Reusing Eggshells + 3 Other Hacks To Reduce Kitchen Waste

Taking a glance at the food waste situation from 2016 to 2017, Australians produced a massive 7.3 million tonnes of food waste and 34% of it was created in our very own homes. Bit of a somber way to kick off, we know.

But let’s get the conversation going - what could we being doing better with our food?

We’ve assembled a list of savvy hacks for your home to make the most from your food (and your cash!). You’d be surprised how easy it is!

Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover

We’ve all heard ‘buy less’ a million times, but what about ‘buy uglier’?

We’re all guilty of standing over the apple table at Woolies looking for the prettiest, curviest Pink Lady apple despite all our options being equally as tasty and nutritious. Unfortunately though, this consumer demand has bullied the big companies to only purchase the ‘perfect’ fruits and veggies of the bunch, leaving an excessive amount of ‘imperfects’ behind to be wasted. However, local grocers have recognised this issue and started to sell the ugly ducklings of the fruit and veg world at a discounted price. If reducing your food waste whilst making some sweet cash savings sounds like your kind of thing, take a chance on the ‘ugly’ produce - they’re actually really nice guys!

Scrap Happy

Want to save some coin on buying stock and avoid a huge chunk of food wastage? First step - don’t chuck out those peels, stems and stalks! After a pile up of veggie scraps have heaped up, sauté them all with some olive oil or even butter, add water and let them simmer - voila, vegetable broth! Some words of warning though, potatoes give the broth a lot of body and cruciferous veggies are high in sulfur; so to avoid a bitter broth, only include them in small doses.

Keep Composture

Not all of us have the room for a big backyard compost bin, but that doesn’t mean we have to miss out on all the benefits of composting! Brisbane City Council has kickstarted a program that encourages the use of community compost bins. The bins can be found at community gardens scattered around Brissie and offer sustainability and composting workshops to enhance our knowledge on the benefits of composting. While BCC have done a great job enhancing the accessibility of the composting bins, if you’re just a little too far from the local bins than ShareWaste offers a great alternative. To break it down (literally!), ShareWaste connects you with locals who will happily take your scraps for their own composting uses. One man’s trash is another’s treasure, right?

Cracking Down On Egg Waste

We can’t say that we’ve ever kept an eggshell in our lives… but we’re about to start!

The Praire Homestead compiled a tried-and-true list of all the greatest uses for eggshells. Somewhere in their travels, they were inspired to eat them for their calcium intake - now it’s your turn! Give them a steam to sanitise them and leave to dry. Once dry, the shells can be ground with a blender to form a fine powder. Finally, pick up some vegetable based capsules from your local chemist and spoon in your eggshell powder for homemade calcium pills. Waste not, want not!

Have a hot tip for reducing waste? Leave a comment below!