6 Practical Ways to Make your Kitchen More Green

Are you looking to make less of a negative impact on the environment? One of the most powerful ways to do this is by implementing some simple strategies in one of your house's busiest rooms: the kitchen!

Here are 6 practical ways to make your kitchen more green.

1. Where Possible, Reduce Packaging

The less packaging that you bring into your kitchen, the better for the environment. Here are several ways to reduce packaging:

Make Common Staple Foods Yourself

Foods like bread, crackers, cookies, and even tortillas are easy to make at home, provided you have some simple tools.

Get yourself a bread maker, or baking sheets, cookie cutters, even a tortilla press like this one: https://unocasa.com/products/tortilla-press

Tortilla presses are perhaps not the first appliance you will think of for your kitchen, but you can make not only tortillas, but sandwich wraps, dumpling skins, and empanadas (Spanish-style savory pastries) with it as well.

Once you start making homemade bread and wraps, you won't go back.

Buy From Farmers' Markets

Farmers' markets are brilliant because they typically use minimal packaging compared to supermarkets. And the produce is usually better.

By bringing your bags and filling them with fruit and vegetables, you're reducing plastic wrap and other items.

You can even keep and reuse egg cartons. Just buy eggs from the market or from local producers and fill your old egg cartons.

2. Prioritize Natural Materials

It's becoming easier now to find eco-friendly kitchenware, such as bamboo utensils, wooden bowls, etc., so you should take advantage of that.

Here are other ways on how you can prioritize natural materials:

3. Save Energy Where You Can

Here are some easy-to-implement ways to save energy that you may not have thought of:

4. Filter Water

Switching to filtered water is a big one. If you're someone who buys bottled water, think of all the bottles that you buy over a year. Even if you are buying glass bottles, that's still a lot of energy to recycle them.

By using a water filter jug — or better yet, by installing a water filter under your sink — you will save money in the long run and contribute to fewer bottles in waste and recycling units.

5. Leave The Temperature Alone

Each time you peek inside your oven to see if your dish is done, you let heat escape. The oven, therefore, needs to expend more energy to recoup the loss. Instead, look through the oven door, or set a timer.

Also, decide what you want from the refrigerator before opening the door. Reflecting on the vagaries of life in front of an open refrigerator is another recipe for lost energy that's unnecessary and wasteful. The same rule applies when you're picking out products from a store freezer.

6. Invest In Reusable Food Wraps

There are many alternatives these days to plastic wrap, many of which are reusable. Once again, by using washable and reusable items, you're saving money over time.

Some examples of reusable food wraps are beeswax wraps. You can also make your own out of cotton, beeswax, jojoba oil, or tree resin. This is a great project to involve the family.

If you don't like food wraps, you can buy silicone food bags that are washable and reusable.

A Word On Composting And Recycling