Reducing the Waste From Your Kitchen in 5 Steps

If you’re looking to cut back on use-and-toss items in your home the kitchen is a great place to start. Disposables are everywhere you look in most kitchens – paper towels, coffee and tea filters, plastic baggies, aluminum foil, over-packaged cleaning products and more!  By giving your kitchen a makeover – replacing many of these common disposables - your family will save money and natural resources.  

Top 5 Ways to Reduce Kitchen Waste:

Stop wasting food
Green your clean routine
Replace plastic baggies and use & toss containers
Reduce waste from coffee, tea, soda and more
Kick the paper towel habit

Stop wasting food

According to a study by the University of Arizona, Americans toss out 25% of the produce they’ve purchased just because it’s spoiled. Not only are we wasting resources used to grow and harvest all that food, but we’re also wasting gas on trips to the store and contributing to greenhouse gasses in landfills. Most of all, we’re wasting money. Start saving food and money by preserving and storing food properly, and use a few tricks and tools for preparing food & beverages at home.

Tips:

  • Don't buy what you don't need - make a list and plan meals ahead of time to prevent overbuying.
  • Don't shop on an empty stomach - you might come home with items you won't be able to eat in time.
  • Keep a dated list of your fresh produce on the fridge. As you use it, cross it off. The list will remind you to use what you have before it spoils.
  • Organize your refigerator. Put soon-to-expire foods up front just like they do at the grocery store.
  • Keep produce fresher longer with ethylene-absorbing bags and/or produce savers.
  • Protect veggies from light, preventing sprouting and prolonging freshness. Store them in dark cabinets or save space with Vegetable Keep Sacks.
  • Grow your own herbs. Most recipes only call for a small amount, why waste a whole bunch? Preserve the herbs you do buy in a Fresh Herb Keeper.
  • Chop up ripe fruit and even greens and store them in the freezer. Throw them in the blender for a healthy smoothie.
  • Why brew a whole pot of coffee when you just need a cup? Save money on coffee with single-cup brewing systems.
  • Use it, don't waste it. Use spoiled citrus as a garbage disposal or dishwasher freshener. Compost your other waste for a happy garden.


Find recipes, facts and great ideas for wasting less food at Love Food, Hate Waste. See all of our tools for  preserving and storing food and preparing food & beverages at home. Check out our top picks here.

Green your clean routine

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, common household cleaners (including toilet bowl cleaners, air deoderizers, floor cleaners, window cleaners, and some detergents) often contain toxic chemicals. Even when used properly these toxins make their way into the environment. Meanwhile, companies are cleaning up on over packaged, “natural” cleaning products.  Save money, avoid harmful chemicals and cut back on waste by making a few simple changes. Replace paper towels, bottled cleaning solution, sweeper pads and more with smart reusable alternatives and feel good about getting clean.

Tips:

  • See tips above for kicking the paper towel habit.
  • Check out our DIY Resources for making your own household cleaners out of everyday items.
  • Use essential oils to clean and deodorize the kitchen and beyond.
  • Save on soap – use heavy duty reusable scrubbers and forgo the soap, and foam your soap to use less and make it last longer.
  • When disposing of conventional household cleaners, don’t dump them down drains, into the toilet or on the ground. Follow the instructions on the bottle for proper disposal.

See all of our eco-friendly cleaning tools here.

Reduce waste from coffee, tea, soda and more

According to the Container Recycling Institute, 60 billion PET single-use beverage containers were purchased in 2006 – about 45 billion of those were simply discarded after use. Combined with the waste from paper tea bags and disposable coffee filters, that’s a lot of trash generated every time you take a drink! Start saving money and reducing waste by using reusable alternatives to coffee filters, tea bags, bottled soda & flavored water and juice boxes & pouches.

Tips:

  • Our guide for waste-free coffee & tea will help you to reduce waste when visiting your favorite coffee shop.
  • Make your own flavored water and other beverages with our DIY resources.
  • Save hundreds of dollars a year by ditching bottled water and filtering tap water at home. Check out our selection of water bottles with built-in filters here.
  • Switch to reusable straws and cut back on paper wrapper and plastic straw waste.


See all of our food & beverage preparation products here.

Replace plastic baggies, plastic wrap,  take out containers, etc

Wastefreelunches.org estimates that eliminating disposable packaging and single-serving items can save families $250 a year. Sierra Club also estimates that families spend $85 a year on disposable plastic baggies. Not only are those throw-away items costly, but they add up to a lot of unnecessary waste in our landfills. Switch to smart alternatives to plastic baggies, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, take out containers, salad dressing and sauce containers and more and you’ll save money and natural resources.

Tips:

  • Our DIY resources for salad dressings & condiments will help you cut waste and eat a bit healthier
  • Wondering how to use reusable snack & sandwich bags? Check out our tips.
  • Avoid filling your fridge with Styrofoam take out containers with our Top Tips for Waste-free Take Out.
  • Before there were Ziplock bags and take-and-toss containers, people used reusable food containers. Go retro and replace your disposables!
  • Wash and reuse the plastic baggies you can’t avoid.


See all of our alternatives to  plastic baggies, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, take out containers, salad dressing and sauce containers and more.

Kick the paper towel habit

If each person switched from disposable tissues and paper towels to reusable napkins and handkerchiefs, it would cut down on 3.5 million tons of refuse placed in landfills each and every year. Get started today by choosing a handful of high quality paper towel alternatives – from microfiber cleaning cloths to compostable sponges.

Tips:

  • Break the paper towel habit by hiding your paper towels under your sink or in another out-of-the-way place. Place a reusable cloth where you normally keep the paper towels to encourage the whole household to opt for a reusable option first.
  • Use different color cloths for different jobs - one color for the kitchen counter, a bathroom cloth, one for common areas of the house and one for floors.

Check out all of our paper towel replacements here.
 

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