Wasted food is a financial and environmental bummer.
It costs U.S. consumers $728 every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and emits the annual equivalent planet-warming greenhouse gases of 42 coal-fired power plants.
Carleigh Bodrug, a cookbook author who emphasizes cooking with plants and low-waste recipes, said she was surprised to learn that homes, rather than restaurants and grocery stores, account for the largest share of food that goes in the garbage — about 35% in 2023, according to ReFed, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce food waste.
“And it’s just because we’re so busy, we’re not utilizing the food that we actually buy,” she said.
The environmental impact is compounded because the food goes in the trash only after a long journey in which it’s grown, treated, packed, shipped, prepared and stored.
The good news is that cutting waste is good both for the planet and for every household’s bottom line. We’ve collected the expert wisdom on how to do it — from smarter shopping to creative recipes.
Bodrug wasn’t always keen on reducing food waste. She recalls going to the grocery store each week, buying a bag of oats and then discovering when she got home that she already had three half-eaten bags in the pantry. When she learned about the “huge issue” of the waste nationally, she said, she wanted to do something about it.
Her first solution: Make a list. Write down the plan for the week, then check the fridge and the pantry to see what’s already there before heading to the store. The list prevents duplicates — and it can also cut down on impulse buys.
“The worst thing any of us can do — and I know everybody’s been there — is heading to the grocery store when you’re hungry and you’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need everything.’ If you head to the grocery store with a list, you’re buying items with intention,” she said.
A list doesn’t solve everything. For example, don’t buy a bag of seven lemons if you only need one and will have no plan for the rest, said Adam Kaye, co-founder and chief culinary officer at Spare Food Co., a company that rescues surplus or unsold produce from farms and turns it into products sold to chefs and companies.
Kaye also said people can also choose to buy foods using ingredients that would otherwise be wasted. That could be vegetable broth made from surplus produce, or a trail mix that uses cacao fruit — which is often thrown away when cocoa powder is harvested.
If your food lasts longer in the fridge, it’s got a better shot at getting eaten.
Bodrug said leafy greens stored with a paper towel or cloth that absorbs moisture will stay dry and wilt less quickly. Herbs and things with stems can be set in a jar of water, like a bouquet, to stay fresh longer.
Kaye’s solution is to use the freezer liberally — and then commit to emptying it.
“At least one night a week we have a clean-out-the-fridge-and-freezer meal night where it might end up being two or three different dishes are being prepared,” he said. “But, you know, let’s do it.”
Kaye said people likely throw away even more food than gets counted. That’s because things like the stalks, stems and ribs of a lot of produce “are perfectly edible,” he said.
When he’s cooking with parsley and cilantro, he chops up the stems and throws them in, too. Same for carrot greens in pesto, radish tops in salad, and broccoli stalks in stir fry.
Bodrug chops up her kale stems like green onions and doesn’t peel her carrots and potatoes. Her onion skins, garlic skins, carrot and celery nubs and other scraps go into a bag in her freezer to make vegetable stock. “When it’s full in the freezer, you can just dump it into a pot, add a bunch of water, add a couple of spices like turmeric and garlic and salt, and you’ve got a beautiful stock made. And then you can just compost those scraps,” she said.
Kaye has four go-to dishes when he’s trying to use up food in his fridge before it goes bad: frittata, stir fry, smoothie and pesto.
Pesto doesn’t have to be made from basil, he said — after all, it comes from the Italian word meaning to crush or pound.
“I’ve yet to find something green that I can’t make a pesto out of,” he said. “Pesto can be arugula, pesto can be kale, pesto can be peas, pesto can be a combination of any of those things.”
Blenders are also great for lumpy fruit and wilting greens, Kaye said, because those can get blended up into smoothies.
He said frittata is a great savory catch-all because all it takes is food scraps and eggs.
“I’ve put leftover spaghetti in a frittata. I mean, it’s delicious,” he said. “Frittatas are just incredible for that one or two scallions or a little end piece of salami that you have, or those little cheese nubbins that are going to go south.”
Vegetable trimmings that often get discarded, like the ribs and stems of cauliflower leaves and broccoli stalks, as well as leftover meats, all work well in fried rice, he said.
Of course, lives get busy, and sometimes the bag of spinach bought with good intentions wilts in the back of the fridge.
Chef Dan Barber, who experimented with serving food that would have otherwise been thrown away at a pop-up restaurant called WastED, said wasting less food requires getting excited about cooking.
“Not reheating, not ordering out for someone else to cook for you, but actually engaging with a stove and a knife,” said Barber, who also co-owns a pair of restaurants called Family Meal at Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York. “To actually do some cooking and work in the kitchen that transforms something that is un-coveted or at first glance not delicious into something that sings. And that takes a little imagination and effort.”
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