Most people cut off parts of vegetables and fruits and discard them. Everything from carrot peels to squash ends can end up as food waste. Ac cording to Zero Waste Memoirs, as much as 40% of food grown and sold in the United States ends up as waste. People don’t utilize every inch of their produce items, but you can help change that statistic by putting your scraps to good use. Trust us when we say that it’s well worth the effort. 

Some methods are more obvious, including composting vegetable scraps or recycling them in the right trash can. It may surprise you to learn that you can make an all-natural food dye or aromatic, flavorful vegetable stock with food scraps. With a little extra effort and culinary creativity, you can make sure that things don’t go to waste. Read on to learn how you can reduce food waste by reusing vegetable scraps. 

Boil Them Into A Broth

It’s always a good idea to have broth in your kitchen because you can use it in so many dishes. From soups and stews to risotto and casseroles, there are so many ways to use broth. Rather than purchasing sodium-rich broths from the store, make your own using vegetable scraps. It is very easy to do and you can customize the flavor based on the scraps you add to the pot. Plus, you get to control the salt content, which is great if you have high blood pressure. Place the scraps in a pot and cover them with water. Garlic, bay leaf, and other aromatics can add flavor, so don’t be afraid to add them. Cook the broth for 10 minutes or so and then strain through a fine mesh sieve. Store the broth in glass jars in the fridge or freezer, depending how soon you are going to use it. 

Use Them To Grow New Vegetables

If you have enough of a vegetable’s leftover, like the base of a bunch of celery, you can use it to start the growth of new plants. You can even sprout from a large avocado pit! It seems difficult, but it is quite easy and very rewarding. To grow vegetables from scraps, you need to trim off the end of the vegetable. That allows the vegetable to take up fresh water and start to regenerate roots. Once you trim the vegetable, place it in fresh water and set it somewhere that receives natural light. In time, you should see growth, but make sure that the base of the vegetable end is touching water, and change the water when it gets cloudy.

Compost Them

Composting is a great way to put your food scraps to good use. This process uses the scraps and other organic materials to make a natural fertilizer that you can use to enrich soil. In doing so, you reduce the amount of food waste that ends up in landfills. Plus, composting also decreases the amount of methane emitted into the atmosphere. There are many ways to compost, but the easiest way is to collect your scraps in a small bucket or container. You then dig a shallow hole in the ground, add the scraps from the bucket into the hole, chop them up with a shovel, and cover with dirt. Ideally, you bury the food scraps next to plants you’re growing to encourage healthier growth. You can compost produce, grains, coffee grounds, and eggshells, but don’t compost meat, dairy, liquids, food wrappers or plastic. 

Use Them To Make A Natural Dye

Get creative and colorful with your vegetable scraps by transforming them into a natural dye. Instead of using the dye for fabric, though, use it for coloring other foods to create a cheery meal. For example, use the dye to color everything from homemade pasta to hard-boiled eggs. Use beets and bell peppers to make red and orange dye, depending on their color. You can use yellow bell peppers or turmeric to create a yellow dye. Use spinach for green and red cabbage to make purple dye. There are many recipes for this online, but the simplest way is to blend the food scraps with water in a blender and then strain the liquid. Just make sure to wash the blender between dyes to get the richest colors. 

Pickle Watermelon Rinds

This is more specific, but watermelon rinds are some of the most wasted parts of any fruit. This is especially saddening because they contain a lot of valuable nutrients. Save watermelon rinds and pickle them to create a crunchy, satisfying snack. Just simmer the rinds in a mixture of vinegar, water, sugar, and salt until they soften. Then you can store them in an airtight jar or container in the fridge until you want to enjoy them. Get creative with other spices or seasonings, such as ginger, peppercorns, cloves, and cinnamon, to liven up the pickled rinds.

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In case you haven’t heard, there’s a serious plastic problem around the world. Microplastics end up in our oceans and water sources, and plastic straws, bags, cups, and containers wind up in the digestive systems of various marine species. One new study found that stadiums and concert venues worldwide throw away over five billion single-use plastic cups every year; and they aren’t getting recycled! How do we put an end to such a serious problem that threatens our health, planetary health, and the health of animals?

It all starts with you. You, as in each person reading this article and related material, have the ability, nay, the responsibility to recycle what you can and reduce your plastic waste as much as possible. About 91% of plastic does not get recycled, meaning that it ends up somewhere else, which is apparently everywhere. Fortunately, it’s getting easier to go plastic-free, and that means that there is no excuse for wasting plastic. You can reduce your plastic use by implementing the following tips into your life.

No More Bottled Water

Did you know that bottled water is less regulated than tap water in North America? Well, it is, and that makes purchasing bottled water absurd. Bottled water is basically tap water that has been moderately filtered. Plastic bottles are some of the most popular plastic items that end up in the ocean and landfills. It’s unnecessary and we need to stop. Get a reusable bottle that is either glass or stainless steel and consider investing in a Berkey filter to reduce plastic bottle waste.

Compostable Cutlery

The whole point of recycling is to avoid the use of single-use products. There’s no need to throw away something that can be repurposed as something else or easily composted. The allure of plastic kitchen utensils is that they are cheap and can be thrown away, making cleanup minimal and easy. Spend a little extra to obtain sustainably made cutlery that is recyclable or compostable. Some companies are even making cutlery out of avocado pits!

Glass Tupperware

Glass is best when it comes to Tupperware. Not only does it not leach plastic into your food during the heating process, but it also can safely withstand higher temperatures. That means you could reheat your food in the toaster oven as opposed to using the microwave. You can also get your hands on some Mason jars because they are versatile and sustainable containers.

Reef-Safe Sunscreen

A lot of commercial sunscreens contain plastics and chemicals that harm coral reefs. Considering that most coral reefs around the world are dying or already dead, we need to work hard to preserve the healthy reefs that are left. Many sunscreen companies are releasing paraben-free, reef-safe sunscreens with all natural ingredients, which are beneficial for your skin and the planet.

Plastic-Free & Recycled TP

Toilet paper rolls are typically wrapped in clear plastic that holds the rolls together. There are companies like Who Gives A Crap that have started packaging toilet paper in cardboard boxes and delivering rolls straight to your door. You don’t even need to leave your house for new rolls of TP. Who Gives A Crap TP rolls are made from recycled toilet paper or bamboo, making them tree-friendly. Plus, 50% of their profits go toward building toilets for people in need.

It’s all about starting small when you go plastic-free. Reusable bags and straws are a great step in the right direction, but we need to do more as a species to reduce plastic waste if we want a healthy planet in the future.

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The Dherbs social media team attended the Earth Day event at Grand Park in Los Angeles, CA this past Thursday, April 11^th, 2019. Upon arriving at the event, we noticed a yoga class happening in the center of the park and children running amok playing tag. Crowds of schoolchildren, who ambled from booth to booth, held note pads and pencils to jot down notes about the informational speakers. We must admit that we also went from booth to booth with notepads of our own.

While we appreciate those who volunteered their efforts for the event, we must be honest and say that the event had a lack of informational, when compared to the multitude of interactive and educational activities at last year’s event. There were, however, new booths this year that informed us about recycling old materials and how much water is actually used to make the things we purchase.

You Can Recycle Old Paint

For most homeowners or renters, the garage is a place to store items that rarely get used. Some things are even forgotten about until the day you move out! Rather than leaving old paint behind for the new renters or buyers to deal with, recycle the paint by contacting PaintCare, a California-based company. Whether you’ve had paint, stain, or varnish for 20 days or 20 years, you can recycle all of it at one of the many PaintCare sites in California. PaintCare is a nonprofit that works with paint companies to make it easier to recycle paint in states with pain stewardship laws.

Buy A Bracelet, Help The Rainforest

If you could buy stylish jewelry that helps support the preservation of the rainforests of the world, would you? Rainforests provide over 20% of the world’s oxygen and fresh water, contain over half of the known plant and animal species, are home to millions of indigenous people, and provide many natural remedies to modern day ailments. One Million Acres (OMA) sells jewelry and other accessories, and they have a Buy One Save An Acre program. For every item sold, OMA donates enough to protect one acre of the rainforest through Rainforest Trust, an organization dedicated to protecting tropical ecosystems around the world.

Recycle Old Mattresses

If you can’t sell your old mattress at a garage sale or on the Internet, the go-to move is to just dump it on the street for trash pickup. If you live in the Greater Los Angeles area, there are sites where you can recycle old mattresses. Bye Bye Mattress is a program that works to recycle each part of the mattress, including the foam, steel, fiber, and wood.

We enjoyed learning about these businesses because they help to make the world a cleaner and more sustainable place.

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Children enjoy making a mess, and that includes throwing food all over the place. When children don’t want to eat their vegetables, the parent or adult commonly instructs them to eat their food because there are less fortunate, starving children in countries around the world. As such, many of us learn to feel guilty for wasting food at an early age, but the sad truth is that many people continue to waste food throughout their entire lives.

About 40% of the all the food in America is wasted. All of that wasted food could feed roughly 60 million people around the world. On a global scale, the amount of wasted food could feed about one billion hungry people in the world. Wasted food comprises about 20% of the solid waste in landfills, where it cannot properly decompose. The reason for this is due to the lack of air in landfills. The surrounding inorganic materials make it impossible for the food to break down. The organics begin releasing methane, which is about 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide, and this greatly contributes to climate change.

All of this is not to say that we should keep eating until we can’t move. That doesn’t have a positive outcome. You don’t have to let the guilt of wasting food paralyze you; rather, you can use the following tips to help reduce food waste at home.

One Bad Spot Does Not Mean It’s Bad

A lot of people are disgusted by the slightest indication of mold. If there is a little speck of it on a tomato, for example, slice off that area and use the rest of it. Sometimes you can see that a vegetable or fruit will go bad if it isn’t used within the next day, so plan a meal that includes that food.

Start Composting

This sounds intimidating, but it is quite simple and beneficial for the soil in your yard or garden. Get a large airtight container (can be a quart-size container) and keep it close to the area where you cut fruits or vegetables. Any stems, ends, bad spots, peels, eggshells, or seeds can all be thrown in that container. When the container fills up, go outside, dig a small hole with a shovel, and throw the scraps in the hole. Chop them with the shovel and then cover them with dirt. Worms will come, compost the food, and richen the soil with nutrients.

Learn To Use The Entire Produce Item

Too often do people buy a produce item and throw a large portion of it away. The broccoli stem, for instance, is commonly tossed into the garbage. It can be shredded for salads or it can be thinly sliced for stir-fries. People who buy beets with greens typically throw the greens away, but they can be treated like chard or spinach. Eat them raw, sautéed, stewed, or boiled!

Befriend Your Freezer

A lot of people purchase bread and meat (poultry, beef, or pork) in America and it can sometimes go bad before it is used. Freeze sliced bread or meat that you know you aren’t going to finish before it’s bad. You can also prep a lot of meals, for example, soups, smoothie bags, or sauces and then freeze them. A great way to save fruits or vegetables before they go bad is to freeze them and use them in smoothies.

Practice FIFO

FIFO stands for First In, First Out. Upon returning home with a new load of groceries, move the older products to the front of the fridge, freezer, or pantry and the newer products in the back. This allows you to use the older items before they expire or turn bad. When you use up anything that comes in a glass jar, you can also wash it out and use that as a cup or container.

Lastly, try to take stock in your fridge, freezer, and pantry to know exactly what you need before you go grocery shopping. You don’t want to buy too much of one thing or buy an item you already have.

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The American people have heard that American needs to be made great again for a couple years now. Given that November 15^th is America Recycles Day, it seems that people need to keep America sustainable and beautiful. One of the best ways to do this is to encourage environmental citizenship, which includes recycling. The goal of America Recycles Day is to promote recycling throughout the year, not just one day out of the year.

In the 1960s, America had a recycling rate of seven percent. While that is a depressing percentage, it is encouraging to know that the current recycling rate is at 35%. According to the EPA, every 10,000 tons of material that are recycled supports 16 jobs and about $760,000 in wages. Furthermore, the EPA conducted a study in 2016 that revealed that a single year of recycling accounted for $36.6 billion in wages and 757,000 jobs.

Some states, towns, and businesses in the country are more progressive than others when it comes to their sustainable practices. Many restaurants have started using recyclable plates, utensils, and bags, and some establishments have eliminated plastic straws and switched to paper straws in order to help protect marine life.

America Recycles Day works to educate people about the importance of recycling and how that simple act can improve the environment. Recycling is not something that should be done when you feel like it. Regularly recycling cardboard, cans, plastic, and glass can reduce the amount of waste that is sent to incinerators and landfills. Recycling can also save energy, prevent environmental pollution, and conserve natural resources like water, minerals, and timber.

How Can You Reduce Waste?

Getting rid of magazine, bottles, and cardboard materials? Recycle them because they are used to create the products you buy. You don’t have to be at home to recycle, either. You can take part in recycling events with your work, in your community, or at your child’s school. There are always opportunities to recycle, and if you take initiative to do so, hopefully that inspires others to start recycling on their own.

Take it upon yourself to reduce, reuse, and recycle today and for the rest of your life. We want to keep this world beautiful so that future generations can appreciate it. Let’s keep recycling!

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Do you like to garden, but don’t like paying for potting soil? Be more environmentally friendly, nourish your dirt, and lessen the stink in your trashcan by learning how to compost! Composting is one of the easiest ways to get high quality soil without doing a lot of work.

It’s interesting to think that the waste from your kitchen can turn into nutrients for your soil. Whether you have used coffee grounds, eggshells, carrot tops, or other fruit/vegetable scraps, bury them in your yard to enrich your soil with a plethora of nutrients. Composting is the practice of taking certain kitchen scraps and making them work for your benefit. Some people buy composting bins, in which they can add wood chips, newspapers, or grass clippings, while others like to do it on a smaller scale.

Vermiculture

If you are familiar with the idea of composting, you will probably recognize this word. Vermiculture is the practice of using worms to decompose organic food waste, thereby turning it into nutrient-rich material that benefits the growth of plants. Think of vermiculture as nature’s way of recycling. Instead of sending food scraps down the garbage disposal, where it will end up in a landfill, bury them in the earth to create healthier soil structure.

To start off, get an airtight container to store your kitchen scraps. If you are burying these in the ground, you can add apple cores, banana peels, broccoli stems, wilted leaves, carrot tops, crushed eggshells, citrus peels, melon rinds, or celery butts, among many other fruit/vegetables scraps. Once your container fills up, dig a little hole in the dirt and bury the scraps. Make sure you cover the scraps with dirt and pack it down. Worms will come and work their magic! 

After doing this for a couple weeks, you can begin to plant different fruits, vegetables, herbs, or flowers. It is easier for these plants to grow when the soil is replete with nutrients. Just so you are aware, you may get a couple volunteer plants from the scraps you bury in the dirt. Tomatoes, melons, and potatoes are common volunteers!

Composting is a very easy way to benefit the environment. Give back to the earth because it has given us so much!

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The Dherbs social media team attended an Earth Day event in Los Angeles this past Thursday, April 19^th, 2018. Grand Park was replete with children on school field trips and the booths were never empty. Adults and children alike came to learn how we impact the environment and what sustainable steps we can take to be more eco-friendly.

People around the world could be more conscious about their impact on the environment. These Earth Day events help to shine a light on how careless people are, when it comes to giving back to a planet that has given us so much life. We thoroughly enjoyed the plethora of booths, but a couple ideas stood out to us, which we have detailed below.

Vermiculture

If you are familiar with the idea of composting, you will probably recognize this word. Vermiculture is the practice of using worms to decompose organic food waste, thereby turning it into nutrient-rich material that benefits the growth of plants. Think of vermiculture as nature’s way of recycling. Instead of sending food scraps down the garbage disposal, where it will end up in a landfill, bury them in the earth to create healthier soil structure.

To start off, get an airtight container to store your kitchen scraps. If you are burying these in the ground, you can add apple cores, banana peels, broccoli stems, wilted leaves, carrot tops, crushed eggshells, citrus peels, melon rinds, or celery butts, among many other fruit/vegetables scraps. Once your container fills up, dig a little hole in the dirt and bury the scraps. Make sure you cover the scraps with dirt and pack it down. Worms will come and work their magic! 

WARNING: Do not compost meat, dairy products, or processed foods.

If you don’t have a yard or an area where you can compost your scraps, you can make a very simple worm farm, which you can keep in your house or apartment. You should get red worms and try to avoid adding citrus peels to the containers; otherwise you will attract fruit flies. You’ll collect liquid in the bottom and it is probably the most beneficial liquid, with which you can nurture your plants. See the video below to learn how to make your own worm farm.

Harvesting Rainwater

We don’t know about people in other states, but California needs all the water it can get. We came across a rainwater-harvesting booth, which we absolutely fell in love with. Rain is not only free, but it also a salt-free water source containing beneficial microorganisms for plants.

Harvesting rainwater can be done easily. Rather than letting the water run from your gutter into the street, you can funnel the gutter into a large bucket for collection. You can water your plants at will with this water. If you don’t want to do this option, you can create a channel system that leads to your plants or yard. When you do this, it helps to replenish ground water. Remember that gravity is your friend when you are creating this channel system.

When rain falls it seeps underground to become ground water, whereby it feeds rivers or lakes. The construction of cities has stopped this natural cycle, meaning the ground can no longer store water as it should. The groundwater works to improve the earth, so there’s no reason not to harvest rainwater!

We hope that you take some steps to be more eco-friendly or employ one of these simple ideas in your daily lives. If these seem too drastic or out of reach, try carrying a reusable straw with you at all times and abstain from using plastic straws. You can also stop buying plastic water bottles and start using a Berkey filter, which is a great product to naturally filter out heavy metals and other toxins from tap water. Happy Earth Day! Let’s treat the planet like we want it to be around for a while!

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Healing is a term that refers to alleviating symptoms of disease and bodily conditions. This begins from inside the body.

When our bodies are treated kindly and respected, they function more efficiently. Polluting our bodies with things like unhealthy foods and chemical toxins is not the way to health. Harmful man-made chemical like MSG, food colorings and preservatives cause the body to become impaired. This affects both our physical body and our invisible body, or aura.

The Physical Body

Our physical body is the body we see. It is the body that carries us and works for us. This body is what shows the symptoms of sickness and disease. The physical body requires everyday care and maintainance to function properly. Diet, exercise and our lifestyle all affect the body. The physical body and the invisible body work together on many levels. What manifests in the invisible body shows on the physical body.

The Invisible Body

The invisible body refers to our energy. This makes up our biomagnetic sheath or aura. Our physical body is connected with the other bodies by the vortex system known as the chakras. Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or vortex. There are eight main chakras located in a line along the spine. Every chakra corresponds to a major organ of the human endocrine system which regulates human emotion and attitude.

The major chakras can be found in the following locations in the body:

• Bottom of the feet (Earth Chakra)
• Base of the spine (Base Chakra)
• Below the naval (Sacral Plexus Chakra)
• Abdomen (Solar Plexus Chakra)
• Center of the chest (Hermetic Plexus or Heart Chakra)
• Throat (Throat Chakra)
• Between the eyes (Brow Chakra)
• Above the head (Crown Chakra)

Additional chakras can also be found in the palms of the hands, eyes, ears, nose, joints and directly above the head. There are three chakras located directly above the head called:

• Soul Star Chakra
• Casual Center Chakra
• Stellar Gateway Chakra

Chakras are found throughout the entire body. This system of subtle energy channels is the foundation for the meridians, or energy points. These points are used in acupuncture, vibrational medicine, chakra balancing and yoga.

When the chakras are functioning properly the body’s physical and subtle energies are in balance and harmony. Disturbances of this system may lead to physical, emotional, mental and spiritual disturbances or disease.

Healing Naturally

It is important for purposes of natural healing on all levels to know that the human body has subtle energy fields. Working with chakras, meridians and acupuncture points of the body not only influences our emotions, but directly affects the physical body itself. The true basis of disease may be found on the energy level, so the basis of healing also begins on the energy level.

The food we eat has a major role in our health. A diet based largely on meat, dairy and refined foods is an unhealthy diet. The body functions best when given proper nutrition. A plant-based diet, rich in vitamins and mineral is best.

Try adding natural, organic foods to your everyday diet. Green, leafy vegetables are very high in needed nutrients that help to keep our bodies healthy. Be sure to eat plenty of whole foods that have no added chemicals or preservatives. A diet right in whole grains, fruits and vegetables can keep the body working the way it should.

Our environment plays a large part in our health as well. Air and water pollution can negatively affect our health. Harsh, toxic chemicals in the environment may cause our cells to degenerate and can lead to illness.

Learning to be kind to the earth is the first step in creating healthy surroundings. The air we breathe and the water we drink are an everyday part of our health. Take an interest in your surroundings and remember how valuable they are to us all. Treating the earth with respect and care can change the future of our planet.

Recycling is one way you can personally make a difference in the planet. Check with your local government and find out about their recycling programs. Most cities today offer recycling services to their citizens. If your city doesn’t yet offer such services, you may be able to drop off your recyclables to an adjacent town. A little extra work really goes a long way for our environment.

Support businesses and companies that have good earth practices. Many companies now advertise the ways they are helping to take care of the earth. Support businesses that recycle, reduce their consumption and waste, donate to planet-friendly organizations, and support green technology.

Alleviating the symptoms and conditions that ail us begins by keeping our bodies and environment healthy from the start. Knowing our bodies can help us on all levels.

Positive thinking helps our minds to create a healthier being. Our minds are powerful and negative thoughts can lead to negative health. Use your imagination and the power of the subconscious mind to change your health. See yourself as you would want to appear. Carry this image around with you in your mind all the time. See the end result, what you desire to be and how you can get there. Concentrate on the desired result and watch it manifest.

Create change inside and around you. Change the earth and change your health. Health begins when we take steps to better ourselves and the world around us.

Thank you for reading!

This article is compliment of www.dherbs.com.

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