If you’re on a journey to becoming zero waste at home, congratulations! The average US home contains more than 300,000 items—so we could only assume that they contain a lot of waste. Fortunately, having a zero waste kitchen can help to take a big bite out of that number. We’ll help you do exactly that.
How Do You Live with Minimal Waste?
When it comes to living with minimal waste, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to become zero waste overnight. For most people, becoming more of a minimalist is a gradual process, with small steps continuously being taken to
- Avoid plastic packaging
- Cut down use of disposable paper products
- Reduce the amount of products you send to landfills
- Only purchase things that are a true necessity
So, how do you reduce waste in the kitchen?
First, it’s helpful to consider some of your habits and behaviors.
Do you dine out often and have a back-of-the-fridge that’s become home to countless Styrofoam boxes (and their furry contents)? Are most of your kitchen utensils made from plastic? Have paper towels become a permanent fixture in your kitchen?
Once you have a better idea of where you currently stand with regard to kitchen waste, you can take steps to reduce it and consider some zero waste kitchen essentials that could help make your kitchen a little greener. Here are 8 tips to help you out.
8 Tips for a Zero Waste Kitchen
1. Reuse, reuse, reuse
It may be obvious, but it’s worth stating that one of the best zero waste tips is to, well… produce less waste! Reusing products plays a key role in this.
This means saving all of your glass pasta jars to reuse them for storage. If you order take-out and receive it in a food container (which often aren’t recyclable), you should put that to good use for snacks and packed lunches.
If you still have a box of zip-top bags, don’t just toss them because you know that zero waste kitchen products are a better choice! Use them and reuse them until you actually need an eco-friendly replacement.
Many of the single-use things we bring into our kitchens (plastic cups, zip-top bags, plastic cutlery) can be washed and safely reused before you upgrade to something better.
2. Stock up on zero waste kitchen essentials
When you’re in need of something new for your kitchen, make sure that it’s zero waste. In this case, “zero waste” typically means something that is designed to be a reusable alternative to a single-use one, or it’s made with sustainable, recyclable/compostable materials, or it can easily be refilled.
Here are a few examples:
- Refillable All-Purpose Home Cleaner
- Reusable Coffee Filter
- Organic Bamboo Cooking Utensils
- Bamboo Cutting & Serving Board
- Solid Dish Soap
- Bamboo Dish Brush (with Replacement Head)
- Kind Plant-Dyed Apron
3. Buy in bulk
Of all the plastic that’s produced globally, 40% of it ends up as packaging—mostly for food and beverages.
That said, buying in bulk is one of the best ways to have a plastic free kitchen. When you use bulk stores to buy things like grains, nuts, seeds, granola, teas, coffee, and more, you’re doing your part to keep plastic out of your kitchen—while saving money in the process!
4. Plan meals for minimal waste
It’s easy to get carried away in the kitchen. Whether the produce at the farmers’ market looks especially delicious or you find a new recipe that you can’t wait to try out, be mindful about how much potential food waste could be a result of your culinary experimentation.
Be sure to adjust recipes for how many people will be eating and consider shopping more frequently so there’s less chance of food waste. Move all older foods to the front of the refrigerator so they get eaten more quickly, too.
To help preserve your food, some of these sustainable products can be used:
- Plant-Based Food Wrap
- Compostable Cling Wrap
- Citrus Saver Food Huggers
- Reusable Silicone Food Savers
5. Use a compost bin or worm farm
Because some food waste is unavoidable (i.e. apple cores, egg shells, coffee grounds), you can make use of a compost bin or word farm. Indoor compost bins, like the Bokashi bin, are perfect for smaller spaces—meaning that everyone can turn their kitchen scraps into a nutrient-rich amendment for soil!
If industrial compost collection is available in your area, you can use these Fresh Air Compost Bags to store your scraps until collection day.
6. Use better trash bags
Made with 89% recycled post-consumer materials, these Recycled Trash Bags are a far better solution to the conventional type.
7. Break your paper towel addiction
Because it’s naturally biodegradable, paper doesn’t often get the same bad rap as plastic when we think of a sustainable kitchen.
But because we use paper towels like they’re going out of style, perhaps it should.
Every single day, Americans produce more than 3,000 tons of paper towel waste. To produce just one of these tons requires a lot of natural resources—like 17 trees and 20,000 gallons of water.
Fortunately, alternatives in the form of Reusable Rolled Unpaper Towels, Swedish Dishcloths, Organic Unpaper Towels and Reusable Paper Towels work just like their paper counterparts, but can be washed and reused for years before they can eventually be composted.
If every US home replaced just a single roll with these sustainable alternatives, we would save 544,000 trees.
8. Love Your leftovers
If you’re a “I’ll save this for later” kind of person, but find that you never actually get to “later,” you can take some steps to change your perception around leftovers.
Food waste is a HUGE contributor to global warming.
But it doesn’t have to be. Now, it’s easier than ever before to store our leftovers in an eco-friendly way.
You just have to remember to actually eat them!
Dish Up Something Better for Our Planet
With this list of tips for an eco-friendly kitchen, you can cook delicious meals without cooking our planet. Green Eco Dream’s sustainable kitchen collection is here to help you achieve your dreams of a zero waste kitchen. Bon appétit!
To help you with the transition to a more sustainable kitchen are giving you 10% OFF on your first order. Just use code BLOG10 and experience the joy of sustainable shopping!
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Great tips on reducing waste in the kitchen! I especially appreciate the suggestion to use reusable containers instead of disposable plastic bags and cling wrap.