In the UK, we throw away around nine and a half million tonnes of food waste each year, more than anywhere else in Europe. It's a bleak title to hold, particularly at a time when it feels as though our waste awareness is at a high – there have never been more reminders to shop and cook sensibly, and we'd be willing to bet most of us have taken steps over the last few years to be more mindful. Still, around the world, over a third of all the food produced globally goes to waste, and we don't need to tell you why that's a problem – from the impact on the planet to the economic hit and the moral consequences (around 7% of the UK population is thought to live in food poverty).

We know there are tried and tested ways to cut down on what we waste – making better use of leftovers, being more aware of our portion control, buying more deliberately and not overlooking the potential of byproducts like peelings. But with Zero Waste Week now under way (this year it runs from from Monday 4 to Friday 8 September), we thought it was a good time to remind ourselves of some of those pointers to make sure we're all doing our bit. We should, of course, be striving for zero waste cooking all-year round, but if there's an opportunity to refocus our efforts, we're happy to take it. With that in mind, we've asked some of our top chefs to share the tips and tricks you might not yet have added to to your arsenal. 

Once milk starts to turn it feels like something of a lost cause, but there are ways to avoid tipping it down the sink. 'When your milk is on the verge of turning, or even slightly sour already, you can cook it to save it from going down the plughole,' Joe Fox, group executive head chef at Firmdale Hotels, says. 'Knock up a batch of white sauce which can be used in a host of dishes, or even frozen to use later. Sour milk is also a great marinade, as the acidity and enzymes help tenderise the meat. Marinate chunks of chicken in milk for half an hour before draining and coating in paprika, olive oil, thyme, garlic, and honey before grilling. Lastly, use it to make soda bread, like you would with buttermilk.'

Rather than tossing opened wine which is past its best, Joe suggests transforming it into a versatile syrup which has a much longer shelf life. 'It’s a shame for good wine to go to waste – rather than pouring it away, you can make a red wine syrup that will keep for weeks in the fridge,' he says. 'Using a ratio of three parts wine to one part caster sugar, and simmer for about twenty minutes until the liquid has reduced and started to thicken. Cool and transfer to a sterilised jar and keep in the fridge.' Add the likes of vanilla, black peppercorns and cloves to taste, he says, before drizzling it over berries and grilled stone fruit, swirling it into ice cream and yoghurt or pouring it over pancakes. For more inspiration on ways with wine, head to our recipe collection here.

For Chantelle Nicholson, chef and owner at Mayfair's Apricity, keeping waste down is essential – in 2023, she was awarded a Michelin green star for her forward-thinking work around sustainable cooking. When it comes to what we can do at home, Chantelle says it's about thinking how we can repurpose what would otherwise be wasted – she suggests reusing gherkin brine to pickle other vegetables, for example. And while wilting greens might not be very inspiring in a salad, they can be delicious when blended into a pesto or stirred into soups and stews instead, Chantelle says. Heaps of potato peelings, meanwhile, can become a tasty, home-made snack. 'If you peel your potatoes, ensure the skin is washed first, then you can mix the peel with a little oil and salt and cook until crispy,' she says. Flavour your crisps with whatever takes your fancy, from smoked paprika to a piri piri blend.

Using every part of produce is a well-known building block of zero waste cooking, but there are endless ways to maximise how much we make from a single meal. Robert Chambers, head chef at Luca in Clerkenwell, has a Sunday routine of roasting a whole chicken and, as well as making sure he uses all of the bird itself, takes the chance to create a dressing to use throughout the week. 'When roasting a chicken, add a head of garlic wrapped in foil to the roasting tin,' he says. 'You can then keep the leftover fat and juices, squeeze out the garlic, add a touch of lemon zest, mustard and honey and whisk into a dressing that you can use for a chicken salad to use up the leftover meat.' He'll then roast the bones and sweat down vegetables to make chicken stock; once that's ready, he'll reduce it, intensifying its flavour (and lessening how much space it takes up in the fridge).

More widely, Robert suggest holding onto cooking fats from meat, and infusing them with aromatics (garlic, rosemary, pepper and citrus zests for lamb, he says, or sage, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and lardo for pork) to reuse in future cooking.

When bread starts to go stale, whizz it up into breadcrumbs and freeze them, Joe says. 'Liberally sprinkle these on gratins or use to make your own fish fingers or fishcakes. Mix with Parmesan and dried herbs for a simple stuffing – this is great pressed onto rings of tomatoes, onions and courgettes and baked. You can also add them to flapjacks, adding half the amount of breadcrumbs to oats.' Robert also recommends pan-roasting stale bread into breadcrumbs to use in his leftover roast chicken salad.

For those serious about cracking down on waste, Daniel Watkins, of Dalston's Acme Fire Cult, recommends adding a dehydrator to the kitchen line-up – it's relatively affordable, but well worth the investment, he says. 'You can put in any vegetable trimmings, peelings or anything that’s not looking its best, dry them out, build them up, add a little bit of kombu powder and make your own vegetable stock cube,' he explains. 'You can also dry your fruit out and put them through your granolas. Anything that I can’t use straight away, I’ll dry out. If you have leftover citrus, take the zest, dehydrate it, blend it and you have a beautiful citrus powder – add that to sugar, salt or vinegar.'

When it comes to leftover fruit, Daniel recommends making a shrub (a fruit and vinegar syrup), using equal parts vinegar, fruit and sugar. 'Leave that for a couple of days, strain it off, add soda water to it and you have the most delicious drink,' he nods. 'It’s an especially good use for strawberries when they’ve just started to soften too much – great for cocktails or mocktails.'

A cheong (a sweetened preserve), meanwhile, comes in handy when it comes to fruit husks. 'Cheongs are a great use of citrus fruit husks, for when you’ve made orange juice or something like that – I believe it’s a South Korean method, normally used with stone fruits and plums,' he says. 'Bury it, two-to-one with sugar, leave that for a couple of weeks and you end up with this concentrated citrus syrup which you can use for baking, or add soda water to for a sweet refreshing drink.'

Making use of overlooked vegetable scraps is an easy way to give your cooking an eco-friendly focus. John Chantarasak, chef-owner at AngloThai, which this summer is at Outcrop at 180, says he always pauses to question whether something can be used before it ends up in the bin. 'Usually, you can find a home for it with a bit of inventive thinking,' he says. He keeps a container in the fridge to top up with peels, herb stalks and ends of vegetables, and uses whatever is in there at the end of the day in a vegetable stock.

And when it comes to tired fresh herbs, John whips them into a sauce which can be used in all sorts of other dishes. 'We buy a lot of fresh herbs,' he says, 'and when some are looking past their best I pound with a mortar and pestle with salt, sugar, vinegar and oil to create a salsa verde/chimichurri condiment that can be used on other dishes like steamed fish, grilled steak or on some roasted potatoes.'

Even the most sustainable of restaurants will admit there are always improvements that can be made – we're a long way off understanding what a truly zero waste kitchen might look like, after all. But by taking a few extra minutes here and there and giving how we cook a little extra thought, we can all make changes that will dramatically reduce how much food ends up in the bin.