Reducing plastic in the Kitchen
The kitchen is probably the place where we accumulate the amount of single-use plastic. Just like the bathroom, I want to give you some ideas on what you could do.
Shopping in a refillery or bulk store is an easy way to get rid of all the plastic around the ingredients you need for your daily cooking and baking. Bulk food stores usually have a wide range of ingredients now in their bins. I love my regular shop at @refillnationstore and see what they have available. I either take my Tupperware container or random jars I find in the cupboard. They also have jars in-store or paper bags you can use.
The best part for me is that I can also get my milk in glass bottles there. Initially, you pay for the glass bottles but over time you just swap them and only pay for the milk. A great way on cutting down on those plastic bottles.
We also use the milk to make our own yoghurt. I will share the how-to this week.
Another easy swap when going fruit/veggie shopping is skipping the plastic bags provided. Either get yourself some reusable produce bags (I borrowed the one in the photo from a friend) or go without. I just have all my fruit/veggies loose in the trolley and at checkout.
Gladwrap is one of the other plastics used only once. Why not switch to beeswax wraps. The ones we have are all handmade but there are lots of companies making them. You can even find them in the supermarkets now. The sticky part of the beeswax wraps allows you to seal the bottle/jar or whatever else you are covering. The beeswax will get soft with your warm hands and molds easily around the objects. You can use it to cover bowls, wrap sandwiches and cut fruit/veggies.
Did you know that most teabags contain plastic? Not even talking about the packaging but just the tea bag itself. We love loose leaf tea. I shop at a store in Mount Eden called Chapter Bookstore. They have lots of teas in choose from and if you bring your jars you get a 50c discount.
I hope you enjoyed reading this and found some inspiration of what you could tackle next.
I bet you already doing lots of these. Do you have other things you do?
Shopping in a refillery or bulk store is an easy way to get rid of all the plastic around the ingredients you need for your daily cooking and baking. Bulk food stores usually have a wide range of ingredients now in their bins. I love my regular shop at @refillnationstore and see what they have available. I either take my Tupperware container or random jars I find in the cupboard. They also have jars in-store or paper bags you can use.
The best part for me is that I can also get my milk in glass bottles there. Initially, you pay for the glass bottles but over time you just swap them and only pay for the milk. A great way on cutting down on those plastic bottles.
We also use the milk to make our own yoghurt. I will share the how-to this week.
Another easy swap when going fruit/veggie shopping is skipping the plastic bags provided. Either get yourself some reusable produce bags (I borrowed the one in the photo from a friend) or go without. I just have all my fruit/veggies loose in the trolley and at checkout.
Gladwrap is one of the other plastics used only once. Why not switch to beeswax wraps. The ones we have are all handmade but there are lots of companies making them. You can even find them in the supermarkets now. The sticky part of the beeswax wraps allows you to seal the bottle/jar or whatever else you are covering. The beeswax will get soft with your warm hands and molds easily around the objects. You can use it to cover bowls, wrap sandwiches and cut fruit/veggies.
Did you know that most teabags contain plastic? Not even talking about the packaging but just the tea bag itself. We love loose leaf tea. I shop at a store in Mount Eden called Chapter Bookstore. They have lots of teas in choose from and if you bring your jars you get a 50c discount.
I hope you enjoyed reading this and found some inspiration of what you could tackle next.
I bet you already doing lots of these. Do you have other things you do?