At home, one of the biggest wastage produced is definitely in the kitchen. Don’t we all agree? There’s where we got the most purchases for, and there’s where we start hearing the commercial packaging roaring in our bin. This is the longest post we have prepared by far, we have to gather 10 ways to reduce your plastic consumption, for a greener living.
Like we mentioned before, zero waste is a slow journey – apart from the swap, we all need to learn to shop wiser from now on. Both of us are still learning, so do our parent who is living with us. It’s a tough journey to get everyone on board especially in modern time many prefer to opt for “easy ways”. Nonetheless, a small contribution from everyone in the world will make a huge difference.
Before we run through our sharing, we would love to highlight that it’s important to use up what you already have so as not to waste those things. Once those items have reached their end of life, then consider replacing with a greener alternative that can last you for years or life.
1. Food Huggers
While we are cooking, it happens at the time we do not need that much of ingredients and there will be left-over. Now, forget about cling wraps or ziplock bags, the food huggers are what you need in the kitchen from now on. There is a different brand out there but we got ours from Seed and Sprout – it came in set with various sizes that are stackable.
These food huggers stretch best over citrus fruits, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers, but as we mentioned, they can also double as a lid to keep containers holding liquids, nuts, beans, spices, and more airtight. It’s so convenient and keeps your fresh produce longer and preserve its freshness without any chemical release from the plastic. Though it’s convenient to reach for plastic wrap, bags, or foil to preserve food, these colourful, dishwasher-safe discs help cut down on disposable materials and hopefully keep unnecessary trash from entering landfills.
You can find it on their Seed and Sprout official website for the best selection and deals.
2. Silicone Pouch
Silicone pouches are so useful in the kitchen – it replaces at least a hundred of ziplock bags in your kitchen annually. You can presume how much waste you have help to reduce. I barely remember I have used any ziplock bags the whole year far. I have habits bring bites to work but now it is so convenient to carry a snack bag or a sandwich bag which I mentioned in the previous post.
We got our silicone bags from the various brands, such as Stasher, EverEco, IUIGA (I found this huge pouch that cost me only SGD 8, it is durable). Silicones pouches are so essential in different ways they help to keep your greens, meats and seafood to prolong their fresh, without worrying about the chemical and keep your fridge neat and clean.
While the standing pouches are great for liquid-based food, it holds a larger fluid and you can reboil the content even with the silicone bag. Stasher bags also come in a variety of sizes and are airtight, can be put in the freezer and microwave — and even in boiling water for sous-vide cooking.
3. Eco Bags
We LOVE these bags – reusable mesh bags and our self-sewed muslin cloth bags. Our cart is always filled with them when we go to the market, as well as the grocery store. It is so convenient when we go to market, just open it and store all the produces without using a single plastic. They are light and effortless to wash, not to mention fast dry and you can use it repeatedly.
The white ones, we got from EverEco, they offer a variety of sizes and styles to choose from, for starters we recommend an assortment to get started. The one we got came in 8 pieces with a storage bag to hold them together. Simply use, wash, repeat. These netted bags a “game-changer,” as they’re breathable, lightweight, all-natural, and hold everything from loose lettuce to lemons. We love not using any plastic at the store to get my groceries.
4. Glass Containers
We adore the 356+ IKEA storage containers – their design evolve and become better. Their original design came with a plastic-lid cover (which we have it with us for at least 5-8 years now) however they’re starting to wear off.
The grip of the plastic covers are broken but fortunately, we have Silicone Stretch Lids now, they help to seal up the old glass container and works perfectly! We always said, “don’t throw away or purchase the glassware, they last you for decades due to their sturdiness.
With their new bamboo lid containers – they are stylish and long-lasting. You do not need to worried about the harmful chemical from plastic. We got the 356+ IKEA storage containers as they are rather affordable in contrast to different brands out there.
5. Storage Jars
Most of our glass jars are from Weck Jars, Le Parfait Jars and Ball Jars, we love the good qualities glassware from them but undeniable they can be costly. During quarantine, we have more time and learned to shop wiser. We have started to collect jars from our purchases – stop choosing plastic packaging and opt for the jars. Little you know, they are perfect for storing and save you tons of spending in jars. Yes, sometimes the lids are ugly but we can’t wait to share with you how we deal with those ugly lids without spending a cent.
We loves to bring this to the “farmers” market or the store, where you can buy grains, nuts, and other items in bulk, a.k.a., without any packaging. Such as Scoop and The Source.
We got ours from various brands – Weck Jars, Le Parfait Jars and Ball Jars from major department store locally like Tangs, Robinsons and Metro but you also can get on their official website which we have shared their links.
6. Silicone Baking Mats
Bakers, homemakers and anyone of you, say more to baking papers and say “hi” to the un-baking silicone mat. It is heat resistant proof and you can reuse it with a wash for years before it wears off. As we mentioned, Silicone is our favourite materials in the kitchen, they are just the perfect invention in the modern world.
You can find it on their Seed and Sprout official website for the best selection and deals.
7. Silicone Stretch Lids
Say more to cling wraps from now on – why do you even spend dollars and hundreds a year for the plastic wraps? It makes no sense economically and environmentally. When you can resolve with a good set of Silicone Stretch Lids, you can say goodbye to the disposable cling wraps.
8. Beeswax Wrap
We love Beeswax Wrap – we purchased our very first set 3 years ago. It’s an all-time favourite in our pantry. Over the years we have traded a few sets but they can last for up to a year with proper care and regular usage. They came in various designs and sizes to accommodate your need. We got ours are from a locally by Minimakers and Bee’s Wrap which was a gift from a good friend, we find them essential and elegant.
It replaces plastic bags and plastic wrap and is super easy to clean. For us, it is the gold standard to start with when you are trying to be greener in the kitchen. We don’t trust it with anything liquid, but for sandwiches and solids, it’s surprisingly sturdy and keeps food very fresh.
Recently, we thrilled to make Beeswax wrap at home, since we have lots of left-over pieces of cloth left when we used for handicraft so it is perfect to make into Beeswax Wrap. We can’t wait to share with you when our Beeswax Wrap kit arrives.
9. Compostable Kitchen Sponge
We have swapped to compostable kitchen sponge for almost 12 months now – we’re telling you that they are more reliable than the fibre cloths. They have great in absorbent and do their obligation in perfect ways.
They are biodegradable – like my Kojac sponge when they wore-off they will end up in our fertilizer. Recently we purchase a new set from EverEco, they came in a beautiful pattern that makes us smile. Don’t you feel more sparkling even when you doing the cleaning! It acts as motivation while doing housework while a regular cloth doesn’t.
We got ours from EverEco, we also found them recently at Scoop at an affordable price.
10. Eco Brushes
Always opt for Biodegradable brushes for your dishes and pot. Yes, plastic is defiantly cheaper but if you get to choose, finding something that is could save your world for your future generation, I think it will be a wise step to do right now! We have swapped to these lovely eco cleaning tools for at least 6 – 12 months. It is lasting as compare to the plastic ones and they simply turned into our fertilizer in our plants at home. What’s better than this?
We got ours from various brands – Safix Scrub Pad and Bottle Brush from Scoops, Pot Brush from Seed and Sprout.
“There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.”
– Annie Leonard
We know that it’s a long post but thank you for being so patient! We hope that this would be helpful to you for a greener living. While previously we have shared some of the alternative replacement on facial cleansing tools so you if you are interested you can read more about it.
xoxo, Angela
No Comments