How to be Sustainable in Your Kitchen

Jacqueline Regan 

One of the places in the home that we, as a society, spend the most time is our kitchen. Between dishes, groceries, and hundreds of meals, we produce a lot of waste.There are some simple but effective ways to reduce waste in your kitchen that will help not only your wallet, but our beautiful planet, too.

Many people are unaware of the effects of every-day items on our planet and our bodies. Regular dish soaps can pollute waterways and negatively affect our bodies. This is why the first thing you can do to attain a more sustainable kitchen is to use biodegradable soap. Brands like Dr. Bronners make excellent and affordable options. The best part about this is that it is a concentrated soap and can be diluted with water, which prolongs the usability of the soap and saves money and plastic. It also serves many purposes in your kitchen, from hand soap to vegetable wash, which makes it a kitchen staple. 
Another cleaning product that comes highly recommended is the natural sponge. Regular kitchen sponges often contain several types of plastics that take hundreds of years to decompose. A great alternative to this option are sponges made from natural fibers, such as coconut or loofah sponges. These fibers and sponges exist naturally and decompose in a much safer way to our planet than their plastic-based peers. If you take care of these sponges and disinfect them often, they can live a long and helpful life in your kitchen. 
There are also lots of reusable paper towel options. On the market right now there is everything from bamboo fiber based cloths to beeswax food wraps. However, a less well known option arguably is the most effective, and that is the squeegee. The squeegee is the perfect alternative to paper towels for cleaning any solid, flat surface, including windows and countertops. You can wipe and clean surfaces with your kitchen sponge with some product, and wipe away clean with the squeegee. Not only will you save money in the long run by not repurchasing paper towels each week, but you will never waste another paper towel cleaning up your dish-washing countertop mess again!
There are also ways you can use less single use plastics in your kitchen. When grocery shopping, opt for reusable bags and select products without one-time use plastic wrapping as opposed to their counterparts. You can also reduce waste by investing in glass tupperware containers and silicone, reusable sandwich bags. The glass tupperware will last years longer than the plastic options, and they are safer to eat out of because they don’t allow microplastics to leach into your food. All of these options will save you money in the long run as well, which is an added benefit.
Something important to note is that these are useful alternatives to the less sustainable parts of your kitchen, but only after you have used your current products to the fullest extent. It is far more sustainable to use your current dish sponge for another month than throwing it away and buying a natural one. Even when you decide to invest in new products, try to repurpose your old items before throwing them away, like how old plastic tupperware without lids can be used as drawer organizers. There are endless possibilities for repurposing and reusing items as much as possible before ending their lives in our homes. Doing this helps the planet astronomically and it will help you save money.