Attribution: via MagnetBox on Flickr

According to the NYC Compost Project , "The average New York City household discards two pounds of organic waste each day—adding up to more than one million tons of organic material a year."

Imagine that number across the entire country, then world. That's a lot of waste.

Here are 8 simple and easy ways that you can give a second life to foods that you were about to throw away.

Preserving Herbs
Herbs are always tricky because you always just need a few leaves or a sprig. How often do you need an entire bushel of herbs? So you buy them for $2-3, pry off what you need, then let the rest rot in your fridge.

This is one reason why I encourage you to start your own garden. If you decide not to, you can still still enjoy your herbs without the waste.

Pick off the leaves and put them into an ice cube tray with some water. The next time your recipe calls for fresh herbs, defrost what you need. That will help to cut down on the waste and supply you with herbs for much longer.

Liven Up Your Brown Sugar
Last week I posted 6 ways to reuse orange rinds . One of the ways was to put rinds into your grainy or clumpy brown sugar. The moisture from the rinds helps to soften up the sugar.

Make Your Own Croutons
If you have bread that's getting stale or close to it's expiration date, put it into the oven or toaster for a bit. Once it's crunchy, take it out and chop up to make croutons. You could also put it into your food processor or blender to make bread crumbs as well.

Dry and Grind Up Your Celery Leaves
Celery leaves are often too bitter for people to eat. Next time you buy some celery, cut the leaves off and dry them out in your oven or dehydrator. When they are done, grind them up and use as a salt substitute.

You could also store the leaves in your freezer to use later on to make a broth.

Keep Vegetable Scraps in Freezer
That was the perfect segue for this tip of saving all of your vegetable scraps and putting them in the freezer - onion peels, corn cobs and all. When you have a full bag, you can use them to make your own vegetable broth for soups.

Banana Bread
Personally, I enjoy my bananas to be brown and mushy, but others do not. Instead of tossing those perfectly usable bananas into the trash make yourself (or someone) some banana bread. Brown bananas are perfect for this.

Other simple ways to save brown bananas are to slice them up and put into the freezer;or add to cookie, cake or pancake batter.

Beer Fondue
If you have flat beer, it's the perfect excuse to break out the fondue set that is collecting dust. Flat beer is a great base to create for your fondues. Now it really is a sin to waste that beer.

Revive Wilted Greens
If you have some wilted greens in your fridge that are looking sad, put them into a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes. Pat them dry and they should start to look more lively.

Those are only 8 simple ways that anyone could easily extend the life of the food that they currently have at home. There are certainly many others.

What are your favorite tips to extend the life of your food?