Composting is a great way to dispose of fruit and vegetable peels, but here are lots of ways you can creatively reuse peels as food, cleaners, crafts and more.
You can listen to my podcast episode on creative reuse of fruit and vegetable peels in this YouTube video. It originally aired in April 2019.
Baking and Cooking Ideas
Many people reuse citrus peels as a zest for baking.
While camping, bake a muffin or cinnamon roll in half an orange peel.
Bake apple peels and vegetable peels to make a delicious chip snack.
Apple chips
Vegetable chips
Candied banana peels
Banana peels as a meat substitute
Cleaning Ideas with Citrus Peels
Natural insect repellant by putting peels in areas where you see ants or rub peels on your skin to ward off mosquitoes.
Deodorizer by putting peels at the bottom of your garbage can, garbage disposal sink or even in a pair of shoes to add a fresh scent.
Decorating Ideas with Citrus Peels
Votive candle from half an orange peel
Dehydrating Citrus Peels
Dehydrate citrus or apple peels for tea.
Dehydrate citrus peels and grind them up to add to cleansers or a body scrub.
Craft supply by cutting peels into shapes like stars, trees, flowers, animals or any theme you like, punch a hole in them and now you have a long-lasting natural ornament.
Orange peel roses by peeling an orange in one big swirl and then twirling the swirl around itself.
Mix Peels with Vodka or Water
Lemon extract by soaking lemon peels in vodka
Apple juice by boiling peels and cores in water
Apple cider vinegar by soaking peels and cores in sugar and water
Vegetable broth from vegetable peels
Dehydrate peels and grind in a coffee grinder to make a vegetable stock powder
Grow New Veggies from Scraps
Grow fruits and veggies from the parts that are too tough to eat. This works with celery, bok choy, green onions, lettuce, bean sprouts, ginger, pineapple tops and potatoes.
Natural Dyes
Dye egg shells with purple cabbage, red and yellow onion skins, beets and turmeric
Grape Peels
You probably don’t peel too many grapes, but wine makers do and that results in a lot of grape peels. An Italian company named Vegea has figured out a way to make a leather substitute from grape peels, stalks and seeds.
Pineapple Leaves
Piñatex –afiberfrompineappleleaffiber
Artists Who Incorporate Fruit and Vegetable Peels into Their Work
Avocado Stone Carving – An avocado stone breaks in half when you dry it, so you get two sculptures from one stone.
If you would like to try carving an avocado stone, you can check out a video from an artist who shares how she dries the stones and prepares them for carving. For inspiration, check out the hashtag #avocadocarving on Instagram. Some people carve the actual fruit, but most of the results are the stone.
Margaret Dorfman makes dishes, trays and jewelry from 45 varieties of fruit & vegetables.
Chi semina raccoglie makes jewelry from dried citrus peels
Yoshihiro Okada creates animal portraits from citrus peels which he called Orange Origami
Support Organizations Which Make Products from Surplus Produce
For example, there is an organization near me called Fruitcycle which employs women in need to make fruit chips.
Show Details
- Banana peel photo by Julia Kouzenkov, Unsplash
- Trashmagination Pinterest board with ideas about creative reuse of fruit and vegetable peels
- Trashmagination podcast episode about creative reuse of fruit stickers
- Script for this podcast episode about creative reuse of fruit and vegetable peels
- The Trashmagination podcast theme music isKitchenfrom the Marian Circle Drum Brigade.
More Resources
How Orange Peels are Saving the World from Garden Collage magazine
