Four Steps to a Sustainable Kitchen

Sustainable living, of course, starts at home. And where is the heart of the home? The kitchen. Making progress towards a sustainable kitchen can take time, but it is really worth the effort. Not only is it fun it is to have a sustainable kitchen, but it is also cost effective, and will really help the environment.

As the season for spring cleaning is just around the corner why don't you make some of these sustainable kitchen swaps today?

All of the products I am going to write about today will have links to websites where you can buy them.

Step One: Sustainable Cleaning Products

Cleaning products are of course essential in a kitchen. Unfortunately they are often unsustainable, which is something widely undiscussed. However, there are products that do exist which are sustainable and help the planet.

Unfortunately the majority of sold cleaning surface wipes are not biodegradable. For these products it could take 100 years or more for them to decompose in landfills.

One great cleaning product available in the UK is ‘Ecozone Anti-bac Multi Surface Wipes’

These are vegan

Kill 99.9% of bacteria

100% biodegradable

Compostable bin liners, recycled aluminium foil and rubber gloves made from fair trade rubber are all also available to purchase and are all environmentally friendly.

‘Biobag Compostable Bin Liners with Handles’ are eco-friendly and are great for composting as the bag will decompose along with the waste in your bin

‘If You Care Recycled Aluminium Foil’ is made from 100% recycled aluminium - this means that this product has used 95% less energy during its manufacture than regular foil

'If You Care Fair Rubber Latex Household Gloves’ are made from fair trade rubber and are lined with 100% natural cotton

Dishwasher tablets and washing liquids and surface sprays can also be sustainable products.

‘Sonett Dishwasher Tablets’ are vegan and 100% biodegradable

‘Ecover Washing-up Liquid’ is safe for sensitive skin, cruelty free and stored in a 100% recycled plastic bottle

‘Multi-Surface Spray’ will always be a kitchen stable. This product can be used on any surface and is made up entirely from natural ingredients, it is also vegan and cruelty free

Step Two: Kitchen Utensils

Sustainable kitchen utensils are perhaps the most available sustainable kitchen wear items. This means there is a brilliant choice to pick from when stocking up your kitchen with eco-friendly products.

Here are some of my favourite sustainable kitchen utensils:

Tupperware and reusable lunchboxes are essential in sustainable kitchens. Not only do they help preserve food, which it great because it will prevent you from needing to throw away food that can still be eaten, but they are fantastic for the environment too. Especially with eco-friendly and sustainable products becoming more mainstream.

'BamBox Lunch Boxes' are made from a bamboo fibre composite. Its silicone seal keeps food fresh. This product is sustainable because bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world and releases 35% more oxygen into the atmosphere than any other tree.

'Black+Blum Stainless Steel Lunch Box' also is a great Tupperware product as it is plastic free, leakproof and oven/freezer safe. On top of this it's BPA free and allows you to reduce you food packaging waste.

To go along with your lunchbox you're going to need some sustainable cutlery. One set that I love is the 'Bamboo Cutlery Set in Cotton Pouch' by BamBaw. The pouch comes in four different colours, and the bamboo set of a knife, fork, spoon, straw and cleaning brush are a sustainable, plastic-free solution to single-use cutlery. This set is dishwasher safe and can be composted. The cotton pouch which comes with the set can also be washed and reused for years.

Reusable mugs are another kitchen essential and perfect to grab when you want a hot drink on the go. These are sold practically everywhere now so make sure you get your hands on one. One of the great things about using a reusable cup when out getting a drink is that most cafes now give a discount to customers who use them. For example, PAUL and Pret A Manger give 50p off your order and cafes Costa and Starbucks give 25p off.

The brand KeepCup is my absolute favourite. There you can shop for stainless steel, glass and plastic cups. Each material used by KeepCup is carefully considered; the stainless steel used is 100% recyclable and vacuum sealed, all the glass is recyclable and shock resistant, the plastic they use is BPA free and made in low embodied energy. The cups also range from XS for your espresso to an L for your large latte. On top of this, on their website you can even custom design your own reusable cup.

Finally, sustainable water bottles are a must-have to help reduce your daily plastic use. Sadly, plastic bottles require up to 700 years to dissolve and 80% of plastic bottles never even get recycled. This not only is harming the environment as 38 million plastic bottles go to landfill each year in America alone, but it isn't even cost effective in the long run as 90% of the cost of bottled water is the bottle itself.

My favourite brand of reusable water bottles has to be 'Chilly's Bottles'. Chilly bottles come in a range of really stylish colours and designs as the brand often collaborates with different artists to come up with new prints. Their bottles can keep liquid cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours due to their double-walled vacuum insulation. As well as this, all of their bottles are highly durable and made from stainless steel so you won't need to replace it any time soon

Perhaps even more essential than all of these products are sustainable tea bags. Now, this may sound like you're going to have to give up drinking a classic English Breakfast brew and switch to some hippy-esque herbal tea if you ever want to drink tea that is sustainable - but this isn't the case!

PG tips is one of the biggest brand of tea in the UK, with 9 billion of their tea bags enjoyed every year, and they now stock biodegradable tea bags too. As of 2020, their new design of tea bag no longer contains the non-recyclable material polypropylene (aka plastic), but instead they now are using a plant-based material from corn to seal their tea bags. This means their tea bags will now be biodegradable and so will decompose in your food waste bins.

Step Three: Doing a Sustainable Food Shop

When going out to do a food shop there are a few products you should take with you to keep your shop as sustainable as possible.

Reusable bags are a great starting place to a sustainable kitchen. No, I don't mean the 'bags for life' you pay 20p for at your local supermarket. There are great alternatives that you can buy that are even better for the environment.

The 'Natural Cotton Carrier' bag is a great sustainable option. They are made from 100% natural cotton. Another positive is that they are strong enough to carry really heavy loads, so you don't ever have to worry about your bag splitting, and are lightweight enough to be folded and carried when you go out. These bags are also incredibly cheap, which makes spending the 20p on a plastic bag that you will only use a few times, that also takes hundreds of years to decompose, look ridiculous.

'Organic Cotton Grocery Bag' from Turtle Bags are also a necessity when you go shopping. These are perfect for storing all your loose fruit and vegetables in and they are also washable. The organic cotton used by Turtle Bags are certified under the Global Organic Textile Standards so no chemical pesticides or fertilisers are used in their production, and the farmers working in production work under safe conditions and with fair pay. Again this product is also relatively cheap, with a medium bag costing only £2.

Step Four: Recycling

The final thing to do after spending any time in a kitchen is to recycle any waste you may have. Recycling is one of the best ways for you to have a positive impact on the environmentally. It reduces the need for raw materials and requires less energy to make new objects than making them again from scratch.

The Basics:

Paper & Card - these can be recycled as long as they aren't contaminated with other food, liquid or waste. Remember also to break down your cardboard boxes as it makes them easier to process and leaves more room for other recyclables

Metal Cans - before recycling remove paper/plastic labels and clean out any residue materials. If there are any insulated coatings remove that too. Make sure to dry the cans so they don't contaminate other items.

Plastic - only hard plastic containers (e.g. water bottles, milk jugs and detergent containers) can be recycled in your container. Plastic bags, bubble wrap and Styrofoam need to be taken to special collection points found often at the entrance of supermarkets/pharmacies. Unfortunately any kind of black plastic is non-recyclable as the laser technology used for the sorting of plastics can't pick up its colour.

Here is a useful link to direct you to what you can recycle at home or in your local area based on your postcode - 'Local Recycling'

Composting is also a great way to add to your sustainable kitchen

Not only will it create a rich humus for your garden but it can divert as much as 30% of household waste from your bins. A surprising amount of your kitchen waste can be composted. Compost can be stored in your kitchen until you're ready to transfer it to your composter.

What you can put in your composter depends on if it is carbon or nitrogen-based. A healthy compost pile should generally have much more carbon than nitrogen. A simple rule is to use 1/3 green and 2/3s brown materials. This will allow oxygen to penetrate and nourish the organisms.

Carbon-rich matter includes: branches, stems, dried leaves, wood, sawdust, shredded brown paper bags, coffee filters, egg shells, straw, wood ash, news paper, dryer lint, corn cobs and cardboard - these all give compost its light, fluffy body.

Nitrogen-rich matter includes: manures, food scraps, lawn clippings, green leaves, tea leaves, flowers and coffee grounds - these provide raw materials for making enzymes.

Things you shouldn't recycle include: meat, bones etc as they will attract pests, avoid weeds as they might cause them to spread in your garden, pet manure, banana/peach/orange peels.

And there you have a four step guide on how to make your kitchen more sustainable. Even incorporating a couple of these ideas into your kitchen will have a positive impact on the environment - so any small changes you can make are fantastic.