If we are being honest, one of the most common questions we get asked is “how can I easily start to decrease my carbon footprint”.
You are not alone in wanting to decrease the amount of trash and plastics ending up in landfills but our society as a whole and the mainstream marketing for many business practices steer us in the wrong direction. We are constantly being sold to, new gadgets and gizmos are on billboards, social media ads, in magazines …everywhere we turn. Be mindful of what you buy and why you buy it … that is a really good start.
Today I invite you to look at your kitchen and make a commitment to decreasing the plastic and other wasteful items and replacing them with more eco-friendly options. I personally made myself keep a notepad of every item I put in my kitchen garbage and recycling for 1 week to see where I could start. Here is the list of items I started with and to be honest, it feels AMAZING to get rid of so many wasteful items!
Paper Towels
Now, don’t get me wrong, paper towels are an incredibly useful item for cleaning up a quick mess or spill. But have you ever considered the process of making paper towel and what that does to our planet? We are talking deforesting (made from trees), global warming and even WASTE (do your paper towels come wrapped in plastic?). On a nationwide scale, Americans use around 13 billion pounds of paper towels annually - that is equivalent to throwing out 270 million trees every year … GULP!
Alternatives:
Cotton towels like these UnPaper Towels
Bamboo paper towels found here
Make your own! How To
Reusable Food Storage Bags
I think most people by. now know how harmful single use plastic bags are for our planet. It takes just 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile. Last time you went to the grocery store and hit up my favorite section (the produce), how many of those plastic bags did you pull off the roll and stuff your produce in? I got apples, oranges, broccoli, beats, zucchini, tomatoes, asparagus and cauliflower … 7 bags! and I make about 3 trips per week getting about the same amount of produce (I have 3 kids). I already had he reusable shopping bag to put my groceries in after checking out, but I was mad when I would get home and start pulling all my produce out of those single use plastic bags. But don’t worry, it’s a quick and easy fix!
Alternatives:
Cotton produce bags . Either make some yourself (if you’re handy like that) or you can find them at your local natural grocery store or online to include Amazon.
Baskets. You don’t have to put your produce in a bag, seriously, there is not rule that says you have to. Simply put baskets in your cart or reuse some cardboard boxes if you want to separate anything before putting it up on the belt.
Cooking Utensils
Take a look on your counter or in the … cough, cough … messy utensil drawer. How many of your utensils are wrapped in or made solely from plastics? Yeah …. consider on a global scale how many of these plastic utensils are produced.
Alternatives:
Wooden utensils
Bamboo utensils
Cling Wrap and Ziplock Bags
As a mom with three children I naturally have a few boxes of ziplock disposable bags around for quick and easy food storage. I think that is the marketing that get us … it is saving US time but if you really stop to think again of the nation and the planet as a whole and what all goes in to the making of these “convenient” items, we would’t consider them convenient at all. These fall back in to the single use plastics because lets face it … that is how they are used on a wide scale and 100,000 marine animals alone are killed by plastic bags every year. Yuck … but luckily for you, there are some incredible products out there to replace these items.
Alternatives:
Silicone bags - Like these super cute Stasher bags
Bees wax paper - found in your local natural grocery store here on Amazon Or MAKE YOUR OWN
The items I have mentioned so far are a huge start to getting plastic out of your kitchen and making your home operate more eco-friendly (yeah, that’s something to brag about) but don’t stop there! Continue to go through your kitchen and if you find something made from plastic, do some quick research on items you could use as an alternative!
Have other products you use and recommend!? drop them in the comments section below and let’s all share our favorites!