Content Overview:How to make your kitchen more sustainable by identifying areas for improvement
It's September and we're looking at all the ways we can make our lives greener.
There are many ways to live more sustainably, from bargain wedding options to boss shopping and Vinted sales. Paying attention to your home, how eco-friendly is your kitchen? In today's Biopedia article, we'll introduce you to 5 common mistakes that make your kitchen unenvironmental.
Not choosing eco-friendly cleaning products
The cleaning industry has undergone a huge environmental shift in the last few years, with many brands now showcasing refillable bottles, plastic-free packaging and concentrated products. Although many of these ingenious products can be purchased from Amazon or the supermarket at affordable prices, if you are really on a budget, you can look to using products from the cupboards in stores to clean your home. Here are my favorite eco-friendly home cleaning tricks.
Your appliances are not energy efficient
Nowadays, it's easy to find out the energy rating when buying white goods, so it's important to keep an eye on it when making a new purchase. If you have to work with what you already have, it's worth assessing the energy consumption of different appliances and adjusting the way you use your kitchen. For example, replace your oven with a fryer to save energy.
Llewellyn Kinch, CEO of MakeMyHouseGreen, advises:
"Smart consumers should consider limiting oven use. And when they do turn it on, why not turn up the heat by cooking several dishes at once?"
Not recycling properly
Have you heard of "wish recycling"? Basically, it's that moment when you throw something in the green bin without being sure if it can be recycled - and that can do more harm than good! Ocean Info reminds us that "if cardboard is contaminated with food scraps, it should be thrown in the trash" and before putting clean cardboard in the recycling bin, "each strip should be removed and placed in the trash."
Reach for the kitchen roll too often
This is something I'm guilty of as well, and it might be a New Year's resolution for me, but if you too reach for the kitchen roll, it might be time to consider a reusable kitchen roll or the humble dish towel to wipe up any drips or spills.
Forgetting to keep track of water consumption
We all know we should spend less time in the shower and not use the hose during a drought, but what about the water that gets wasted in the kitchen too?
Be honest, what do you do with the water after you've washed the dishes? No doubt in the hole... but maybe next time you could use it to water your plants.
Also, be sure to only run your dishwasher and washing machine when full to minimize water consumption.
