Food & Drink, Lifestyle
8 Eco-Friendly Kitchen Swaps To Help Reduce Your Waste This Year
We tend to use a lot of single-use products in our kitchens. Now more than ever, however, companies pride themselves on making eco-friendly items for the kitchen, where most of our waste comes from. If you want to minimize waste, here are some simple, eco-friendly swaps you can make.
Stasher Reusable Silicone Storage Bags
Sandwich baggies come and go very quickly, and there’s no worse feeling than realizing you’ve run out of baggies at 10 p.m. while packing lunch for the following day. Silicone bags are easy to wash, so you’ll never run out.
Bodum French Press
If you make coffee every day, the amount of paper filters you’ll go through adds up quickly. Preparing your hot cup of joe in a French press removes the need for a filter, since it has one built in. Not only are French presses more sustainable, but the coffee also tastes much better.
Cloth Napkins
If every U.S. household used one fewer 70-sheet paper towel roll each year, we could save 544,000 trees. We use billions of pounds of paper towels each year, which goes to show how much we could save if we used cloth napkins instead of paper products. By stocking up on reusable napkins, you’ll use way fewer paper towels with dinner.
Misfits Market
Misfits Market is a new alternative to grocery shopping. Essentially, the company sells the harvested food rejected by grocery stores because it doesn’t meet superficial standards. The goal is to cut down on wasted food that should have made it to your house, and, as a bonus, it can also reduce your dreaded grocery bill.
Five Two Food Compost Bin
If you want to get into composting, then this bin is perfect since it’s a good size for people just starting out. Instead of throwing food scraps in the trash, you can store them in the bin until you’re ready to compost and return them to the environment. Many cities have composting sites you can use. Compost bins also do a good job removing the food odors in your trash. Win-win.
Invigorated Water Filter
We get it: Water from the tap doesn’t always taste as good as bottled. We also know not everyone has a fancy fridge that dispenses fresh water. The alternative, however, should not be wasteful plastic water bottles. Instead get a water filter that makes tap water taste much better and can easily fit in your fridge.
GreenPan Ceramic Nonstick Pan
We all love traditional nonstick pans since they make cooking and cleaning so much easier. The caveat is that the Teflon coating isn’t good for you, especially if it’s chipped. Ceramic nonstick is the new and better alternative, since it’s very durable and nontoxic.
Metal Straws
It’s a good idea to reject the plastic straw that comes with your drink at a restaurant. Billions of these straws litter the world’s beaches every year, and you can help reduce the waste by switching to a metal straw that can be washed and reused endlessly.
Making some simple swaps here and there is a small step toward a larger effort to make our world more eco-friendly. There are so many ways to limit our waste, and it all adds up. If you’re looking to invest in some sustainable kitchen items, shop through Rakuten for eco-friendly products and earn some sweet Cash Back. Cha-ching!
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