Living on as little waste as possible is not that hard – here is how we are doing it

I felt that this piece is perfect for the times. The holidays are the season of extended excesses (probably even amid the pandemic), where we make an insane amount of food, too much trash, and throw out a lot of "gold."

A pantry full of food, single-use disposable items, and the trash bin overflowing with a mixture of juice cartons, plastic fruit crates, and food scraps. I could go on with this gory list, but I'm sure you get the picture.

Soon on January 1, we will resolve to do better going forward. A typical routine, a New Year's resolution to not make the same excesses of the past.

I refuse to wait until the New Year to make that decision, starting with reducing the amount of trash we produce during the holidays. Yet, this change is but a small step when it comes to living honestly waste-free.

For so long, we thought adopting at least a low waste lifestyle is hard. If anything, the pandemic made us realised that there are many ways to gradually transition into a new, more environmentally-responsible, and sustainable routine where we live less wastefully.

We are far from it, and truthfully, we are still figuring out what it means to live low waste. When we started on this "as little amount of landfill-bound trash as possible" journey this year, we knew we wanted to avoid making unnecessary waste. In the process, we learned many new things, which you can read here.

Our experience and ways of living this lifestyle are still evolving and growing. Here are our recent favourites:

Kitchen scraps for one of the kind vegetable broths or stocks

We started making our vegetable broth beginning this year using kitchen scraps (yes, we are late bloomers through and through). This is where you get to have fun, no kidding!

With different combinations of scraps (I use pretty much everything from peels, small ends, stalks, leaves, cores, rinds, roots, and anything you would typically throw away), the taste is always a big surprise depending on what you put in it.

Here is what we do: We keep a bag or container in the freezer for anything and everything that could be added to vegetable broth/stock. They get filled pretty quickly after 2-3 days (vegetables and fruits big eaters here!). Add your favourite aromatics and herbs, and voila, you have the best and unique tasting broths for almost everything (even to cook rice)!

We love that we can reduce waste, have homemade and incredibly delicious broths, and no more buying that expensive (and probably preservatives-filled) store broth stuff EVER again).

And more scraps for homemade and delicious marmalades

It's no secret we love jams and marmalades (who doesn't?), and making them at home from scraps takes it to the next level. You read it right, from scraps, using perfectly edible fruit and citrus peels.

Since hubby went into a fruit diet a month ago, there was a whole lot of juicing and blending going on, leaving us with a pile of peels. It always feels wasteful to see them going to the bin. We can make so many useful and delicious things with scraps, but I particularly love making marmalades with peels.

While it may take hours to make marmalades, the results are worth it. Smearing it on top of our favourite wholemeal pita bread is my spread of choice any time of the day.

All that said, being able to make jam/marmalade free of additives and chemicals out of something that would otherwise be thrown out, now that's delicious!

But we can do more

These are just two of the many ways to treat the planet and ourselves better, but a good start nonetheless.

Because every change always starts with something, with a simple question, "Is there something we can do better." My answer is still YES.

But living in a big city, in an apartment building without composting facilities, where most things aren't available package/plastic-free, where farmers' market is few, I realised that taking the low waste route can be incredibly challenging, but not impossible.

It's a conscious, daily choice when it comes to leaving a positive impact on the planet. This is something anyone could do. Now.

Here's to a healthier, greener, and more sustainable New Year and every day.

#lowwaste #sustainableliving #homemadedeliciousness