Sustainability
7 Low-Effort Ways to Reduce Everyday Food Waste at Home
These little tweaks can help keep food out of the landfill.
We’ve teamed up with Blue Apron to keep dinner interesting—and stress-free as can be. Whether you’re a weekday vegetarian or all-around omnivore, Blue Apron’s ever-changing menus have recipes for every palate. Bonus: Every meal kit you receive is designed to minimize waste, with only the ingredients you need and packaging that can be reused or recycled.
New Year’s resolutions are notoriously hard to keep. But there’s one resolution (or if you prefer, intention) that might be a bit easier to stick with, since it’ll help you save money and food—all while doing something good for the environment, too: reducing food waste at home.
Tackling food waste is one of the most impactful things you can do to lower your carbon footprint. Plus, every person making a change, no matter how small, can help cut back on the staggering amount of food that is never eaten in the United States each year (up to 40 percent, according to the National Resources Defense Council). Luckily, preventing food waste doesn’t have to mean a huge lifestyle overhaul. Instead, it’s all about tiny habit shifts—including how you shop, portion, and store things. With that in mind, here are seven low-effort tips and ideas for reducing food waste in your kitchen in the new year and beyond.
1. Know your habits
Whether it’s cucumbers that liquify before you use them, greens that melt in their plastic tub, or a container of sour cream that grows fuzz, there are likely particular foods that you throw out repeatedly. Pay attention to what ends up in the trash and use this to guide your choices at the grocery store. Maybe next time you buy the smaller container of sour cream or a whole head of lettuce (they stay fresh longer) instead of the bagged variety. Or perhaps you’re just not the type to make salads at home. Don’t feel guilty—we’ve all aspirationally bought ingredients we didn’t cook—but recognizing and changing your food waste weaknesses can help you reduce waste in the future.
2. Don’t buy meat without a plan
We recommend shopping with a list to prevent buying more food than you can use before it goes bad (doing a quick scan of your fridge and pantry to check what you already have on hand helps, too). However, if you do find yourself at the market without a game plan, be particularly strategic about meat, and especially beef, pork, and lamb. This is the worst kind of food to waste because of its higher carbon footprint—it also happens to go bad more quickly than produce, eggs, and dairy products.
3. Use meal kits strategically
If you’re the kind of person who wants to cook but ends up letting groceries linger in the fridge, meal kits might be the solution. With a meal kit service like Blue Apron, you get exactly what you need to prepare a delicious dinner with no waste. A meal kit subscription can also help prevent waste when you’re trying to expand your cooking repertoire, say if you’re trying to incorporate more vegetarian dishes into your routine or aiming to mix up the proteins you cook with (think: scallops, duck, and more). With the exact amount of each ingredient, there are no leftover odds and ends that will languish in your fridge or pantry, plus new customers can get up to 14 free meals and free shipping on their first box. And if you’re worried about the packaging, consider this: Blue Apron has set a goal for all their packaging to be recyclable, reusable, or compostable by the end of 2025. They’re also increasing the amount of post-consumer recycled content in their boxes to prevent waste on the front end.
4. Store food properly
With a little extra effort, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and even meal kit leftovers can last even longer. Zero waste advocate Camilla Marcus, the chef behind west~bourne, likes to store her produce in organic cotton mesh bags. “They really help extend the life of produce,” she says, "and greens stay crisp much longer.” A few other storage tips: If you struggle to use milk up before it sours, store it in a colder part of the refrigerator, like the back of the shelf (not the warm door area). Stash leftovers in clear containers so you can see what you have. Marcus also notes that bananas and avocado can accelerate the ripening of everything around them, so separate them from the rest of your produce. For more advice about how to store specific foods, check out our guide to storing fruits and vegetables, plus our favorite ways to store leftovers.
5. Create a “use first” zone
Leftovers and especially perishable items are more likely to go to waste if they are buried behind other food. In her book How to be a Conscious Eater, sustainable food expert Sophie Egan suggests creating a dedicated “eat first” section of the refrigerator. That way, you and your family members will always know what needs cooking or eating first. Another out of the box idea: Use the “crisper” drawers for long-lasting items like condiments, and put your produce on the shelves so you will be reminded to use it up.
6. Freeze just about everything
If you suspect you won’t use something up in a couple of days, freeze it. Almost anything can be frozen—even milk (use it for baking) and cheese (shred it first). Save pint- and quart-size containers from the deli and use them to freeze soup, cooked grains, beans, and extra meal kit servings. Jenna Helwig, the author of Bare Minimum Dinners, especially loves to freeze fruit before it goes bad. “I peel brown bananas, break them into pieces and then freeze them for later use in banana bread, smoothies, or one-ingredient ice cream,” she says. “And I also rarely make it through a whole pineapple before it starts to get sketchy, so I’ll chop and freeze it for smoothies.” Helwig even uses her ice cube trays to store extra tomato paste and canned chiles in adobo, while Marcus uses hers to preserve leftover wine for cooking (brilliant!).
7. Gussy up your leftovers
For some people, leftovers are simply unappealing. To change your mindset about eating a meal again, try dressing up the leftover food. “Change the texture and the flavor profile,” suggests Marcus. “Sauté something that was raw or pan-fry something that was cooked.” For flavor, she often leans spicy with a drizzle of her chili oil. Lemon zest, a generous handful of chopped fresh herbs, a healthy grind of black pepper and Parmesan, or a swirl of good balsamic are all other easy ways to reinvent the flavor profile. Helwig notes that a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream can make soups and stews more enticing, and even a humble drizzle of olive oil can make leftover chicken or fish feel luscious.
Finally, if you do accidentally let food go bad, compost what you can—here’s our ultimate guide to getting started.
Our friends at Blue Apron are dedicated to making dinner easier and more delicious than ever with their lineup of always-changing meal kit menus. Their chef-designed recipes use top-notch, responsibly sourced ingredients you can feel good about, like GMO-free chicken, pasture-raised beef, and sustainably caught (or farmed) seafood. Whether you want to switch up your cooking routine or take the stress off dinner, let Blue Apron do the hard work—from shopping to meal planning—and leave the fun part (cooking and eating!) to you.
Written by: Laura Fenton
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8 Comments
I would love to know what percentage of food waste is due to grocery portioning. Much of my own is the result of pre-determined amounts by the store, like bunches of herbs. I could use dill in my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week and still not use up all of the huge summer bunches.
I def suggest looking into an Aerogarden. Clear one distinct space, and never have to worry about light, etc.
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