Let’s talk about leftovers.
When we’re in the kitchen, we probably aren’t paying much attention to the little scraps that scrape by—a few extra celery stalks, a heel of old bread, or a bruised brown banana. Our old, forgotten foodstuffs might not seem like a big deal, but food waste is adding up to a global problem: in all, we’re wasting 1.3 billion tons of food each year.

Why does so much go to waste?
Nearly one-third of food produced around the world goes to waste because it simply looks imperfect. These so-called “ugly foods” get skipped over by grocery shoppers every day because of their superficial appearance and end up in landfills.

But even picture-perfect, aesthetically pleasing foods get thrown out just the same: according to a 2012 study by Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans alone throw out about half of their food, which is equal to $165 billion each year.

So what can we do with all this perfectly good food?
That’s the question three New York City restaurateurs set out to answer when they opened their low-waste restaurant called Sunday in Brooklyn. Located in the Williamsburg neighborhood, the restaurant serves three meals a day and strives to use every ingredient to the fullest, making the most of every ounce of food they buy—including their kitchen scraps.

Leftover veggie scraps? Those can be pickled and served later. And what happens to that pickle brine when it’s done? That can serve as a pleasantly salty, flavorful addition to a new cocktail. Extra bits of meats and cheese? Wrap them in dough, bake them, and serve them up as gourmet pastries later.

“Minimizing food waste is one of our top initiatives for 2017,” explained Todd Enany, one of the partners behind Sunday in Brooklyn. “There are a ton of instances of not only cross-utilization of our ingredients, but also the use of what most restaurants may consider waste, such as beet tops and broccoli stems.”

There are also more high-tech ways to help out.
A company in Chicago is taking the fight against food waste into the digital age with a new web-based donation system.

MealConnect is a tech platform from the bright minds at Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization the U.S., that lets food providers like restaurants, coffee shops, and grocery stores donate unsold foodstuffs.

It works like this: companies looking to donate food can register their available inventory on the app. MealConnect matches them with a nearby food bank in Feeding America’s network in real time, coordinates a delivery driver, and provides both parties with an estimated pick-up time.

So far, MealConnect has saved 333 million pounds of food—that amounts to about 278 million individual meals. There’s still a long way to go to achieve Feeding America’s ultimate goal of eliminating hunger in America by 2025, but keeping all that unsold food out of a landfill is a huge first step.

Finding a solution to food waste can start in our kitchens.
Just ask Hannah McCollum, founder of ChicP, a hummus brand made from surplus fruits and vegetables. After culinary school, Hannah began making hummus from the leftover scraps in her restaurant. At first it was just for her patrons, but soon enough the orders came rolling in, and ChicP took on a life of its own.

By dining or donating, we can all do a part.
We don’t have to be master chefs to make a difference. Organizations like FeedBack are working on ways to minimize the amount of food we waste ranging from massive upcycled food fests like Feeding the 5,000 to alternative programs like The Pig Idea, which uses surplus food unfit for humans to feed pigs (saving 20x more CO2 emissions than the next best recycling option in the process).

By using more of our food and repurposing our leftovers, we can help contribute to a greener (and tastier) future.

Photos courtesy of Sunday in Brooklyn and ChicP Foods