5 Easy Ways to Reduce Waste in Your Kitchen

I’m sure that cutting down on kitchen waste is something we’d all like to strive for. Less waste ends up in landfills and it also means you won’t be going through trash bags like crazy, which in turn saves you money. I was given the chance to try out Hefty Ultra Strong scented bags this month for free, and have been really impressed with their tough performance.

Which brings me to my first waste-reducing tip!

• Tip #1 Start With a Good Trash Bag: A quality trash bag is essential unless you want to end up with messes on the floor (which in turn creates more waste when you tackle it with paper towels). Hefty Ultra Strong bags deliver top-quality performance, and they now have a new, lower retail price, which is good news for us all. Plus, the tear resistant technology gives you better puncture resistance.
• Tip #2 Keep Fruits and Veggies Fresher, Longer: This will cut down significantly on what you throw away. Give berries a bath by swishing them around in very hot water for about 30 seconds. Dry and store. Keep onions, potatoes and tomatoes in a cool, dry place; they’ll lose their flavor in the fridge. Your lettuce will last longer if you wrap the unwashed leaves in paper towels and pop in a plastic storage bag.

• Tip #3 Start a Compost Pile: Here’s yet another way to cut down on kitchen waste. The easiest way to get started is to use a covered recepticle (like a clean gallon ice cream container) and keep it in a handy place in your kitchen. Fill it with all your fresh fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grinds, eggs shells, etc. Leave out meat, fish and cooked food scraps. You can Google lots of super easy outdoor compost piles; basically, it’s just a wooden container with 4 sides in a sunny location.
• Tip #4 Repurpose Your Food Scraps: Meat bones make wonderful soups and stews, and they add richness to a pot of beans. Fruit rinds and peels can be turned into zest, or used for tea, garnishes and cocktails. Broccoli stalks can be pureed and added to cream soups or chopped in chunks for stir fry or other skillet meals. Grind the tough stems of fresh herbs into pesto.

• Tips #5 Reuse vs. Recycling: It can actually be more energy-efficient to re-purpose a glass jar, for instance, than to recycle it. So sterilize it and turn into a vase, a drinking glass, whatever. Tin cans make good pencil cups, seed starters, nuts and bolts containers and rustic outdoor lanterns (just punch holes to let the light through). Large oatmeal containers make great paint brush holders or school supply bins. To get re-purposing ideas for just about any item in your kitchen, check out Pinterest.

With these 5 tips put into practice, you will notice a significant reduction in the amount of waste you produce in the kitchen. But no matter what you’re bagging up, I can’t stress enough how a good trash bag makes things so much easier. That moment when you grab a full bag by the handles and lift it from the can is the deal-breaker. I’ve been really impressed with the strength and toughness of Hefty Ultra Strong. Even better, the bags hold their shape. Other bags may slump or completely fall over after you set them on the floor. Not the Hefty bags!

I encourage you to add Hefty Ultra Strong bags to your kitchen arsenal. You can find them at major retailers like Wal-Mart. To get you started with a bang, here’s a $1.00 off coupon from Hefty!

Do you have any tips to add to my list for reducing waste in the kitchen?

 

 

 

 

 

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.