7 ways to move towards a zero waste kitchen

A kitchen is a place where we cook with our families, make great memories around the dinner table, celebrate milestones, and produce a lot of garbage. When you consider how much food we throw away, the final one is a big bummer. The kitchen is usually the most popular place to begin your zero-waste journey, due to the fact that it is the most wasteful. If not properly handled, your kitchen may become the garbage generator in your home, creating hazardous plastics, food waste, and even poisonous substances. In general, the goal of a no-waste kitchen is to limit waste creation while satisfying our needs responsibly.

Because the zero-waste lifestyle is all about decreasing our environmental impact, it is also vital to consider optimizing for resource consumption in areas such as water and electricity use, which we will go over in further detail in our zero-waste kitchen recommendations. You may think of it as optimizing for reusability, waste minimization, and efficiency.

Shop seasonally and eat locally

Eating locally first involves picking food that is grown and harvested near to where you live and then transported over shorter distances than usual. The ability to eat locally is determined by your region’s production capacity. People who live in agriculturally productive areas generally have a diverse selection of local foods to choose from. Those of us who live in colder, sparser places are likely to have fewer alternatives.

Eating locally is not only tasty, but it is also healthy! Ripe fruits and vegetables have the highest nutrients since their plant cells begin to shrink and their nutrients decline the moment they are harvested. Supermarket produce is cultivated and processed with the goal of increasing shelf life rather than nutritional value. These items have been carried over vast distances and are frequently waiting in distribution centers before arriving at the shop and finding their way onto the shelves.

While purchasing vegetables at supermarkets is simple, it is sometimes wrapped in packaging, might be slathered in pesticides, and is typically expensive. Farmers’ markets, on the other hand, allow you to buy fresh vegetables without packaging and to shop seasonally. You may also interact with the farmers and ask them questions about how they cultivate the products they offer. Over the years, you may have made friends with a few farmers that are either organic or do not spray their crops.

Bring your own reusable bags, jars, and containers

Bringing your own containers is becoming more popular as people seek unconventional ways to limit the amount of plastic garbage they generate. The most difficult obstacles to achieving a sustainable, zero-waste lifestyle are psychological in nature. It might be tough to break old habits. When we go shopping, we often forget to carry reusable bags to replace single-use plastic bags. Forging new habits is an important aspect of learning to live more sustainably. 

Here are some tips for those last-minute shopping trips when you absolutely need a few of garlic cloves but forgot to pack a bag:

• Making room for reusable bags within bags (such as purses) that we are accustomed to carrying most of the time.
• Hanging reusable bags near your front door so you can see them and quickly pick them up as you leave the house.
• If you don’t have a bag, ask the grocer if they have any old boxes or paper bags from suppliers that you may reuse. Most of the time, they’re pleased to offer you a box.

When it comes down to it, you just need to be more organized and prepared when doing your grocery shopping. To get a sense of how many items you plan to buy for the week, make a grocery list separated by the supermarket, farmers’ market, and bulk foods shop. This also influences how many shopping bags, cartons, and jars are required. Also, bulk shopping and limiting food waste go hand in hand. Bulk purchasing allows you to purchase only what you need in your own containers. 

Plant your own herbs

Unless you shop entirely at the local farmers’ market, it will be difficult to obtain package-free leafy herbs like parsley, coriander (cilantro), thyme, and the like.
This is when growing your own herbs comes in handy. It’s one of the simplest plants to cultivate and may be managed in tiny places. So, whether you have a planter box, a pot plant, or a veggie patch, there is always space for growing herbs and saving money on packing.

Many of us are turning to the garden as a new, mindful way to spend our time at home, whether it’s nurturing plants in containers, beginning a vegetable patch, or developing a herb garden. Growing your own herbs, from savory basil to fragrant lavender, can be quite fulfilling, not to mention useful in the kitchen. As we become more conscious of the environment and where our food comes from, there’s something intriguing, delicious, and reassuring about preparing something you’ve grown yourself.

Growing your own parsley, rosemary, or mint eliminates the need to buy those cellophane-wrapped fresh herbs from the store, which go bad within a few days, resulting in waste. However, keep in mind that growing herbs at home involves some skill and is depending on your environment. So, if you want to gain the benefits of producing your own herbs, be prepared to be patient.

Make creative zero-waste meals out of your food leftovers

Making extra food from our food leftovers is one inventive way we can all decrease food waste.  Keep them for smoothies, soups, or stock, such as vegetable or chicken broth. Your carrot tops, orange peels, onion skins, strawberry tops, and other products are about to get a second chance to continue their life cycle.

When you kicked the plastic, one of the goods you had to find substitutes for was vegetable broth. You could make a lot of food from scratch even before we reduced our use of plastic. When you cook this way, you end up with a lot of vegetable scraps—celery parts, onion ends, tomato cores, bell pepper fragments, corn cobs, and so on. Start storing these scraps to create a broth. Making vinegar is another method to utilize fruit waste. Fill a jar halfway with scraps, add a tablespoon of sugar, cover with water, secure with a lid or cloth, stir daily, wait, and drain.

Homemade veggie chips are crisp, addictive, and far less difficult to create than you may think. They are far preferable to store-bought packaged varieties, which frequently include additives. Make them using leftover root vegetables from other dishes, such as Brussels sprouts’ tough outer leaves, sweet potato ends, beet trimmings, and carrot scraps. 

Compost your leftover food scraps 

Composting is the next best choice for all of your food waste that can’t be transformed into recipes. There are several reasons to compost. Conserve money, save resources, enhance your soil, and minimize your environmental effect. Composting is a win-win situation regardless of your purpose. It’s beneficial for you and the environment. 

Composting is the natural process of converting organic materials like leaves and food scraps into a beneficial fertilizer that may nourish soil and plants. Compost is the decomposed stuff that results, which frequently looks like fertile garden soil. Compost, often known as “black gold” by farmers, is high in nutrients and may be utilized in gardening, horticulture, and agriculture.

Compost not only fertilizes your garden but also nourishes your soil with a variety of nutrients and microbes that promote plant development. Chemical fertilizers, on the other hand, deliver a concentrated burst of a restricted amount of nutrients that can wash into our rivers and streams. Compost also enhances soil stability, drainage, and moisture retention.

Composting our own trash instead of throwing it away is an eco-friendly way to reduce what we send to the landfill for your own personal benefit. You may now cut your rubbish by more than 30 percent by dumping those leftovers into a compost bin, which will naturally transform them into an organic, nutrient-rich fertilizer that you can utilize to grow even more veggies.

Repurpose when possible

Be creative in your kitchen and repurpose your old kitchen items.  Everyone in the house has a lot of unique pieces that are too old to use. You may modify that by using your imagination to create something unique for your house. For example, you may repurpose your old kitchenware into a container for family photos or a towel rack. Make a beautiful ceiling lamp out of an old colander. They may also be used as flower pots in the garden. Another way to put your tea cups is to use them to make a lovely lamp for your kitchen.

Large water or juice containers make excellent freezer packs. Simply clean them, fill them with water, and freeze them. They are often rectangular in shape, which fits well in coolers while going on outdoor activities, having a BBQ, or arranging for fall tailgates.

Tiny spice jars may be used to exhibit your rock and sand collection or as a vase for smaller cut flowers and foliage. In the kitchen and bathroom, use glass and plastic containers for storage. They can be used for grains, beans, or cotton balls. If you enjoy baking, you could even have some sourdough starter growing in a Classico spaghetti sauce container. There is a lot of old kitchen equipment that is no longer usable, but you have alternative options besides getting rid of it. Recycling and repurposing, for example, is a great option and a smart method to enhance their value. Simply letting your creativity run wild and investing some time in dealing with those old materials will result in unique decorations or a handy organizer for little and dirty items.

Sustainable cleaning tips for your kitchen

Sponges, brushes, rags, and detergents are common kitchen cleaning supplies. Unfortunately, the majority of traditional sponges and brushes on store shelves are composed mostly of plastic. While cleaning businesses have made tremendous progress in favoring natural detergents over hazardous formulae, they are still packed in plastic bottles.

The idea here is to buy it in bulk and refill your daily-use bottles at home or to take your bottles to your local bulk store and obtain refills there. Dishwashing liquid, laundry powder and liquid, dishwasher powder, all-purpose cleaner, disinfectant, bathroom cleanser, and white vinegar are typical goods available in bulk stores. Not only does it save you money, but it also lasts a long time. When you’re finished with the container, you may reuse it for anything else or donate it to the co-op if someone else wants to use it to buy their things in bulk.

Another useful tip is to be creative with your cleaning products. You might use a natural soap bar to make the process of washing dishes or cleaning simpler. Simply place a bar of this soap in the kitchen sink before filling it with water. When you have enough suds, remove the bar from the water. Without any extra work, you’ll have a sink full of sudsy water to hand wash your dishes with!
 
Whether it’s a thorough spring cleaning or a weekly cleaning routine, it’s possible to create (nearly) no trash – and to accomplish big things with the cheapest, most natural, and least expensive methods! It is critical to understand why this is so critical and what methods may be utilized to reach this goal. Reusable alternatives, DIY cleaning supplies, and long-lasting gadgets can undoubtedly aid you in your attempt!