kitchen
- How to Start Preparing More Home-Cooked Meals
- 9 Easy Ways to Occupy Children while you are Cooking
- 6 Days to an Organized Kitchen
OMG I WOULD LOVE TO GROW MY OWN AVOCADO TREEE!!!! THAT sounds like the most amazing idea EVER!
Love this post. We all can find ways to cut down on waste in the kitchen. Cooking great and saving money.
These are some great tips! Yes I agree, plastic always goes somewhere. It’s not someone else’s problem as we all live on the same planet! We should all do what we can to reduce waste
It’s a sad fact that every piece of plastic we ever produced still exists. I love your zero waste mentality! I try to eliminate waste as well. Thanks for the awesome tips!
Avacado tree omg yes yes yes !!
Plastic is really the most disgusting thing. It will stay on earth 1000’s of years after we all are GONE. I try every time to carry my own cloth bags when I go grocery shopping. Try to use them as less as possible.
I always love to recycle whereever I can. The terms Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot (Compost) will be going on my memo board for sure x
These are great tips. Thank you so much for this information. That is so helpful.
Reducing waste is so important in the kitchen & out!
I really appreciate this post because I hate food waste! Thanks for these wonderful tips 🙂
My mom will love your ideas. She hates food waste. Your idea will be helpful for my mom. Thank you for all !!
These tips are wonderful! This is what I love about blogging , being able to use your platform to influence and educate and What a relevant and timely post to celebrate Earth Day!
I could definitely find ways to keep and use some of the dough that I have made to prevent it from going to waste. This sounds like it would be a very helpful way to reduce waste in the kitchen.
These tips were really helpful. My kitchen used to be looking filthy for the most time because I wasn’t known about the right strategies. Now I am going to apply all the tips. Thanks for sharing ❤
This tips are really helpful, I agree with all of the above tips. Thanks for sharing!
My husband and I have been doing so well lately with reducing our waste and cutting down on our supermarket trips. We’ve been using the Gander app to also fish out food that is due to be wasted from major supermarkets. My husband picked up a full bag of potatoes being wasted just because they had a hole in the bag. He got them for only 69p and has since made both baked potatoes and soup all in the fridge and ready to eat.
Meal planning has helped me to reduce waste. I’d like to try growing food from scraps.
Yyyeeesssss! Someone finally speaks my heart on using my food scrapes in preparing my other meals. There’s that temptation always to throw them away but when you keep them around long enough, you realise that you can do quite a lot with them!
This gave me a lot of ideas for cutting down the waste at our house. What are use way more plastic than we should.
This is such an insightful and environment-friendly post. I was totally engrossed while reading the post. Learnt something new today 🙂
Those are great selections of tips to keep in mind. I’m always up to finding new ways in cutting waste and tidying up the kitchen.
This is indeed a great read. I want to lessen my waste so this is the best time to learn abou this. I am bookmarking this so I can go back and read this and of course I will be sharing to my sibling too.