Create a Zero Waste Kitchen in 6 Easy Steps

Going zero waste is something that we should all be striving for. With huge amounts of plastic pollution entering our environment each year, we’re seeing more and more irreversible damage. Zero waste living requires some planning and effort. But, if you have the right gear and approach, reducing your living waste is achievable.

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One of the best places to start is at home. Creating a zero-waste kitchen can be done with a few easy steps and swaps. This guide will get you on track to being more sustainable!

How To Have A Zero Waste Kitchen

Creating a zero waste kitchen requires effort. But the payoff is worthwhile. In our kitchens there are two main sources of waste:

1. Food Waste
2. Packaging Waste

Reduce your food waste

The best way to reduce your food waste is by buying less. Purchase only what you need and keep track of the amount of food that goes unused.

In this day and age, we really shouldn’t be throwing away any food from our kitchens (not including food scraps). In the USA alone, it is estimated that up to 40% of food produced gets wasted.

Compost food scraps

Food scraps are different than food waste. Food scraps are a great source of nutrients for our gardens. We use an electric kitchen composter, it creates an efficient, quick way to reduce our waste, and we can use the nutrient rich ‘dirt’ in our garden!

If you don’t have a garden, try using one of the kitchen bench compost bins and either use the compost in some potted plants at home or take it to your local community garden or friends home with a garden. We sometimes even create a compost smoothie for our garden!

Reduce your packaging waste

The three main ways in which you can significantly reduce your packaging waste at home is by:

1. Shopping at local farmers markets and stalls for your fresh produce (collect the goods in reusable bags)
2. Shop at bulk food stores – bring your own containers to fill up
3. Make more food at home instead of buying packaged alternatives

There are more and more eco-friendly and zero waste products so that we can say no to plastic!

Here are our top tips for creating a Zero Waste Kitchen.

1. Reusable Bags & Containers

Packing is one of the biggest issues faced when dealing with home waste. This includes the temporary plastic packing that you use to collect the products you buy. While you might not be able to control what manufacturers use or do in regards to their own packaging, you can make some simple zero waste kitchen swaps to significantly lower your impact.

The famous “three R’s” includes reduce, reuse, recycle. Where we can have the biggest impact is by reducing. In many cases, reducing your need for shopping bags will be one of the biggest ways you can impact your kitchen waste.

Bring reusable bags when buying groceries

This might seem like an obvious option to many, but a zero waste kitchen really starts when you leave your home. Having your own set of reusable produce bags will have a huge impact on your waste reduction.

Plastic bags are one of the worst, global polluters. And while the plastic bag ban has come into effect in many locations around the world, they are still very much in circulation. It will likely be many years before plastic bags as we know them are no longer produced.

Therefore, having viable plastic bag alternatives is essential, here are some of the best reusable grocery bag options.

Have a Supply of Zero Waste Containers

Knowing where to buy bulk (produce in large containers that you can fill yourself – instead of coming pre-packaged) is a great start. Go to a bulk food store or zero waste store where you can bring your own containers to fill.

Here are some zero waste kitchen essential container swaps:

• Glass canisters with bamboo lids or stainless steel lids are great for if you want to have your produce (flour, oats, pasta, etc) on display! A cheaper alternative is to wash glass jars that you might already have from the store (pasta jars etc).
• Stainless steel containers and Glass containers are great for keeping your leftovers, or lunches in. Or for some nuts and snacks if you go out!

2. Ditch The Disposable Gear/Actions

The aim of your zero waste kitchen is to remove single-use items. If we think about the “three R’s” again (reduce, reuse, recycle) being able to reuse items in your kitchen is the second most essential stage. These are the essential reusable swaps for a zero waste kitchen:

• Beeswax wraps are a great natural alternative to clingfilm/plastic wrap. They are made from a mixture of cotton and beeswax, rosin and oil. Beeswax wraps can be washed with cold and soapy water, and are available in lots of colours and sizes.
• Silicone bags are the perfect replacement for single-use ziplock bags. They are made from sand and are BPA and other harsh chemical-free. Silicone bags can be used in the freezer, microwave or even thrown in the dishwasher

Switch to reusable cloths

A zero waste kitchen should not have any single-use throwaway items like paper towels or “chucks” (the mesh rags that you throw away after a couple of days).

While cleaning items like chucks might seem better than paper towels because you get a few more uses out of them, they do not compare to cloths that can be washed and reused over and over again.

If you’re worried about getting your cloths too dirty, have a range. Use old rags/clothes for the real dirty business and keep some nicer (display) cloths that you use for the more superficial wipe downs.

Here are some great options:

• Swedish dish cloths are reusable, super absorbent, and last for up to 50 washes (then are compostable).
• Unpaper Towels

Reuse your coffee grinds

If you’re like many people. Coffee plays a vital role in your daily kitchen routine. A product being used at such a high volume means that it is one of the households most typical waste products.

But, did you know that used coffee grinds make a great source of homemade body scrub?

Buying coffee pods is a no-no for your zero waste kitchen. Even though they say pods can be recycled, there is still a huge amount of plastic being used unnecessarily in the system.

Turn your coffee grinds into a scrub

This simple process brings new life to your used coffee grinds. Whether you use a French Press or an espresso machine, simply follow the steps below for a rejuvenating body scrub:

• Let your used coffee grinds dry (on a window ledge or in the fridge)
• Add coconut oil (around one tablespoon of oil to one handful of grinds)
  • You want your mix to be at a paste consistency
• Add a couple of drops of your favourite essential oil (Lavender works great)

Use in the shower as a full-body scrub. The coffee really brings your skin to life while the oil adds moisture for a soft, vibrant glow.

3. Dish Soap Bar

Cleaning up in a kitchen is part of the daily routine. It generally requires some kind of cleaning agent. These usually come in the form of a plastic bottle filled with cleaning liquid.

Dish soap bars are a great zero waste kitchen swap. They are made using natural products which are better for the environment (as it washes down the sink) and doesn’t use plastic containers.

Baking soda works too!

Try using baking soda to clean also. It is mildly alkali and reacts with dirt/grease to release it from a surface. This makes the surface easier to clean than with straight water.

Baking soda is cheap to buy and normally comes in cardboard boxes which is a great zero waste hack.

4. Use a natural scrubber

Most people associate loofahs with showering/bathing. But they are essentially a scrubber that can be used for any kind of cleaning. Loofahs work great in the kitchen as a replacement for typical scouring pads made of plastic (the yellow sponges with green hairy bits on top).

The green hairy bit is actually plastic fibers. These have a tendency to break up into tiny pieces over time and contribute to one of the leading pollution issues of our time – microplastics in the ocean.

Try swapping to an all-natural loofah instead. They come from an Egyptian Cucumber. Essentially they grow on trees and are then cut and dried out to create the rough scrubs that we call loofahs!

5. Lose The Packaging & DIY

Food packaging really is an issue for any zero waste kitchen. There are a couple of ways in which you can significantly reduce your kitchen paging intake.

How to reduce your grocery packaging

Here are some of the ways in which you significantly reduce your packing waste for your zero waste kitchen.

Reduce packaging for fresh produce

Unless you live on a farm or have a self-sustaining garden, you’re likely buying fresh produce from supermarkets.

• Shop at farmers’ markets – these markets rarely wrap produce in plastic. Bring your own reusable plastic bag alternatives.

Reduce packing for dry goods/non-fresh produce

Apart from shopping at bulk stores, bringing your own containers & reusable bags, you can make your own products.

While this is more time consuming, it is better for a couple of reasons. A great example is crackers.

Try to make your own crackers

Crackers make a nice, easy snack or meal. But buying packaged crackers comes at a cost. In most cases, crackers have high levels of artificial preservatives in them like sodium benzoate, sorbic acid, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).

There has been some research that states consuming preservatives is not good for you. Which makes sense. If they have the ability to keep organic material from naturally breaking down over time, what are they doing to our insides?

Besides the health impact, store-bought crackers come in plastic packing. Often packaging inside of packaging. To achieve a zero waste kitchen you have to start swapping out the store-bought (packaged) goods for some homemade alternatives.

Here is a recipe for making homemade crackers in around 30 minutes (mostly baking time). If you buy the ingredients (flour/salt) from a bulk store, this snack can be truly zero waste.

Another example of DIY zero waste kitchen food is nut milk.

If you have switched to a plant-based milk, like almond or coconut, you can make your own at home, easily.

Get a nut milk bag and try making your own today.

How to make almond milk at home using a nut milk bag (in two steps):

• Put raw, roasted almonds into a blender with water [tap water is OK] (1 cup almond to 2 cup water)
• Blend then pour into a nut milk bag and strain into a container

How to make coconut milk at home using a nut milk bag (in two steps):

• Put 2 cups of fresh coconut meat (or shredded coconut) and 3-4 cups of water in a blender
• Blend until the mixture is combined, then pour into a nut milk bag and strain into a container

Get creative – turn your zero waste kitchen into a hub of excitement

Experiment with your food. It’s always more fun when you turn things into a group exercise.

Try making your own bread, pasta, yogurt. Any chance you have to avoid buying packaged goods will help you on your way to creating the best zero waste kitchen.

6. Ditch the plastic bin liner & try a Compost Bin

We really don’t need to have a plastic bag in our kitchen waste bins (unless you’re going to recycle your plastic bag).

>> Click here to learn more about why you don’t need a plastic bag in your trash bin.

So many plastic bags can be avoided if people stopped using them for trash. Simply dumping your trash into a curbside bin without a bag is OK. You can wash out your bin as needed.

One of the biggest ways to reduce your kitchen waste is to start composting. Up to 50% of kitchen waste is actually compostable, organic material. This takes us huge space in landfill sites, unnecessarily.

Compost at home

If you live in a house with a garden, compositing is an amazing way to reduce your waste and get something in return. Compost is great for the garden and can help you produce amazing zero waste produce.

If you don’t have a garden you can simply compost on your kitchen bench.

Place your food scraps in a Kitchen Compost Bin

Why? 

• It sits on your kitchen benchtop and takes up hardly any space
• They have a charcoal layer built into the lid to absorb odors, so food scraps will not stink
• They’re easy to clean after dumping out the waste
• Different colours to suit any kitchen

What Are Some Zero Waste Stores

There is a great selection of zero waste stores online and with shopfronts. Get to know the stores near you and learn more about how to eco shop.

Can you really have a zero waste kitchen?

There are a lot of ways to reduce your waste and reduce your carbon footprint. However, do they really get to the point of “zero” waste.

There is quite a lot of unseen waste that occurs in creating products that most people are unaware of. For example, water plays a huge role in the production of goods. It takes around 200 liters (52 gallons) to produce on egg. How can that be? All the water used to feed the crops to feed the chickens mostly. To make one steak it takes around 2,500 liters (674 gallons).

In terms of the recently popularised phrase “Zero Waste”; waste is generally referring to the material left over – once a product has been used by the end-user (you and I).

Unseen waste in everything

Is it, therefore, a waste of water to create steak? Not if you like steak.

What about the electricity to run the refrigerators that keep the steak cold between transport locations or the fuel used to transport it. The fossil fuels burned create atmospheric waste. The list goes on.

The zero waste debate is tough. But it is a great target.

In summary, creating products on a mass, global scale creates waste. It is also difficult to determine what really is the waste of a product. The best thing to do for us as consumers is to:

• Shop locally
• Make our own produce
• Use environmentally safe products
• REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

More Zero Waste Ideas

Here are some other zero waste products/ideas that you can implement around the house or on your travels:

• Shampoo brands that are zero waste
• Toothpaste options for zero waste bathrooms
• Zero waste travel items

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