Going Green? 15 Easy Ways to Have an Eco Friendly Kitchen

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Updated on March 30th, 2021

If you’ve made the decision to start incorporating more eco-friendly and sustainable choices in your life, congratulations! You’ve already made one of the biggest leaps. But the next step may be the hardest- knowing where to start. What better place to start making sustainable choices than having a more eco-friendly kitchen.

The experts have weighed in and they’ve dished their best tips for creating a sustainable and eco-friendly kitchen. Whether you’re living in Miami, FL or Sacramento, CA, find out what easy steps you can take towards a more eco-friendly home. 

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Sustainability starts small. Take the most sustainable step- however small- that is actually sustainable for you in the long run. If you commit to anything too involved, you are more likely to give up. Once you’ve mastered, say, cooking legumes from scratch or cleaning everything with vinegar and baking soda, you can move on to your next goal. My motto is “Doing your best is the least you can do, but it’s also the most you can do.” – Agnes Potier-Murphy, The Tiny Vegan Life

Your morning coffee is a great place to begin. The easiest thing people can start with that will be very impactful is to switch your coffee and tea disposable filters and pods to permanent ones. Even K cups can still be convenient but not harmful to life on our planet. Making this simple adjustment means you are helping to eliminate production of toxic plastics and not using resources to create the item in the first place and then even more to recycle it. – Julie Watkins, The Girls Gone Green

Make sure you’re getting every last bit of what’s in the jar. If it’s a savory or salty product, add some water, close it, shake it around, and add it to a stir fry, pasta, or soup to add some extra flavor. If it’s something more like a nut butter, use it for overnight oats. Not only do you get the most bang for your buck, you’re lessening your carbon footprint and making the container more easily recyclable. – Kailee Walters

Make your own reusable disinfecting wipes. It will help you keep the germs away, save trees and most of all save you money. You need just 4 ingredients: 1 cups of filtered water, 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol), ¼ cup white vinegar, 15 drops of essential oils of your choice, reusable bamboo paper towels + glass jar. Mix all ingredients in your glass jar, place bamboo paper towels inside and close the lid tightly. Keep them handy on your kitchen counter to use on any kitchen and bathroom surfaces  After use wash them in dish soap, hang to dry, or place back in the jar to be used over again. – Kinga Zylinkski, Eco Freax

Switch to reusable cloth rags. My tip would be switching out paper towels for cloth rags. This was my first swap and I immediately realized that I was throwing away less. – Gabrielle L, Fill More Waste Less

Ditch the plastic in any way you can. When your dish brush, scourer, and kitchen sponges are ready for the bin, replace them with sustainable options, which can be composted at their end of life. Bamboo or wooden dish brushes work effectively, as do coconut or copper scourers. We also recommend reusable paper towels for mopping up spills or cleaning stove tops, instead of buying disposable options. They can be used over and over again and will end up saving you money – and caring for the environment. – Celeste Robertson, Director of Natural Supply Co

Opt for paper cartons. I prefer to buy eggs in the paperboard cartons as they are great firestarters for my wood burning stove and not everywhere recycles the plastic ones. I also save and reuse cereal bags from inside the cereal box. They are super durable and hefty, and great for storage or packing food to go. – Kate Schade, Founder of Kate’s Real Food

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Shopping local is where it’s at. At Fresh Harvest, we believe that buying local is the easiest way for beginner cooks to adopt more sustainable and eco-friendly practices in the kitchen. Buying local produce and artisan items not only supports your community but encourages organic, regenerative farming, and the production of artisan goods that are healthy and sustainably packaged. – Fresh Harvest

Consider going vegan. Cooking more plants and fewer animal products is the number one way we can reduce our kitchen’s environmental impact. Challenge yourself to go beyond “Meatless Mondays” and try “Plant-based breakfast,” “Dairy-free Weekdays,” “Vegan After 6,” or “Tofu Thursdays.” By setting a regular pattern, you’ll reduce decision fatigue and grow your sustainable cooking skills faster. – Brigitte Gemme, Chief Meal Planner at Vegan Family Kitchen

Make sure no veggies go to waste. We run a no waste kitchen and one of the best ways to do that is by making veggie soup and freezing it. Veggies that don’t get used up for our weekly meal production are then boiled or roasted and then blended into a 100% vegan, plant powered, satisfying soup. This is a great way to ensure no veggies go to waste and you always have a healthy meal on hand. – Teresa Marie Howes BS, CPT, HHP Holistic Nutritionist & Health Coach, Clean & Colorful Kitchen

Use all your veggie scraps When cooking, put your veggies scraps into a plastic bag in the freezer, collect over weeks, or days, depending how much you cook. Then, when the bag is full; boil it all up into a zero waste veggies stock that is super nutritious and delicious. Great for broths, soups, stews, risottos, anything you’re cooking with really. You can also freeze the stock in smaller batches so you don’t have to use it all at once. I reckon this is genius. Don’t you? – Maria-Carin Gala, Gala’s Organic Kitchen

Make sure to compost. Whether this looks like setting up a bin in the backyard or saving scraps for pickup in your city in exchange for aged compost to use in the garden, composting kitchen scraps not only serves to provide healthful nourishment for homegrown produce, it also encourages home chefs to be more mindful of what they throw away, and of what they purchase as well. – Allison Sidhu, Foodal

Utilize your freezer. If you find yourself with fresh produce that is starting to turn, or if you know you won’t be able to use it before it goes bad, freeze it. Store it in a reusable ziplock bag in the freezer. Frozen fruits and vegetables can be used in smoothies, soups, stir-fry’s and more. – Cortney Seaver, Project-Sunny

Quality over quantity; invest in quality kitchen products that stand the test of time … and many meals. Lodge Cast Iron skillets and NORDIC WARE sheet pans are trusted products for quick and easy one pot meals and sheet pan dinners to feed the family with minimal equipment and time spent. Additionally, clean-up is even easier and you’ll be doing your part to conserve water. – Placemat

Reduce electricity use with wood pellet cookers. We all love cooking tasty foods but also love cooking foods without spiking the utility bills. Statistics show between 20% to 30% of the electricity bill is down to cooking regular foods. We all must try to change the habit of using appliances that threaten our environment, try to use carbon-neutral products, and try to save energy. This eco-friendly kitchen appliance is called “Smart Wood Pellet Cooker Range”, which undoubtedly reduces the use of electricity by reducing the use of microwave ovens, conventional ovens, electric water boilers, and electric stoves. – The Blazing Home

Alison is part of the content marketing team and enjoys writing about housing affordability and home interior design ideas. Her dream home is a cottage-style house with a chef's kitchen and a cozy room to store and play vinyl records.
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