Top 3 Tips for an Eco Friendly Kitchen

Make It An Eco Friendly Kitchen – Today!

I was looking at photos of an eco friendly kitchen. At least, the magazine said it was an ecofriendly kitchen.

It was beautiful, and spacious, and had all the latest gadgets and appliances.

The owners were interviewed, and they were very proud that all the lighting and all their new equipment was energy efficient, which was great.

But then, towards the end of the interview, it turned out that the couple spend very little time at home. And when they are at home, they employ a chef if they’re entertaining, or else they dine out.

What a shame – such a gorgeous kitchen, used only a couple of times a year!

All those resources used to make the appliances, the tiles and flooring, the cabinets and everything else, to be used so rarely!  I’m afraid that’s not very green.

Luckily, any kitchen – old or new, huge or tiny – can be an eco friendly kitchen. It doesn’t need vapid consumerism, just care, love, and common sense.

Here are my top 3 tips for an eco friendly kitchen.

Eco Friendly Kitchen Tip #1: Durability is Key

New items consume limited resources, so you want to reduce the amount of times you buy new things. For this, durability is key.

Related: Eco Friendly Kitchen Wall Coverings

It’s better to buy good quality, long-lasting kitchen equipment and utensils than buy multiple cheap items. So, for example, choose good quality knives that you can sharpen yourself that will last a lifetime.

Cast iron or stainless steel cookware will last longer than nonstick pots and pans.

Related: The Best Eco Friendly Cookware

Before you buy a new gadget or appliance, check to see if you will really use it often, or if it will gather dust in a cupboard. Does a friend have one that you can check out? Read customer reviews. Ask around. Perhaps there’s a kitchen library in your area where you can borrow an appliance instead of buying it – that’s works really well for a utensil you won’t use often. You could also try to borrow from friends.

Avoid single-use disposables such as paper towel (use a cloth or rag instead, and toss it in the washing machine with your towels). Avoid paper napkins (use cloth – they’re so much nicer) and foil (use a casserole dish instead and toss it in the dishwasher after cooking). You’ll save money – and the planet.

Related: How to Reduce Your Paper Towel Usage

Eco Friendly Kitchen Tip #2: Energy-Efficient Cooking

Ovens are energy hogs – unless you use them efficiently.

When you’re cooking something in the oven, plan to cook or heat or bake something else at the same time.

A small oven or toaster oven is much more efficient than a normal oven when you only need to cook something small.

You don’t need to pre-heat as much as you used to. Modern ovens come up to temperature very quickly. You can put the food in as soon as you switch the oven on – and then you can switch off the oven 10 minutes or so before the food is ready. (This might not work for delicate dishes such as soufflés but does work for most things).

When you spread food in a thin layer, it heats up faster and more evenly. Use this technique in the oven as well as  the stove top. Banana bread can take 40 to 50 minutes to bake, but the same batter poured into 12 muffin cups requires only 20 to 25 minutes.

Keep the oven door closed. You lose heat when you open it, and so you need more energy to cook.  Turn on the light and look through the window until you’re ready to remove the food.

When it’s hot outside, keep your kitchen cool so that air-conditioning doesn’t have to work hard.  Plan to cook meals outdoors using the grill or barbecue, or plug in your slow cooker on the porch or patio. Also, cool foods in a protected outdoor area (remember your grandmother putting pies on a windowsill to cool? It kept heat and humidity out of the house).

On the stove top, use the smallest pot on the smallest burner. A small pot on a large burner wastes up to 40% of the energy.

Cook with the lid on. Cooking without lids can use up to three times more energy!

An induction cooker is very energy efficient.

Vegetables often require less cooking time than meat, and you’ll have a significantly lower carbon footprint if you go meatless for at least some meals each week.

Double a recipe and save half for a future meal. The larger batch lets you capitalize on the heat you’re already using, and reheating the next time around needs just a fraction of the energy needed to start from scratch. And of course, it saves you work too!

Eco Friendly Kitchen Tip #3: Cut Your Waste in Half!

The kitchen generates the most waste of any room in the home, so it makes a lot of sense to be waste-conscious here.

Buy local food in bulk or at markets (so there’s less packaging) and of course, bring your own reusable bags to the stores.

Avoid over-sized portions; if you are regularly throwing food away then you are buying, and cooking, too much.

Reuse what you can, like old glass jars or bottles, grocery bags, and packaging you can’t avoid.

You might be surprised at how many things you can compost (see a short list here), it’s a great way of disposing of waste safely and productively. Even if you don’t have a garden which would be grateful for your compost, many local farmers markets and organizations will gladly accept it, even in big cities.

After that, if there’s anything left over, use the recycling bins.

There should be a LOT less going to your trash or rubbish bin now – and therefore much less going to landfill.

And Finally……

Now, step back, review your efforts, and ENJOY your eco friendly kitchen!

You’ll love knowing that you’re not just saving money and improving your indoor health, but you’re also helping to save the planet and slow climate change too!

Please spread the word about how easy it is to have an eco friendly kitchen – sharing buttons below and right – thank you!