Aside from gathering the freshest, healthiest, most nourishing locally and responsibly grown food for the pantry, I have some sustainable habits that I find help not only minimize the waste, but maximize the output of yummy and fun food.
Here are a few ‘Fresh Ideas’ for your sustainable kitchen:
Recycle
This may seem elementary, but a lot of people don’t realize how much they throw away that could be recycled.
Cardboard – we breakdown EVERY cardboard package and box and put it in a crate where ALL of our junk mail goes.
Plastic – most plastic containers are recyclable. yes, another bin, but saves a lot in the landfills!
Composting – there are a lot of inexpensive and easy products around to help set up a variety of kitchen composting scenarios. I have a stainless steel composting bin and I use compostable bags to help gather all our food scraps to help create luscious soil for the gardens. NOTE: if you don’t have a garden, you can see if there is a local community garden who might be very happy to have your kitchen scraps.
Reuse
Paper Towels – I can’t say we’ve successfully elminiated the use of these handy things entirely, but what we have found is a great local source for 100% recycled content paper towels THAT AREN’T OUTRAGEOUSLY PRICED. Check out Marcal paper products. The amazing thing is that they’ve always used recycled paper! Who knew?
Sponges & Cloth – There are a mess (punn intended) of cool eco-friendly sponges out there, including the Casabella Faucet Sponge and we found these wonderful biodegradable (after several washes) bamboo kitchen towels!
Cloth Napkins – I’ve collected a variety of cloth napkins and have trained my family to reach for them.
Cleaning
I have my favorites, but I use almost exclusively non-toxic, earth-friendly cleaning products for kitchen as well as the rest of the house. See the product comparisons Jen and I did for Relevant Times.
Plastic Baggies – NO. I don’t have plastic bags drying all over my kitchen! However, I did stumble upon an interesting product that helps clean them in the dishwasher! Check out Bag-e-Wash.
This is the first of a series of entries on the Low-Stress Sustainable Kitchen. I would love to hear from readers about their tips for a greener kitchen! Chime in and stay tuned!
plastic bags in the dishwasher? what will they think of next. But seriously I really love the Marcel paper towels – becuase like you said Meg, paper towels are so darned handy i really dont envision giving them up – the toilet paper that company makes is okay too –
Neat, I didn’t realize that Marcal products were recycled. I usually use Seventh Generation products: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/
I love seventh gen also, but was stunned to find out about Marcal. We try to patronize local companies as often as possible and they are in my hood (NY metro/North Jersey). :)
We’ve eliminated paper towels by turning old clothes into rags. I also just picked up some really awesome sponges/cloths at Whole Foods that are cheap, durable, reusable, and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. They’re from http://www.twistclean.com
Really, if I stock up on these, I wouldn’t ever use anything else. You should try them out. Cute sidenote: their minimal cardboard packaging can be turned into birdhouses using directions on the package!