OUR 5 TIPS FOR RECYCLING FOOD WASTE

In France, half of all food waste is wasted directly by households: the average French person is responsible for 60kg of waste per year*. A smaller proportion is wasted by supermarkets and the food industry. Each and every one of us can contribute to reducing our waste. Sometimes, we consider certain parts of food as waste, when we could use them in other ways. Discover our new tips for recycling food waste:

1) Recycle coffee grounds

If you have a filter, plunger or bean-to-cup coffee maker, you can easily recover the coffee grounds from your machine. Rather than throwing it straight into the garbage can, store it in a glass canister, then use it to :

• Bake and enjoy coffee grounds cookies. This original recipe will surprise your guests and help you reduce waste.
• Feed your plants! Coffee grounds are an excellent natural fertilizer for indoor and outdoor plants. Pour it into your watering can with water and water as usual.
• Clean your home. Coffee grounds are a great ally for your household, as they are degreasing, abrasive and absorbent. Mix it with lukewarm water and use it to remove grease from stoves and hobs, to unblock drains, or to polish marks on wooden furniture and floors.

2) Stop throwing away pasta water

When we throw away pasta water, we don't realize that we're wasting something that could be recycled. But pasta water is precious! Place a measuring jug under your strainer to store the water so you can easily pour it back out. Then there are several options:

• Make a pasta sauce with a little Parmesan cheese, and the result will be creamy and delicious. Pasta water is rich in starch, which helps bind your sauces.
• Forpizza dough, pasta water is an excellent base.
• Use it to water plants (if the water isn't salty) rather than throwing it away.

3) Save vegetable peelings

Vegetable peelings (potatoes, carrots, zucchinis, etc.) are a regular food waste, which you could recycle to serve at the aperitif! After cleaning and drying them, season them with oil, salt, pepper and spices (such as paprika), then place them on a baking sheet. 15 minutes in the oven at 180°C and your peelings become delicious , crispy chips!

4) Cook the tops

We almost always throw away our vegetable tops. Some we don't eat (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers), but others can form the basis of a recipe. The most common are radish, carrot and turnip tops, or broccoli leaves and stems. You can make a pesto, soup, quiche or cake from these "scraps"!

5) Compost your food waste

The final tip is composting! Admittedly, this doesn't allow you to consume this waste in the form of food, but your plants will thank you! Virtually all food waste can be composted: peelings, coffee grounds, bread, dairy products, vegetable tops, cheese rinds and eggshells. Avoid citrus peelings or too much meat. Whether it's a shared or individual composter, or a vermicomposter, this practice helps to reduce the amount of blue household waste (the contents of which are then burned in incineration plants), to recover this waste and to give it a useful purpose.

Try out these tips to reduce waste and recycle your food waste. Discover other Pyrex tips® for zero waste cooking.

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*2021 data for France (2023 Eurostat) communicated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty in May 2024.