Using these tips, you can turn your kitchen into a eco-friendly sustainable haven where you can cook up your favourite vegan treats.
For many vegans, sustainability was a key reason behind their transition away from meat and dairy products.
The meat and dairy industries are major polluters, and many experts believe that not eating meat and dairy is the single best way to reduce your impact on the planet.
While eating vegan food is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and help the earth to heal, if you’re cooking your food in a kitchen that isn’t environmentally friendly, then you’ll cancel out many of the benefits that your vegan diet brings.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide to transforming your kitchen into a beautiful, sustainable space.
Incorporate Natural Materials
Natural materials such as bamboo are great for the environment, because it grows to full size in just 3-4 months, as opposed to several decades for other trees such as Oak. It also absorbs double the carbon dioxide of other trees and plants, making it the perfect material for any environmentally conscious homeowner.
Bamboo chopping boards are a popular choice as the tough wood is built to last, especially against sharp knives. You can pair the natural wood with varying items in your kitchen to create a set of tools that complement each other well.
These wooden chopping boards are available through sites like Oliver’s Kitchen, who offer a range of beautiful bamboo chopping boards to help you find the perfect solution for your eco-friendly kitchen. These beautiful boards are durable as well as gorgeous, so they’ll last a lifetime.
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Avoid Single-Use Plastics
Most kitchens are full of single-use plastics, be they packaging from food products or cling film to store leftovers in, but these items are terrible for the environment. They can take thousands of years to decompose, and they pose a threat to wildlife, which can get trapped in the packaging and suffocate.
As such, one of the biggest changes that you need to make to your kitchen is to eliminate single-use plastics. Choose natural food wraps, or try using food storage containers made from natural materials like bamboo.
You should also try to buy food with as little packaging as possible. Speak to your grocery store and see if you can take your own containers; many firms offer this service now, and it might even be cheaper.
Reclaim And Recycle Unwanted Items
Plastic is only the environment’s enemy when it’s disposed of in a landfill site or thrown into the ocean. That’s why we should try to reuse unwanted plastic items wherever possible.
So, when you’re looking for kitchenware and materials, consider visiting second-hand stores or checking out online marketplaces for used items.
Often, these products are high-quality, so you’ll save money and ensure that the items don’t end up polluting the earth in a landfill site.
Upgrade Your Appliances
Longevity is often the name of the game when you’re trying to reduce your carbon footprint, as this approach saves resources creating new products regularly.
However, old appliances are often highly inefficient, and as a result, they use a lot more energy than their newer counterparts.
Choose appliances that are environmentally friendly and save energy, so that you can reduce your energy consumption and still enjoy spending time in your kitchen cooking up delicious meals and snacks.
Cultivate A Compost Bin
Composting your food waste is a great way to use up scraps and improve the soil in your garden. Put a compost bin in your kitchen, so that you can throw scraps and old food straight into it.
Keep the bin in your kitchen until it is full, and then move it to your larger compost pile outside, so that the waste food can break down and become a natural mulch.
Avoid putting processed food items or large pieces of food into your compost bin, as this can attract vermin such as rats. Instead, try to cut down your food waste, and only use your compost bin for inedible scraps.
Optimise Your Food Storage
Reduce your food waste by storing your food correctly and making sure that you’re always aware of how much you have, and when it needs to be used by.
If you store your food incorrectly, then you’ll waste more, or you’ll have to go shopping more often, which will waste fuel and packaging.
Alternatively, if you buy in bulk and then don’t store your food correctly, then you might find that you don’t know what you own, and end up with out of date food that spoils the rest. Even tinned and dried food has an expiration date and can be unsafe to eat if kept long after this time, so you need to lay your pantry out correctly as well as your freezer and fridge.
Decorate Your Kitchen With Houseplants
Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and as such, they’re a great way to make your home more environmentally friendly and reduce your own person carbon footprint.
Make sure that you choose the right houseplants for your kitchen; some plants can be toxic if they find their way into your food, or they simply don’t thrive in a humid environment like a kitchen. Find a selection of beautiful houseplants and turn your kitchen into a natural oasis.
