Natural Materials For Your Kitchen

Working from home has opened this new concept for me of “what makes a home” including how I want this space to feel like while I am in it, and what I want to have around. In my constant quest to reduce my use of plastic and the trash I generate, I keep trying to find ways to improve what I already do, and other ways to use what I already have. The words “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” come to mind more often than not throughout the entire day. From the amount of waste I generate on a daily to how much paper towel I use or whether I should read the ingredients on my dish soap, there is an infinite list of habits we can adopt to keep our spaces cleaner in a more sustainable and earth friendly way.

I am not perfect, nor I am trying to be. It’s about making an effort to be more conscious of the products and tools I use in every aspect of my life.

I did a blog post a while ago about baby steps into a more sustainable life, so that is a good place to start (click here for the post). Today, I want to focus on some of the materials we can swap in our kitchen that can easily be reused, will reduce our waste, and are biodegradable for when we have used them to exhaustion.

Tools made out of Natural Fibers

Bamboo scrubs and dish sponges are an amazing swap for the kitchen items we use on a daily. To keep it short, when are washing the dishes, the micro particles of these tools go down the drain and, at some point, end up in the ocean. By choosing natural materials and fibers, we are ensuring these will biodegrade, opposed to plastic or other synthetic fibers that will live forever. They also make a very aesthetically pleasing kitchen accessory. So, next time you need to change your scrub, go the natural route!

Bamboo and Cotton Cleaning Towels

I understand the convenience of paper towels for the kitchen, but we can use quite a lot in a day and all these end up in landfill. What I like about cloths and reusable paper towels is that we can easily rinse them throughout the day, so instead of using multiple paper towels a day, we use one. And it does exactly the same! It will absorb and clean just as the paper would, if not better. If you are at the store shopping for paper towel, try the reusable route!

Bee’s Wax Wrapping Paper

An easy and sustainable swap to the regular plastic wrap. It will keep your fridge odor free, and your food in good condition for longer. You can rinse the wraps and reuse them multiple times. They are made with natural and organic materials which means the papers will biodegrade once we have used them over and over again. Beeswax wrap paper helps reduce the waste at home and, overall, our contribution to landfill.

Food Containers and Reusable Storage Bags

Following the same conversation about reducing our daily waste, I find that food containers are an incredible option for storing leftovers or that to-go lunch. I love to wash and reuse the jars I get from jams for my overnight oats, parfaits or any soup leftovers to take for lunch next day. The same for glass containers or reusable food bags (instead of the regular plastic ziploc bags), specially if we want to freeze anything such as fruit for smoothies.

Reduce where you can and reuse what you can. a few swaps to items we use everyday make a huge difference.

Thanks for reading!

Esther