Are you striving to cut-down on waste in your kitchen? You’re not alone. More and more people have stated that purchasing less wasteful products, and tossing out less food is high on their list of to-do’s for 2019. Kitchens have the power to accumulate A LOT of waste - from food, to packaging and single-use items, cleaning items, if you aren’t conscious of controlling or reducing waste it can really get out of control. Where do you start? Well, one idea is to perform a trash audit (how fun does that sound!!?) haha, but in all seriousness, this is an easy task - just take one week to be fully conscious of what you are tossing, mark it down, take a few pics on your phone, and at the end of the week you’ll get a good sense of what pesky items are contributing to your weekly waste. You might be surprised!

Another easy step is to replace wasteful items with zero waste alternatives. We’ve created a list of eco-friendly swaps you can make. These are easy, affordable and will truly make a difference. Read on for our ideas.  

PAPER TOWELS

Bar none, these are one of the biggest contributors to kitchen waste. Several years ago I caught myself going through almost a roll a day and realized something needed to change. I know I am not alone here. On average, its estimated that just a 2 person household uses over 50 pounds of paper towel a year. Wow. Now consider a houseful of 4, or 6, or more...that is a lot of paper towel.

So what do we swap these out with?  Reusable towels of course!

Shop them at https://www.ifyoucare.com/household/reusable-paper-towels/

SPONGES

For some reason, when we toss out a sponge we rarely consider where it's ending up. It seems pretty innocent and small, and we usually toss them out a few times a month so the damage is pretty small right? Thing again. A year's worth of sponges used in a household can live in a landfill for up to 52,000 years. My brain literally cannot even comprehend that length of time.

Now knowing this, its time to swap out these bad boys for some zero waste alternatives. Why not check out this plant-based sponges fromhttp://twistclean.com/

EXCESS FOOD

Excess food waste is the biggest culprit for kitchen waste. Did you know approximately 60 million tons of food get sent to the landfill each year? That equals around  $160 billion. What makes this worse is that food that ends up in a landfull have a chance to properly decompose and add nutrients to the earth. So how do we fix this at the home-level? Well for starters...

1. Shop with a pre-planned out list
2. Save – and actually eat – leftovers
3. Avoid clutter in your fridge, pantry and freezer
4. Treat expiration and sell-by dates as guidelines
5. Use packaging that helps keep food fresh longer..

Speaking of packing, we love these green bags that help keep produce fresh longer. You know that avocado which seems to only have a 3 hour shelf life? Now you can prolong its freshness naturally and not be forced to toss it out, and resuse the bags up to 10 times. Win win. Get them here  https://www.evertfresh.com/

PLASTIC WRAP

Can we just admit that plastic wrap really sucks? Not only is it super wasteful, but it’s also a pain in the ass to use. I can't even count how many times a roll of saran wrap has become so tangled and stuck to itself the roll is completely rendered useless..or you actually get your fingers on a bit of it, but then it tears incorrectly and only covers half of what you’re trying to seal off? LETS STOP THE MADNESS. So what’s a good alternative?  Waxwrap! This stuff is so cool, and it’s legitimately fun to use! It's basically wax that molds into a shape when you warm it and can be spread over bowls.You can buy it here at BeesWrap https://www.beeswrap.com/

PAPER & PLASTIC SERVEWARE

North American’s love their cook-outs, picnics, and parties. Any excuse to gather together and chow down on food seems like a good idea right? Well yes, but a lot of the time these events also use harmful plastic and paper plates, bowls and cutlery. We get it, you don’t want to do a hundred dishes after hosting a party - that's no fun nor is it practical. So what’s a zero waste alternative you can use - well our Naturally Chic Palm Leaf dinnerware of course!

Since we launched our store a few years back we have had a loyal client base who continues to purchase our products for their parties and events, not only because they are zero waste, but they also look really cool and are super sturdy also!  Our palm leaf plates and bowls and biodegradable cutlery are perfect for any occasion and will seriously reduce your waste!

Shop the collection here

We hope this list of ideas has inspired you to make a few small changes in your kitchen. We highly believe in small changes making a big difference, so give a few of these a try and you’ll start to see your kitchen waste go down in no time.