Easily Recycle your Food Waste

Food waste has become one of the biggest contributors to environmental degradation and food security issues worldwide. According to the Food Sustainability Index Report 2020, UAE residents waste nearly 225 kilograms of food waste on average every year, which is nearly twice the amount Americans and Europeans waste. Due to this waste, Emirates incurs nearly $3.5 billion in losses.

Moreover, the food ending up in landfills releases methane and other greenhouse gases, adding to global warming and climate change concerns. From an economic and social viewpoint, we’re consuming more food than we produce, meaning the food industry will run out of resources if we keep wasting food at the rate we are.

RECAPP is one of the biggest recycling solutions in the country. Therefore, we believe we must help our users and readers explore different ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

In this post, we’ll share ten food waste recycling methods you can explore to repurpose or properly discard unwanted items, kitchen scraps, and other commercial and domestic food waste types.

10 Food Waste Recycling Methods 

1. Store Leftovers for More Dishes

Storing leftovers is not a new practice. However, most people don’t understand the long-term benefits from a financial or environmental viewpoint. For starters, leftovers can be reheated and served again if you store in an air-tight container and put them in a refrigerator.

This method saves money and avoids dumping edible food in the dustbin just because you’re full or you made more than you need.  

If you want to avoid eating the same thing, you can use the leftovers to make a new dish. For instance, you can combine roast chicken with pita bread and some sauces to make homemade shawarma.

Similarly, you can use leftover veggies from a salad (carrots, celery, broccoli, etc.) to make a broth, stock, or soup. The options are unlimited.

2. Use Vegetable and Fruit Peels to Feed Your Plants

Do you regularly buy soil fertilizer for your plants or garden? You can save money and help reduce the demand for any type of store-bought fertilizer (synthetic or organic) by using kitchen scraps as nutrients. Banana peels, apple skin, carrot shavings, and potato peels are all high in essential nutrients, such as potassium, phosphorus, calcium, etc.

All you need to do is soak them in water overnight to allow the nutrients to leak. In the morning, you can use the solution to water your plants.

3. Make Compost

To take your indoor gardening skills to the next level, you can take kitchen scrap recycling one step further by making compost. This mixture contains organic ingredients from decomposing waste, such as veggies, fruits, coffee grounds, tea bags, bones, and other leftovers. However, you should avoid dumping meats, liquids, dairy, or plastic waste.

To make compost, you need a dump pit or bucket filled with brown materials, including soil, dead leaves, shredded paper, wood chips, sawdust, etc. Next, add the collected waste and let the microorganisms do the work for six to eight weeks.

Alternatively, you can purchase composting bins from vendors, including Whizz, uBuy, Amazon, etc.

4. Hire a Food Waste Recycling Company

While there are several ways to repurpose food, you still must dispose of a significant portion of waste. Here, the key is to be more responsible when discarding food waste in bags. For instance, do you know where this waste will end up? Unfortunately, a significant amount of waste ends up in landfills spread across millions of square meters in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and other cities.

5. Donate Food

Another great way to recycle food is to donate it to charitable organizations in the UAE, such as the UAE Food Bank, Re-Plate, and Eateasy Charity, to name a few. So, whether you have some veggies, meat, canned goods, or other food products you have no plans of consuming, you can help feed the needy and reap the social benefits of food waste recycling.

Restaurants, supermarkets, and other facilities that operate with food on a relatively larger scale than households should especially take measures that reduce food waste.

6. Regrow Vegetables

Why buy vegetables when you can grow your own? That’s right. One smart food waste recycling method includes using the seeds, cuttings, and pits of popular veggies, such as green onions, herbs, lettuce, spinach, etc., and planting them in small pots or containers to regrow them. Growing food is one of the most sustainable practices anyone can adopt, starting with simple steps.

All you need is a windowsill that gets plenty of sunlight. Fortunately, this is something the UAE isn’t short of. As explained earlier, you can also use scraps to make compost or nutrient solutions.

7. Clean Metal or Alloy Surfaces

Lemon and other citrus fruit peelings contain citric acid. This chemical is a staple in the cleaning industry, especially when it comes to cleaning metal surfaces, such as copper or brass. You can grind the peelings and them to your standard cleaning solution to bring shine to your door handles, stair handrails, kettles, tabletops, etc.

8. Make Tea

Herbs are some of the most underutilized kitchen ingredients, often due to their limited shelf life. Most people throw them away as soon as they begin to dry out. Little do they know that dry herbs make some of the best tea ingredients. So, the next time you have some thyme, mint, chamomile, or basil, let them dry out so you can grind them and use them to make different brews.

9. Use Peanut Shells Instead of Coal

Most barbecues typically involve the use of coal as the main heat source. However, did you know peanut shells make a great substitute for this purpose and burn for almost as long? Plus, burning peanut shells is much more eco-friendly than burning coal, which releases many toxic gases, including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides.

So, if you eat peanuts regularly, get a large container and start storing the shells for your next grilling session.

10. Never Throw Away Jars Until they’re Empty

Have you ever thrown away a Nutella, jam, or peanut butter jar with bits stuck to the side? You’re not the only one. Now imagine a million people doing this. That’s right. Saving the most negligible amounts of product can reduce tons of waste.

So, instead of throwing away the last bits, you can get creative. For example, add some ice cream or milk to a Nutella or peanut butter jar to make a shake or simple dessert. Similarly, you can crack a couple of eggs into a Salsa jar and make a Mexican omelet. The options are plenty.

Conclusion

So, these are ten waste food recycling methods you can adopt and lead a more sustainable lifestyle. Of course, you can take several other proactive and reactive measures to minimize waste. For instance, making a shopping list can help you avoid buying extra items and letting them go to waste. Similarly, you can opt for an outdoor compost bin and ask your neighbors to join in on the action.

As for your food containers or other recyclables, RECAPP can help you to dispose of them safely and adequately for a sustainable future in the UAE by providing relevant services. You can start now by downloading the app and recycle at home but also at your office with the RECAPP  Business solution.