Today's Recycling Tips - Zero Kitchen Waste

1. Great alternatives to disposables are paper towels, bine liners, wax paper, aluminum sheets, disposable plates, cups, etc).  Change paper towels for reusable cloths, instead of sandwich bags, use kitchen towels or stainless containers, don't use rubbish bags at all, as wet waste is mostly compostable.
2. Bulk buy or at the counter (see Zero Waste Grocery Shopping), always use reusable bags any for dry goods and  jars for wet items such as meat, deli, fish, cheese, oil, peanut butter, and bottles for liquids: oil, soy sauce, shampoo, conditioner.
3. If it is not possible to buy in bulk, take your jar to the ice cream shop, a reusable bag to the bakery for your bread, or your bottles to the winery/brewery.  Don't forget, you can always make your own mustard, salad dressing, hot sauce, jams, OJ, hummus, bisuits and canned tomatoes.
4. If possible, buy at a farm shop or market, they will usualy take the egg carton and the berries baskets back for reuse. In addition to this, vegetables will also most likely be free of plastic and stickers.
5. Purify your tap water rather than buy bottled water.
6. Use bulk castile soap as a dish/hand cleaner, baking soda as a scrubber (in a stainless Parmesan dispenser) with a compostable cleaning brush (a wooden one with natural hair). Ensure that the dishwasher detergent you buy comes in a cardboard box.
7. Turn your large rubbish bin into a big compost keeper, then use your small compost keeper as a rubbish bin.  The sizes for these are reversed in the shops.
8. Don't throw your leftovers away!   Also, have a look through your recipe books and only use recipes that can be made with zero waste in mind.
9. To drastically reduce cooking time and costs, buy a slow cooker or a halogen oven.
10. Last few tips for saving and reusing are: Reuse single-side printed paper for grocery shopping and errands lists, use your lettuce cleaning water to water plants, open your oven after baking in the winter (cool your oven, warm your house.

Original source:  zerowastehome.blogspot.com