Lower-waste cocktail making

The single biggest reduction available is planning. Choosing three drinks that share a citrus and a syrup wastes dramatically less than three drinks chosen independently, and the site's shopping list and 'use up' links exist precisely for this.

The corollary is to be sceptical of recipes needing one bottle you will not use again. A drink calling for a specialist liqueur is worth making with a substitute unless you genuinely expect to make it repeatedly — the substitution guidance on each recipe exists for exactly this decision.

Citrus is where most of the recoverable value sits. Peel before you juice — the oils in the skin are more aromatic than the juice, and once a lime is squeezed the peel is much harder to work with. Spent shells can be dropped into a long drink for aroma, and peels can be turned into oleo saccharum by covering them in sugar for a few hours and collecting the intensely fragrant syrup that results.

Herb stalks carry flavour and are usually thrown away with the leaves left unused; they can go into a syrup. Pineapple skin, apple cores and berry tops all steep into usable syrups or shrubs rather than going in the bin.

Freezing is the underrated move. Fresh citrus juice freezes acceptably in an ice tray, which turns 'these limes are about to go' into next weekend's drinks rather than compost.

In rough order: buying less that you will not use, using what you buy completely, choosing seasonal and local produce where it is genuinely available, and only then worrying about packaging and single-use items.

It is worth being honest that a home bar's footprint is dominated by the drinks industry's own production and shipping rather than by anything you do with a lime. Reducing waste at home is worth doing and is not the largest lever in the system — overstating it would be its own kind of dishonesty.