5 innovative ways in which you can reuse your food waste

If you've been trying to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, here are five easy ways in which you can begin:

This year has pressed the reset button on everything we considered to be ''normal''. Instead, it's got us all exploring different kinds of lifestyles. From a wave of new bakers and online fitness trainers to a new work from home culture and online school, and college; people seem to be doing different things to adapt to life as we know it today. For some of us, this year has forced us to take a step back and re-evaluate the way we've been living. Looking into our own homes, we tend to overlook the amount of food wastage that happens on an everyday basis. Ever think about those banana peels that are of no use or the egg shells that you can't consume or even that potato that just doesn’t look right?

Read on to know how you can lead a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle by reusing creatively and wisely.

1. Use onion skins as a dye

Dyeing clothes using onion skins? Yes please! This DIY project is both sustainable and fun.

Take as many as leftover onion skins as you can find and place them in a stainless steel pot. Fill it up with water, bring to a boil and let it simmer for about an hour. The longer you boil, the darker the shade. Once you’ve got the desired shade of colour, strain out your onion skins. Then soak the fabric you want to dye in hot water before submerging them in your dye bath. Leave the pot on simmer for another hour, then lay it out to dry overnight. Finally, once dried, iron the cloth out before giving it a final rinse. There you have it, a new naturally dyed piece of cloth.

2. Save your peels

If you’re planning on making potato any time soon, you should save the potato skin. Simply toss the skins into oven to make a tasty, crispy starter before your main dish. Add salt and pepper or any other kind of seasoning for taste.

If you simply like to peel your apples before you eat them, then hang on to those peels. They can create yet another crispy snack. Toss in a bit of butter into a pan, add your apple peels and some cinnamon sugar. Roast until crisp and you’ve got yourself a yummy snack.

Banana peels have proved to be a great polisher. Use your peels to polish the leaves of plants at home or rub them on your leather shoes to make them look as good as new. You could also skip the harsh chemicals and polish your expensive silverware with banana peels to make them sparkle and even use them as teeth whiteners.

3. Coffee grounds

We often buy expensive coffee based exfoliators, but why do that when you could just use the coffee grounds at home to get that extra glow? All you have to do is mix it with coconut or olive oil to make the perfect scrub. You could also mix it with honey and apply it onto your skin. It not only smells great but also helps nourish your skin with antioxidants and combats cellulite by tightening the skin.

4. Use your eggshells as fertilizers

Eggs shells can be used as a naural fertilizer since they add calcium and aerate the soil.

After cracking your eggs, put the shells aside, rinse with clear water until clean, and set aside to dry. Then crush them thoroughly to a powdery consistency, and mix the shells directly into the soil. This is because large pieces can’t be decomposed quickly and the plants may not benefit as easily from the added nutrients.

5. Stale bread

A lot of people and kids especially leave out the crusts while eating bread and we often also throw away stale breads when we don’t really need to. Stale bread is just one step closer to croutons, cut them in squares and microwave them or throw them into a grinder to make breadcrumbs. In case you don’t plan on using the bread right away, just wrap it in plastic and store it in the freezer. Easy.