The zero-waste movement gained force in the industry when chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City launched his WastED pop-up in 2015, offering tasty ways to repurpose food scraps into burgers, salads, fish and chips and other dishes. He and others brought awareness to the alarming statistic that nearly half of the U.S. food supply ends up getting dumped, according to Feeding America, a hunger relief organization.
Producers, farmers and other food suppliers are now partnering with restaurants nationwide to rescue this trash, offering up bruised and misshapen produce, overripe fruit, spent grain, whey from cheese-making and other ingredients that normally would be tossed. And operators are redoubling efforts to save vegetable peels and stems, meat trim and other discards to turn them into inventive dishes and drinks. Here are four of the more unique edible solutions to the waste problem.