Swap out These Everyday Items to Reduce Kitchen Waste
With a few simple product changes, you can greatly reduce your waste and plastic use in the kitchen, resulting in a bonus for the planet, for your wallet, and for your home’s style
Kate MacLean
1 /7Courtesy of Ratio Coffee
For Brewing Coffee
Your morning starts with the consumption of caffeine, but those single-use coffee pods generate a lot of waste. Lovers of clean simplicity will appreciate this thermal carafe. The carafe takes the drip coffee method and fixes its biggest drawback: heat loss. Not only will your coffee stay warm, but also the stainless steel cone filter means the only waste you’ll produce is the entirely compostable coffee grounds.
Thermal Carafe with Dripper, $125 from Ratio
2 /7Courtesy of Isi Shop
For Sipping Bubbles
While hip seltzer may come in an array of irresistibly cheerful cans and plastic bottles, those beauties add up in your recycling bin. Go for a much more modest amount of waste with an at-home seltzer siphon. This isn’t the plastic behemoth that will take up half your counter space. Instead, the retro canister slimly fits in the door to your fridge and will make a bottle of bubbly with just one tiny cartridge of Co2.
Soda Siphon, $80 from Amazon
3 /7Courtesy of Eco Lunchboxes
For Taking Home Leftovers
Bye-bye, doggy bags. Take home the remains of your meal out in a set of earth-friendly, ocean-loving containers. Stainless steel makes a great choice for on-the-go storage because it is as handsome as glass but lighter and unbreakable.
Seal Cup XL, $19 from ECOlunchbox
4 /7Courtesy of GIR
For Storing Food
With these silicone lids, you can turn virtually any of your platters, bowls, cups, or bakeware into storage without the use of plastic or aluminum wraps. Find them in round and rectangular shapes in a variety of sizes.
GIR Lid, $8 from Amazon
5 /7Gardeners.com
For Giving Back to the Garden
If your town doesn’t offer composting services or you have a small garden to which you’d like to add homemade fertilizer, try in-home vermiculture with this handsome kitchen workhorse. Simply add food waste and worms and you will watch your scraps turn into black gold in just a matter of a few weeks. The composter can handle a half pound of food waste a day.
Worm Farm Composter, $179 from Gardener's Supply Company
6 /7Jenny Hallengren
For Cleaning up Messes
To clean your counters and dry your hands, forego using paper goods for a clean, beautiful linen towel. Buy a stack of them. Keep them in rotation and wash them as needed with the rest of your laundry. They will add a negligible amount to the washing but will help divert much paper towel waste. If you’re ready to take it a step further, eliminate paper towels entirely from daily use by replacing them with cloth napkins and towels. Save paper for the truly terrible messes that no self-respecting linen towel could brave.
Kitchen Cloth, $16 from Fog Linen
7 /7Courtesy of Fjorn
For Washing Dishes
The sponge is the final frontier of waste to conquer. Since sponges harbor a nasty amount of bacteria and germs, it’s recommended that they be replaced on a weekly basis--and unless they’re the biodegradable kind, that waste adds up quickly. Enter into your routine this Swedish-made dish brush. Beautifully ergonomic in its design, it will allow you the agency to effectively clean your dishware while lasting months longer than the typical kitchen sponge.