6 Uses for Cucumber you Haven’t Heard of

Cucumbers Are Green – Use Them!

The cucumber is very green and eco friendly. It doesn’t use much water to grow, and it grows in many climates, which means you’re probably able to buy local cucumbers. That means they have a very low carbon footprint.

Cucumbers are healthy for you and the environment, so it makes sense to use them for more than just salads, juices and smoothies.

6 green and eco friendly ways to use cucumbers in your home

1. Eat a few cucumber slices before bed to avoid waking up with a headache—or at least to reduce one.
2. Before taking a shower, rub a cucumber slice on the mirror and it won’t fog up (it smells great too).
3. Rub cucumber on a door hinge to get rid of an irritating squeak—a much less toxic option than some of the sprays you see advertised for this purpose.
4. Use cucumber skin as an eraser for pens and crayons. Got scribbles on the wall or a work report? Simply use the outside of a cucumber and erase!
5. So, you’ve used lemon juice and vinegar or baking soda to clean your kitchen (with added salt to scour if necessary), and that’s a great green cleaning option. One disadvantage though is that this mixture doesn’t add a big shine to metal. So, after cleaning, simply rub cucumber on your metal surfaces to remove any tarnish and bring back the shine.
6. Need an instant breath freshener? Don’t buy the commercial ones. Simply press a slice of cucumber to the roof of your mouth for 30 seconds. Easy!

Buying Cucumbers in Plastic Wrap

Now it’s here that I’d normally remind everyone to avoid buying cucumbers covered in nasty plastic wrap / cling film, because of course we need to reduce the amount of plastic in our lives to live green.

But in fact, I’m going to suggest that if you are buying (rather than growing your own) cucumbers, you should actually buy wrapped cucumbers. (Shock, horror!).  Why?

Well, there’s an interesting book which looks at the environmental impact of packaging “Why Shrink-Wrap a Cucumber: A Complete Guide to Environmental Packaging” (Lawrence King, 2012).

The authors explain that an unwrapped cucumber loses its freshness fast. But shrink-wrapping slows evaporation, keeping the cucumber fresh longer.  (To be exact, an unwrapped cucumber will lose 3.5% of its weight after just 3 days of sitting out, while a wrapped cucumber loses a mere 1.5% of its weight over two weeks.).

Now in most developed countries, about a third (sometimes more) of all food is simply thrown away. Food waste is a huge problem.

For cucumbers, shrink-wrapping prevents food waste. It means less fertilizer, water, and pesticides are used growing more cucumbers to replace wasted ones. It means less fossil fuels are spent transporting additional harvests, and less methane is produced by landfills where rotting produce is tossed.

So, a little plastic can help prevent cucumber food waste.

Keeping Cucumbers Fresh at Home

Now of course, that applies to shelf life for stores and supermarkets. Once your cucumber is home, extend its life even further by cutting it to fit inside a reusable storage container and keeping it in the fridge.

Please spread the word about these green and eco friendly uses for cucumber – sharing buttons below and right – thank you! And let me know how you use cucumbers in the Comments below!