If, like us, you’re trying to educate yourself on how to live a more eco-friendly life and reduce your carbon footprint, then a great place to start is in your own kitchen.
We know, it sounds a bit strange, but your kitchen is probably the biggest contributor of waste in your household. If you can make just a few small changes to the way you use and store items in your kitchen, then you can actually have an incredibly big impact on your carbon footprint.
Let’s take a look at 5 small changes you could make today to start reducing your waste and make your kitchen a more eco-friendly place.
- Use refillable storage containers
One of the easiest ways to reduce your waste – specifically your plastic waste – is to use refillable storage containers. These are perfect for items such as pasta, rice, cereals, but also cooking ingredients such as flour, sugar, and spices. If you have a local refill store near you, you can take these labelled containers with you and fill them up in the shop with whatever you need, simply weigh out the contents and then pay for what you need. If you do a lot of home baking, you could even consider buying your own cream whipper – simply pop in your cream chargers, and you’re ready to make your own delicious whipped cream!
- Think about ways you can buy in bulk
If you have a little extra cupboard space, or maybe space in your garage or shed, then why not consider buying some of your groceries or cleaning products in bulk? Not only will this mean less trips to the supermarket for you – and less petrol used! – but you’ll also be going through less packaging, therefore producing less waste.
- Grow your own
Have you noticed how much plastic is involved in the packaging of fruit and vegetables? Why not try growing your own? It’s a lot more simple than you might think, and you don’t need a huge garden either. You can grow your own herbs on a windowsill, grow strawberries in a pot on your balcony, and of course the world is your oyster when it comes to growing your own in your garden! Potatoes and tomatoes are a great place to start, but once you’ve got the hang of it, there’s no stopping you.
- Get rid of wrap
We know how convenient it can be to use cling film or aluminium foil to either wrap up a sandwich or snacks to take on the go, or to preserve half-opened food. But neither are that great for the environment, and both will contribute to the amount of waste coming from your kitchen. So it’s time to get rid of the wrap! Switch it out for lunchboxes, small containers or even beeswax food wrap.
- Make your own
Do you enjoy baking? Have you ever tried baking your own bread? You might be surprised at quite how simple it is. If you’re a bit apprehensive, start simple and try making your own pizza base. Once you’ve mastered that, move on to a basic loaf. There’s a whole world of bread out there for you to discover, including delicious tiger loaves and the more time consuming sourdough too. But you don’t need to stop at just bread! You could try making your own granola for a healthy balanced breakfast, and your own sauces/salad dressings.
We hope we’ve inspired you to start thinking differently about your kitchen and given you some ideas to try around your home. Making eco-friendly changes can take a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve got into the swing of living a greener life, it’ll become second nature.
