Top 5 Easy Tips for Reducing Waste in your Kitchen
In honour of the release of David Attenborough’s testimony, ‘A Life on Our Planet’, we here at KITCHENWORLD have collated our top 5 easy tips for reducing waste in your kitchen.
According to the EPA, people living in Ireland generate an estimated over 15 million tonnes of waste each year. Having an organised kitchen is a sure start to managing your waste effectively. Without further ado, here is how you can make your own positive impact on the planet.
Source: Getty Images
#1 Freeze your food to make it last longer
Being one of the largest contributors to global climate change, food waste is a massive problem. Freezing your food is an excellent way to prevent it from going off quickly and minimising the risk of food waste. You can even freeze bread!
#2 Organise a bin area inside or outside you kitchen to split up your recycling
If you have an organised space with clear labelling, which is easy to access, you're more likely to keep on top of your recycling.
#3 Turn off and unplug your kitchen appliances while they're not being used
With the sheer amount of appliances in the kitchen, it is likely your kitchen could be a massive energy waster. Even when you turn your appliances off they will still slowly drain energy so make sure to go one step further and unplug them too.
#4 Get creative and upcycle any empty glass jars you have.
Before turning to recycling, think about how you can upcycle glass jars to create a unique piece for your home or a handy storage device. Perhaps to use as a vase; maybe to create a candle holder; or even to store grains and seeds etc.
#5 Replace kitchen roll with reusable cloths
Kitchen roll production contributes to deforestation, pollution and requires large amounts of water consumption. Furthermore, the paper industry is the 5th largest energy consumer in the world. Not to mention kitchen roll is also non-recyclable and its soft plastic packaging often ends up in landfill. Reducing your kitchen roll use and purchasing reusable microfibre cloths is a tiny change that would make a huge impact. An even more environmentally-friendly option would be to cut up old towels to use instead.
Source: Getty Images