The average American discards roughly 82 pounds of clothing and textiles each year — and most of it lands in a landfill. According to the EPA, more than 17 million tons of textiles were generated as municipal solid waste in 2018, a figure the U.S. Government Accountability Office confirmed was more than 50% higher than in 2000 due largely to the rise of fast fashion. And the recycling rate for clothing and footwear? Just 13%.

Denim is one of the most salvageable things in that waste stream. Because authentic jeans are made mostly from cotton, a natural, biodegradable fiber, they can be recycled into building insulation, pet bed inserts, and thermal packaging, or given a second life through resale and creative reuse.

Here are five ways to put your worn-out jeans to work, and have some fun doing it.

1. Your unwanted denim can be turned into insulation.

Cotton Incorporated’s Blue Jeans Go Green program has been recycling denim into insulation since 2006. Since then, the program has collected more than 5 million pieces of denim and diverted over 2,290 tons of textile waste from landfills. That recycled fiber gets processed into UltraTouch™ Denim Insulation by Bonded Logic — used in homes, thermal packaging, and pet bedding — with some insulation donated each year to building projects in communities in need.

The program accepts any denim item (jeans, jackets, skirts, shirts) that’s at least 90% cotton, in any condition. Drop off locations include Anthropologie, which has committed to diverting 10 tons through the program, and a rotating list of retail partners you can find on the Blue Jeans Go Green recycle page.

You can also mail denim directly to the program at Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green™ Program c/o Phoenix Fibers – CIMI, 400 East Ray Road, Chandler, AZ 85225 (a free prepaid label program ended in August 2025, so you’ll need to cover shipping).

Madewell’s denim trade-up program is one of the most practical ways to close the loop on old jeans, regardless of the brand. Drop any pair of jeans of any cut, color, or condition at a Madewell store and receive $20 off a full-priced pair of Madewell jeans. The program is year-round with no limit on how many pairs you bring in.

The program has collected more than 2.3 million preloved pieces. Gently worn jeans are resold through Madewell Forever, the brand’s resale platform with ThredUp; jeans beyond repair are recycled into housing insulation and sustainable packaging via the Blue Jeans Go Green partnership.

You can also mail in denim with a free Clean Out Kit or shipping label if you don’t have a Madewell nearby.

2. Turn your denim into a pair of shorts.

This is probably the easiest way to repurpose a pair of jeans. Even if you don’t sew, you can make long jeans into shorts. Get a pair of sharp scissors, figure out where you want to cut, and then enjoy your new shorts. Remember the old saying, “measure twice, and cut once.” If you’re a sewer (or good with a glue gun), check out this tutorial by Craft & Creativity for some adorable additions to cutoffs.

3. Upcycle your denim into a reusable bag.

One of my favorite ways to upcycle denim is by making reusable bags. You can use the bags as an adorable way to package a gift, as a purse, and as a reusable grocery carrier, just to name a few. I also found this creative phone charging bag. This is another project that could be done simply with a glue gun or, if you don’t have one, some craft glue.

4. Upcycle your denim into some sweet friendship bracelets.

One of my girls’ favorite projects is to upcycle material, including denim, into friendship bracelets. They are able to use their creativity and make each bracelet a special work of art. First, gather supplies like fun buttons, embroidery floss, and any other embellishments you may have on hand. Then cut the denim into strips.

Next is where the fun really begins. Let your kids use their imaginations to dream up some adorable ways to decorate their friendship bracelets. They could even begin by sketching out their ideas so you know how to help them make their vision a reality.

Your kiddos can wear their bracelets proudly and give them as gifts.

Need more ideas on how to upcycle your worn denim? Visit this helpful Pinterest board.

5. Make a craft supply holder with your unwanted jeans and some cans from the recycling bin.

This is a great idea for anyone who wants to organize their craft supplies in one spot. You could make it a kid-friendly craft supply holder by including washable markers, colored pencils, safety scissors and glue sticks. Add a handle and this could be a great way to bring craft supplies on the road with you. I found this example at 8Trends.com.

Denim scraps also work well as ties for garden plants, drawer liners, coasters (backed with felt), small coin pouches, and journal covers. Because denim frays attractively rather than looking ragged, even imperfect cuts tend to look intentional. There’s also a growing community of textile artists on Pinterest’s denim upcycle boards with ideas organized by skill level and material quantity.

Your old jeans are too valuable to throw away. If they’re still wearable, donate them to a local thrift store or trade them in at Madewell. If they’re worn out, recycle them through Blue Jeans Go Green — or cut them into something new. Use Earth911’s Recycling Search to find textile recycling drop-off spots near you.

Editor’s Note: Originally published by Wendy Gabriel on February 6, 2017, this article was updated in April 2026. Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock.com.

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Last Updated on April 21, 2026

Did you know the average couple spends $800 a month on groceries (USDA)? That’s approximately $200 a week on food!

And it’s only going to get worse. According to the USDA, in 2026, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.6 percent.

But there’s hope – my husband and I eat a low waste, nutrient-dense, plant-forward diet that comes to $300 a month. And yes, there are a few major hacks that make a difference *ahem – dry beans.*

But the truth is, it all starts with a solid grocery budgeting plan. If you want to lower your grocery bill too, here are all my tips, including grocery budgeting, where to shop, what to make yourself, and more!

grocery budgeting

Creating a budget for groceries is the first step to understanding where all your money is going. Ask yourself, how much are you willing to spend on food each week? How much can you feasibly put aside?

This will vary depending on how many mouths you have to feed, how often you cook from home, and what you like to make. It helps knowing your specific eating habits too. For example, I know I’m going to want Mexican-inspired dishes at least once a week, so I prepare for that.

I find sticking to cash helps me budget better. Instead of simply putting everything on a card, I’m making sure I don’t go over budget by having a physical limit.

Before you leave the house, remind yourself how much you’re going to spend at the grocery store. If you plan on going to multiple spots (ex: farmers market, bulk bins, grocery store, etc.), designate how much you feel comfortable spending in those areas.

For example, if you like to visit the farmers market year-round, you’ll probably notice there’s more of a selection in the summer/fall months, so your budget for that may go up. Because who doesn’t want in-season strawberries? So setting aside $50 for the market during peak seasons, and $20 for the rest of the year, may help.

I also recommend always counting how much you have left after each store visit. Did you spend more or less than your budget accounted for? Will you put any leftover money towards next week’s grocery haul?

Example grocery budget for family of 2 for $100 per week:

• $30 for protein (tofu, black beans, eggs, etc.)
• $25 for produce (bananas, apples, carrots, celery, onion, potatoes, etc.)
• $20 for grains (Rice, pasta, oatmeal, etc.)
• $15 for dairy (Gallon of plant-based milk, coconut yogurt, etc.)
• $10 for pantry/snacks (crackers, popcorn, seasonings, etc.)

*This is just an example to give you a visual on how much you may want to spend on different categories. But every family’s needs are different and will vary!

Pro tip: If you eat meat, try to buy them in bulk packs, and get inexpensive cuts, like ground meat, or bone-in chicken. Buying bone-in, skin-on means you’re not paying someone to do the trimming, making it more economical. Also, shredded cheese tends to be pricer than blocked for the same reason – you’re paying someone to do the work for you!

where to shop

Knowing where to shop is half the battle: We buy our spices at a local market and they’re so much cheaper there. We also buy a lot of our foods in bulk from Costco where you can buy a giant bag of rice or flour.

It’s so much cheaper to buy dry beans than canned. I’ll make a giant batch of beans, pop them in the freezer, and pull them out any time I want. Same level of convenience, but with less than half the cost.

Hitting up local farmers markets for in-season produce can save a buck too.

It takes more water and resources to grow a tomato in the winter (think greenhouse expenses) than it does during the summer when they’re prolific. When there’s an abundance, farmers tend to sell at lower rates to entice us to buy!

Shopping at bulk bins can reduce cost too, because you can get only what you need. For example, instead of buying a huge pack of quinoa for a recipe you’re making, you can grab a cup’s worth. Or whatever the recipe entails!

make it yourself

We make a lot of kitchen staples too, like bread. We love supporting local bakeries but buying half a loaf of sourdough bread, sometimes twice a week, would cost $7. Which is $14 a week on bread, $700 a year.

Our appliances like our breadmaker, crockpot, and instantpot all came from our Buy Nothing group. We use them constantly which massively lowers our grocery bill.

My breadmaker makes delicious loaves of bread in just a few hours. I just add everything into it, adjust the settings, and let it handle things from there. Here’s my go-to recipe:

• 2 tsp of bread machine yeast
• 3 TBSP of olive oil
• 2 TBSP of Sugar
• 1 cup + 2TBSP of water
• 3 Cups of flour
• tsp of salt

I also make a lot of other kitchen staples like broth, vinegar, vanilla which leads to tons of savings. You can make your own condiments and nut butters too if you have the time.

I also love versatile produce/pantry items! For example, in fall I always get a pumpkin for decor, which I end up cooking to make homemade pumpkin puree. It can be used in so many different recipes like pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread. And I also get roasted pumpkin seeds out of it!

Year round, some pantry staples are ridiculously easy to make, like powdered sugar (literally just blend granulated sugar in a blender) and brown sugar (mix white sugar with molasses).

If you’re in a pinch, you can also make your own oat flour. Just blend oats in a food processor until the particles are a fine powder. You can store it in an air-tight container for 3 months and use it in all kinds of recipes.

RELATED: 20 Things To Make At Home Instead of Buying

use coupons and sales

Look for discounts wherever you can find them. You may be able to download your local grocery store’s mobile app for exclusive deals.

At the very least, it can be easier to see the price difference between brands. You can plan meals around what’s on sale, like that half-priced can of tomato sauce.

My grocery store often runs sales on basic things like $2 for 5lbs of potatoes, carrots, and onions at the end of the month. I always stock up when they’re on sale.

There are also some grocery stores that sell discounts on ‘imperfect’ produce. AKA, produce that’s still perfectly good but doesn’t meet grocery store beauty standards (maybe it has a blemish or a wacky shape).

These ‘blemished’ produce items may come wrapped in plastic, but keeping food out of landfills kind of cancels out the packaging waste.

Also, be sure to check out resources like Too Good To Go – their app is the world’s largest marketplace for surplus food. You can help rescue food near you, all at half price or less.

choose low-cost staples

Meat is one of the more expensive items. Alternatively plant based sources of protein are less expensive, provide more fiber, are one of the most consumed foods in the blue zones, and they happen to be the best bang for your buck.

Choosing low-cost staples like beans, rice and frozen produce will help you stretch your bills. These items are also incredibly versatile as they can be used in so many dishes, from burritos to soups to stir fries.

Here’s a list of low cost staples you should consider stocking your pantry with:

• Grains + pasta (brown rice, oats, quinoa, popcorn kernels, whole wheat pasta, etc.)
• Beans (black, pinto, garbanzo, cannellini beans, etc.)
• Legumes (red, green or brown)
• Oil (coconut, olive, avocado oil, etc.)
• Nuts and seeds (peanuts, sunflower seeds, etc.)
• Canned goods (peeled tomatoes, cut vegetables, etc.)
• Baking staples (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, maple syrup, coco powder, etc.)
• Spices + seasonings (onion + garlic powder, paprika, etc.)

Pro tip: For snacks, you can cut down on a lot of money if you make your own, using what’s in your pantry. For example, making homemade chocolate muffins from your baking stash or using popcorn kernels instead of bagged popcorn. Melted butter and salt goes a long way!

What do you think of these grocery budgeting hacks? Let me know in the comments!

The post How I Cut My Grocery Bill to $300 a Month appeared first on Going Zero Waste.

How I Cut My Grocery Bill to $300 a Month

Each year, the U.S. discards 38 to 40 percent of its food, a stubbornly high figure. Yet, other countries like the Czech Republic, Israel, and Denmark show promising solutions that American cities are beginning to adopt.

The global challenge is similarly daunting. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about one-third of all food produced for people worldwide is lost or wasted each year. This is not just a moral issue, since so many people go hungry, but also a big climate problem. Project Drawdown lists cutting food waste as one of the top three ways to fight climate change. Some countries have been working on this for years and offer lessons for others.

Czech Republic: Rooted in Preservation Culture

Home-grown produce from backyard vegetable gardens supplements family meals throughout the Czech Republic. Residents tend fruit trees, greenhouses, and chicken coops. Many rent municipal allotment plots to use as supplemental gardens. Home composting is common and deeply normalized.

Czechs don’t just eat what their gardens yield—they savor the adventure! During mushroom and wild garlic season, families head outdoors to forage together. Extra produce finds a second life as jams or pickles, or gets frozen and fermented into tangy cabbage. Got leftover fruit? Send it to a local distillery for a splash of homemade liquor. Even stale bread avoids the bin, reborn as crispy breadcrumbs straight from your kitchen.

Apps like Nesnězeno let Czech restaurants, bakeries, cafés, and grocery stores sell extra food as discounted ‘rescue bags,’ priced 50 to 70% below retail — for pickup before closing. This connects surplus food with local buyers looking for a good deal. By the end of 2024, Nesnězeno had 1,487 partner businesses, a 132% increase from the year before, and had expanded across all Czech regions. Prague led with 239,000 rescued packages (41% of the total), followed by South Moravian and Pilsen, according to MediaGuru.

The app has been downloaded by more than 3 million users and has saved over 3 million packages of unsold meals overall.

The Czech Republic’s recycling rate for municipal waste went up from 32% in 2017 to 44% in 2021, just below the EU average. However, separating and collecting food waste is still inconsistent. A new national program for collecting kitchen animal-based waste, starting in 2026, aims to fix this.

Israel: Food Rescue as National Resilience

Food and water security in Israel are inseparable from politics. Leket Israel, the country’s largest food bank, pursues a mission of “food rescue” that serves Israelis regardless of background, coordinating with farms, packing houses, hotels, and catering operations to redirect surplus food to 200 nonprofits serving those in need.

Bustling outdoor food markets are traditional fixtures in Israeli cities, bringing consumers closer to the source of their food. In such busy places, edible food regularly ends up on the ground. Volunteers with Leket collect leftovers to distribute to people in need.

Leket released its 10th annual Food Waste and Rescue Report in late 2025. The report showed that Israel threw away 2.6 million tons of food, or 39% of what it produced, similar to the U.S. This wasted food was worth about $7 billion, or 1.3% of the country’s GDP. Still, there has been progress: food waste per person dropped 13.3% over the last ten years, from 300 kg to 260 kg per year. This improvement is thanks to more public awareness, serving food on individual plates in cafeterias, and more online food orders. But population growth and higher food prices have kept the total amount of wasted food high.

Leket and its partners now rescue about 45,000 tons of food each year, 2.25 times more than a decade ago. Still, this is only 5% of the food that could be saved in Israel. The Food Donation Encouragement Law, first passed in 2018, was updated in 2024 to give more legal protection to donors and require large public institutions to donate food.

In September 2025, Israel released its first national plan to cut food loss and waste, written by the Ministries of Environmental Protection and Agriculture. This was a big step toward better policy coordination. Israeli AgTech companies are also known worldwide for using technology to reduce food waste. For example, Sufresca makes edible coatings to keep produce fresh longer, and Taranis uses drones and AI to spot crop problems early.

Denmark: Culture as Infrastructure

In Denmark, people often leave free food in boxes on the sidewalk. Signs in front of homes might offer free apples or potatoes, or eggs for sale using the honor system. There are also Facebook groups in every major Danish city for dumpster diving, where people collect edible food that supermarkets throw away after the best-by date.

Supermarkets in Denmark lower prices on food that is close to its best-by date, especially baked goods, which are marked down every evening after 7 or 8 p.m. Food producers and supermarket chains work with groups like Too Good To Go and WeFood, Denmark’s first surplus food supermarket, to sell rescued food at big discounts. Chains like REMA 1000, Coop, and LIDL have also stopped offering bulk-buy discounts that encouraged people to buy more than they needed.

Too Good To Go started in Copenhagen in 2015 and has grown quickly. In 2023, the app saved 121.7 million meals worldwide, up 46% from 2022, and helped prevent about 362,000 tons of CO2 emissions. The app now works in over 17 countries and has more than 85 million users.

The WeFood surplus grocery network, which began as a single location in Copenhagen in 2016, has grown to six stores across Denmark. And a voluntary national commitment, “Denmark Against Food Waste,” united more than 25 food producers and retailers behind a shared goal of halving food waste by 2030. An independent third party measures and publishes annual progress.

What the U.S. Has Borrowed

Some of the ideas first used in these three countries are now catching on in the United States. However, there are still big challenges slowing progress.

Too Good To Go started in the U.S. in late 2020 and has been growing ever since. By mid-2025, the app was available in almost half of U.S. states, including cities such as Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle. The number of meals saved grew by 67% each year. In 2024, Circle K convenience stores joined the app nationwide. Too Good To Go now also works with big chains like Whole Foods, Peet’s Coffee, and Just Salad.

Since 2020, most progress on food waste in the U.S. has happened at the state level. In 2024, 29 states introduced 100 distinct food waste bills, and 18 passed. California’s SB 1383, which started in 2022, brought organics collection to 94% of communities and rescued 217,000 tons of surplus food in 2023. Washington state also passed a major law in 2022, requiring businesses that generate large amounts of organic waste to compost or arrange for collection.

Federal legislation has moved slowly. As of 2024, 13 pending federal food waste bills were before Congress, including the bipartisan Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, which would standardize confusing “best by” and “sell by” date labeling  — but none had passed. The lack of national date-label standards is a key driver of household waste, as consumers discard food that is still safe to eat.

In 2015, the U.S. promised to cut food waste in half by 2030. But a 2025 study in Nature Food found that the amount of food wasted per person in 2022, at 328.5 pounds, was about the same as in 2016. The study said that no state is on track to meet the federal goal with current policies. It also pointed out that the U.S. focuses too much on recycling food waste instead of preventing or rescuing it. In contrast, Denmark and the Czech Republic work to keep food from becoming waste in the first place, while U.S. policy mostly deals with food after it’s already lost.

What You Can Do

• Download Too Good To Go or a similar app to save extra food from restaurants and grocery stores in your area.
• Volunteer at a local food bank to help get rescued food to people who need it. You’ll also learn more about food inequality in your community.
• Check out local CSAs and farmers’ markets to help cut down on food lost in big supply chains.
• Composting at home is a simple way to recycle food scraps. If you live in an apartment, see if your city has a compost drop-off program.
• Ask your supermarket to start marking down food that is close to its best-by date. This is common in Denmark but not in the U.S.
• Reach out to your congressional representatives and ask them to support the Food Date Labeling Act. Standardized date labels could make a big difference at the national level.
• Use the Earth911 recycling search tool to find recycling and food drop-off options near you.

Editor’s Note: Originally written by Chloe Skye on March 10, 2020, this article was substantially updated in April 2026.

The post 3 Countries’ Food Waste Strategies: What Can They Teach Us? appeared first on Earth911.

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