Zero Waste Kitchen: 8 Habits That Cut Trash and Save Money
Help us celebrate Zero Waste Week. Check out our tips and hints on ways to reduce your trash in the kitchen.
Quick Reference: Zero Waste Kitchen at a Glance
- Goal: cut household kitchen trash (plastic film, single-use packaging, food scraps) toward zero.
- The 8 habits: drop disposables, cook from scratch, shop the farmer’s market, buy in bulk, drink tap, compost, eat leftovers first, can the harvest.
- Biggest single win: composting. Food scraps are 22% of U.S. municipal landfill trash by weight (EPA), the largest single category.
- Cheapest first move: switch paper towels for cotton rags. Same job, washable, free if you cut up old t-shirts.
- Setup that makes it stick: mason jars of bulk staples, a countertop compost pail, a basket for refillable produce bags, and a labeled jar for leftovers in the fridge.
- What this is not: a purity test. Aim for less, not perfect.
A zero waste kitchen is less of a project and more of a slow swap. You change one habit, then another, then another, and a year later your trash can fills up half as fast and your grocery bill is lower. None of the tips below need new gadgets. Most of them just need you to use what you already have, then plan a little. The U.S. EPA’s home composting guide is a good companion piece for the compost step.
1. Dump the disposables. Switch from paper towels to cloth rags (an old cotton t-shirt cut into squares lasts for years). Switch from plastic wrap to foil, metal, glass, or reusable plastic containers. Switch from sandwich baggies to cloth sandwich-sized wrap sacks or beeswax wraps. Keep a basket of clean rags on the counter so reaching for cloth is faster than tearing a sheet of paper.
2. Cook from scratch. Rather than buying pre-packaged condiments, juices, breadcrumbs, salad dressings, baked goods, and other popular grocery store items, learn to make your own and save on packaging. A weeknight habit of making one base ingredient from scratch (stock, dressing, dough, granola, yogurt) every Sunday compounds quickly.
3. Visit the farmer’s market. Buy produce, eggs, milk, and other fresh goods from the farmer’s market. Farmer’s market vendors not only avoid excess packaging, they will happily take back what packaging they do use (egg cartons, berry crates, milk bottles, etc.) for reuse. Bring your own cloth produce bags and a sturdy market tote and you will leave the market with almost no packaging at all.
4. Buy in bulk. Buy dry goods (flour, oats, beans, rice, lentils, pasta, coffee, nuts, dried fruit, spices) in bulk from a co-op or natural-foods store. Bring your own jars or cloth bags, weigh them empty at the register (tare weight), and refill straight into the jar. Glass mason jars on an open shelf are also the cheapest pantry organizer ever invented.
5. Drink tap water. And keep it in a reusable water bottle. No need to wash a glass every time you want a glass of water. Use an at-home filtration system like Brita, or, in older homes, a more thorough under-sink filter. If your local water tests cleanly (most municipal supplies do; check your annual Consumer Confidence Report), bottled water is one of the easiest line items to cut from both your grocery bill and your trash.
6. Compost! Nearly every kind of food waste, and many natural paper products, can be composted. Then, instead of clogging up a landfill, your food waste, egg shells and banana peels, coffee grounds, fruit peels, etc., can go back into nourishing the earth. Keep a sizable compost bucket nearby whenever you cook so you are not tempted to throw those valuable nutrients in the trash. For setup options that fit a small lot or apartment, see our notes on trench composting and composting beyond the basics.
7. Learn to love leftovers. Before cooking a new meal, make sure that any leftovers are used up. If there is not enough to go around, find a way to reinvent it: stir-fry, frittata, soup base, taco filling, rice bowl, sandwich. Designate one labeled jar or container in the fridge as the “eat-this-first” jar so leftovers stop disappearing behind the milk.
8. Can it! Instead of buying canned vegetables from the store, grow all that you need when it is in season and can it yourself. You will not only save resources (mason jars can be used year in and year out), you will also ensure that none of those delicious veggies spoil before you can eat them. Tomato sauce, pickles, salsa, jam, and applesauce are the easiest starter projects for a household new to home canning.
Zero Waste Kitchen Swaps, at a Glance
| Throw out | Bring in | One-line how-to |
|---|---|---|
| Paper towels | Cotton rags | Cut up old t-shirts, keep a basket on the counter |
| Plastic wrap | Beeswax wrap, glass containers with lids | Wash, dry, refold; reuse for years |
| Single-use ziplock bags | Cloth or silicone snack sacks | Rinse and air-dry after every use |
| Store-bought condiments | Homemade ketchup, mustard, mayo, dressings | Sunday batch, refrigerate in a jar |
| Plastic-bagged produce | Cloth mesh produce bags | Weigh at the register, tare deducted |
| Bottled water | Tap water + Brita or under-sink filter + reusable bottle | Refill once, sip all day |
| Trash-can food scraps | Countertop compost pail emptied to outdoor bin | Lid on, empty 2-3 times per week |
| Canned grocery vegetables | Home-canned mason jars from the garden or farmer’s market | Tomato sauce, pickles, jam, applesauce first |
Zero Waste Kitchen FAQ
What does “zero waste kitchen” actually mean?
It is a working goal, not a literal target. A zero waste kitchen tries to send nothing to landfill: food scraps go to compost, packaging is reused or recyclable, and what is bought is bought in formats that can be returned, refilled, or repurposed. Households that get serious about it can cut their kitchen trash output by 60 to 90% in a year. Going to literal zero is rare and not the point.
Where do I start if I have never tried it before?
Pick one habit. Most people get the best return-on-effort from either (a) starting a kitchen compost pail or (b) cutting paper towels in favor of rags. Both are cheap, immediate, and visible. Once one habit sticks for a month, layer on the next.
Do I need a backyard to compost?
No. Apartment-dwellers can use a small countertop bin (with a charcoal filter to control smell) and either freeze scraps for weekly drop-off at a community compost site, sign up for a municipal organic waste pickup, or use a vermicompost (worm) bin indoors. Many cities now offer curbside organics collection alongside trash and recycling.
Is buying in bulk actually cheaper?
For dry pantry staples (flour, beans, rice, oats, lentils, spices, coffee, nuts), bulk usually beats prepackaged on per-pound price. The savings tend to disappear on packaged “bulk” pallets at big-box stores, which charge a premium for the packaging and the warehouse experience. Co-ops and small natural-foods grocers are where the math works in your favor.
What kitchen items should I never compost?
Skip meat, fish, bones, dairy, and oily or greasy scraps in a backyard pile (they attract rodents and produce odors). Skip glossy, coated, or printed paper. Skip cat or dog waste. Industrial municipal composting facilities can handle some of these, so if your city has curbside organic collection, check what is on their accepted list before sorting at home.
How do I keep cloth napkins and rags from looking grungy?
Designate a small lidded bin for soiled cloths and wash them with kitchen towels in a hot wash with a splash of white vinegar in the rinse. Replace heavily stained rags into a “shop rag” rotation (cleaning the car, mopping a spill in the garage). Old t-shirts and frayed towels work best because no one minds when they wear out.
How does line-drying clothes fit a zero waste kitchen routine?
It does not, directly, but the same household muscle (planning ahead, reusing what you already own, cutting energy and packaging) carries straight through. If you are already shifting kitchen habits, the laundry room is the next easy win. See our pieces on why hang clothes out to dry and how to line-dry the right way.
Jaime McLeod
Jaime McLeod is a longtime journalist who has written for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including MTV.com. She enjoys the outdoors, growing and eating organic food, and is interested in all aspects of natural wellness.
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
Many of the new plastic soda bottles are made of plastic thin enough to cut through with a knife. Cut through about 3 inches from the bottom. Poke holes in the bottom with an awl and plant seeds or seedlings. Use the top, with or without the cap on, to make a small greenhouse over plants just starting out.