Must Have Zero Waste Swaps For The Kitchen
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Are you looking for some zero waste swaps for your kitchen? Some kitchen items create so much waste and are easily swapped out with these alternatives.
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Ever since we visited the Vancouver Aquarium, the boys have been very interested in reducing our plastic waste. The aquarium had a #beplasticwise exhibit that taught them all about the effect of plastics, specifically microplastics, on the ocean. My boys love the oceans and would not want to do anything to hurt it.
Many of these must have zero waste swaps for the kitchen are things that we have been doing for many years.
They have become a part of our daily lives and we do not even consider the disposable alternatives as options anymore. There is no need to jump in head first. If you feel inspired to go all out, then feel free. But if that idea is scary, start small. Pick one and start there. Once you start changing your habits towards a more waste conscious ideal, you will be amazed at how motivated you will be to keep going.
Water Bottles and Our Berkey
This list of my favourite must have zero waste swaps is in no particular order, except for this first one. If I could only recommend one thing to swap out in your kitchen, it would be water bottles!
MILLIONS of water bottles are thrown out each day.
Thrown out. Not recycled, thrown out.
How sad is that?
They have survived many falls, but they now seem to be reaching the end of their lives.
These are just two brands that we are currently using though we have used many others in the past. There are also many different brands so I am sure you can find something to fit your needs. Check out this huge selection of reusable water bottles.
In addition to our reusable water bottles, we also like to filter our water.
We have a Berkey water filtration system in our home. The Berkey is used to filter out any contaminants in our water. We use it in our home daily and even trust it to filter water when we go camping.
You do not need a Berkey to do this zero waste swap, it is just a nice addition to the water bottles.
We love the clean taste of the water that comes out of our Berkey and would never go back to drinking tap water. We drink so much water a day. Water is so vital for life that we believe it is truly worth the investment to have clean, delicious, safe water.
Check the price on Berkeys here.
Silicone Baking Mats
I spent years using aluminium foil or parchment paper to line my baking sheets. Sometimes I needed something that would prevent the food from sticking to the pan, but sometimes I just wanted an easy cleanup.
When I started looking for zero waste swaps for the kitchen, I was not even thinking about giving up my parchment. I was actually at Costco, with parchment paper on my list, which I saw the silicone baking mats. I decided, at that moment, that I needed to switch.
There are all sorts of different brands and sizes available on Amazon.
Check out the price on Amazon: silicone baking mats
Coffee and Tea
If you follow my Instagram, you know I love tea.
What I do not love is all the excess packaging that comes with our favourite caffeinated beverages.
From convenience coffee cups like K Cups or T Discs to individually wrapped tea bags, there is so much waste associated with our morning brew – and this is not even including take-out coffee!
Coffee:
My husband is quite picky about his coffee – and I don’t blame him. Bad coffee is just that, bad. We have wasted our time and money on many cheap coffee makers that do not get the water hot enough to brew a proper cup of coffee. High-quality coffee makers can cost hundreds of dollars – I have no doubt that they are worth it but we were not prepared to make that investment.
We found the best way to get a good cup of coffee at home is to use a kettle to boil water and then use that to brew your coffee. The difference between cheap coffee makers and quality ones are the heating elements. So let’s just remove that from the equation.
We started with a pour-over coffee brewer. In the days before Amazon (and my Walmart boycott), we found a Melita one at Walmart. Amazon now has an amazing selection of non-plastic pour-over coffee brewers. If ours ever breaks, we will opt for stainless steel or glass instead of the plastic.
For now, we use what we have. Check out the price here on Amazon.
The downside to this style of pour-over coffee brewer is that you still have to buy filters. There are some pour-overs that do not require a filter, but ours does. Luckily, in our municipality, we can toss these filters and the used coffee grounds into our city compost.
Coffee is actually really good for your garden!
Tea:
I am a tea drinking and have no plans of giving it up. There are aspects of tea that could use some tweaks to make it more zero waste friendly. Zero waste swaps for tea is a little easier, in my opinion, but I am sure there are many options that I have yet to explore.
Tea, like coffee, can be bought in individual k-cups which is something that bugs me. I have grown to despise single-use products like that!
A very simple zero waste swap for tea is to buy tea leaves instead of tea bags.
Isn’t that manatee adorable?
You can also get teapots with built-in strainers or simple strain your tea using a fine mesh strainer before you pour it into your favourite mug.
Check out these infusers and many others on Amazon!
Don’t like the idea of an infuser or straining your tea? You can also choose to buy teabags which do not come individually wrapped.
You may have seen me buy tea from Costco – I buy tea in bulk which comes with minimal packing. This works for us because I tend to forget little things like infusers when we travel. Buying teabags is just one of those things that makes life easier for me.
Cloth Alternatives
There are so many cloth alternatives for zero waste swaps in your kitchen.
Sometimes when you implement cloth alternatives into your home, it can be met with hesitations and eye rolls from friends and family. Cloth in the kitchen is not nearly as intimidating as cloth alternatives in the bathroom, so it is an easy place to implement changes if you want to start using cloth alternatives.
The easiest swap, in my opinion, is cloth napkins. Many people have heard of cloth napkins or may even use them for fancy events. We have a drawer for cloth napkins in our kitchen. We have about 30 cloth napkins for our family of six and, as you can see from this photo, they get used.
Cloth napkins can be used wet or dry which makes them perfect for kids who tend to get sticky or extra messy.
We also use cloth dish rags, unpaper towels, hankies and cleaning cloths. Unpaper towels, otherwise known as tea towels, are used to clean up most spills around our house. We have nice tea towels for drying hands and then a stack of ones that have gotten stained over the years which we use for cleaning up all sorts of spills – just like you would a paper towel.
These items are all easy to wash, just like you would other towels.
I make all of my cloth alternatives myself. They are easy to do if you have basic sewing skills. You can also find all sorts of beautiful cloths on Etsy.com or simple use rags! I have also seen people use bandanas as cloth napkins, which is a really cute idea as well!
Reusable Shopping Bags
My last must have zero waste swaps for the kitchen is reusable shopping bags.
I don’t know if this technically counts in the kitchen but since we usually use ours for produce, I am putting it here. We take our reusable shopping bags to practically every store we go to. Many stores charge for plastic bags or simply do not offer them, so having your own bags is really convenient. Plus, it helps reduce so much plastic waste.
We have a large collection of reusable shopping bags.
I like to keep all my bags in our van, but after grocery day they tend to live by the closet until I remember to take them out. There is nothing worse than forgetting your bags so I like to leave them in a visible place, like by our shoe organizer.
We have insulated ones we got from Costco which are great for frozen goods or things you need to keep cold on the way home. These bags are also great for when we go on a picnic and need to keep things cold.
We also have a large assortment of canvas bags that we have received or bought from other stores. Many stores have reusable bags available right at the check out for only a dollar or two.
We have also been given many branded bags with purchases!
It is great advertising for the store and I do not mind a free bag. We have bags of all sorts from different grocery stores as well as tourist attractions and events we have visited.
One of my favourite reusable bags is my foldable bag. I keep one in my purse at all times. I love it because it has its own carry case and stores easily for when I quickly run into a store and forget to bring a bag.
It also works really well for when you are out an about and need a bag to carry something – like your toddler’s leaf collection.
Do you have any must have zero waste swaps for the kitchen that you love? Share them in the comments down below! We would love to hear about your journey to zero waste or what steps you have taken to look after our environment.
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