How to Reduce Food Waste at Home: 7 Easy Tips for Practical Moms

This article is sponsored by Mill, a supporter of Peanut and women alike.

Let’s face it: kids waste a ton of food.

And there’s only so many stray carrots we can eat off the floor or plates we can scrape in the garbage before it begins to weigh on us.

That’s why one of the best ways to create a conscious home and teach our kids sustainable habits is by reducing food waste at home.

But where do you even start when you’ve got a million things on your to-do list already?

We’ve got handy tips and tricks, with the help of our friends over at Mill.

Let’s get to it! 💪

In this article: 📝

Why is food waste bad?

There's more to this than just mushy bananas ending up in the trash.

Food waste is a way bigger issue than it might seem, and it affects all of us.

We can’t ignore it — food waste is a significant problem affecting our environment, and most of the food that ends up in landfills comes from our homes.

It’s something we’re all guilty of doing, with the average US household wasting over a third of the food they buy.

When we throw away food, we're not just wasting what's on our plate.

We're also discarding all the resources — water, energy, and labor — that went into producing that food.

Then there’s the money spent — an average of $1,300 per person per year.

We don’t buy food with the intention of throwing it straight into the trash, but sometimes, that’s what happens (especially when you have kids 👀).

And, let’s be honest, food waste stinks!

So, yeah, no one likes food waste at home.

Where does food waste go?

We hate to break it to you, mama, but out of sight isn’t always out of mind when it comes to food waste.

Most of our scraps and leftovers end up in landfills where they decompose and produce methane — a potent greenhouse gas that significantly contributes to climate change.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

If you’ve got a garden set up, you can compost your food waste to help your plants grow while reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills.

Or you can get a Mill.

Throw all your unwanted food scraps into your Mill food recycler, and it’ll turn them into odorless, dry grounds — no smells, no fuss, all while you sleep!

✨ The dream! ✨

How can we reduce food waste at home for kids?

Teaching your kids about food waste can be a valuable lesson they’ll take with them for the rest of their lives.

So how can you make reducing food waste at home fun to get your kids involved?

Here are some easy tips from our Peanut moms:

1. Family meal planning time: Before hitting the grocery store, spend some family time together writing a shopping list, making sure each suggestion (no matter who they’re from) has a valid reason. Then — the hard part — stick to it! No impulse buys that could go out of date before you get to them.
2. Unpack together: When you get home, share the task of unpacking your groceries, teaching your kiddo how to store food correctly so it’ll last longer, too.
3. Proportioned portions: If your kid is leaving leftovers every time, try cutting back on portion sizes and opting for smaller snacks between meals instead. Better yet, teach them about portions and let them serve themselves — that way, they’ll learn about listening to their body and figuring out how much they actually want to eat.
4. Get creative with leftovers: Leftover potatoes? Turn it into a frittata! Wilted veggies? Throw them into soup! Squidgy fruit that’s not quite gone? Smoothies!
5. Expiry dates are just guidelines: "Best Before" dates aren't an immediate trash sentence. Many foods are perfectly fine past that date — just check for mold and do a sniff test, and get your kiddo involved, too!
6. Easy food waste management: The easiest, cleanest way is Mill. It dries and grinds food scraps (even cheese, avocado pits and small bones!) overnight, odor-free. Then you can use the grounds in your garden, donate them, or have Mill pick them up to get them back to farms for you — no odors, no pests, no effort!
7. Make it fun: Put on a show when it comes to reducing food waste, making each step a game. Lots of kids even name their Mill food recycler, so they can “feed” it with their unwanted food!

How does the Mill food recycler work?

Here’s a quick breakdown of how it works it’s magic:

• You toss your apple cores, veggie scraps, eggshells... pretty much any food you can’t eat right into your Mill.
• Overnight, Mill dries, shrinks, and grinds all that food waste, leaving behind clean, odor-free grounds. No rotting, no swarms of fruit flies , no smells.
• When it’s full (which, by the way, takes a looong time), you can compost the grounds in your garden or donate them to a sustainable farm through Mill.
• That’s it! When it’s empty, live your life and fill it up all over again!

Why moms love Mill

It’s no surprise that our Peanut mamas love Mill — no more smelly trash or unwanted critters!

Peanut mom Nicole B put Mill to the test:

“Mill is a super-easy solution to food waste, and for our family, it was also an opportunity to solve a unique problem.

Local critters had actually begun eating away the cover of our outdoor garbage pail, so much so that they created a hole trying to get to those smelly food scraps inside.

When it came time to purchase a new pail, the great debate was whether we could go smaller.

Mill makes reducing food waste a reality, so that means there is no more smelly trash, oversized pails, or unwelcome critters.

Mill turns all my food scraps into compact, dry grounds.

It’s an effortless and odorless addition to our home, fitting into our lifestyle much better than red wigglers — those are composting worms we tried a few years back.

Mill makes chores like taking out the trash a bit more manageable so that our boys have the opportunity to not only make an environmental impact reducing food waste but a local impact, helping to take out the trash from one very grateful mama.”

In the end, by teaching our kids about food waste and how to reduce it, we're not just helping the planet, but also raising a generation that values sustainability and respects our resources.

We can make a difference, together — to our wallets, our planet, and our children's future.

Every little bit counts — remember, it's not about perfection; it's about progress.

And hey, if a kitchen gadget like Mill can make things even easier? That's a total win in our book! 🏆

Cheers to keeping food out of the trash, mama!