Embracing sustainability and health in your kitchen can go beyond buying in the farmer’s market, reducing your waste, or growing your food. You can do a lot more to make your kitchen eco-friendly!
Today, we share three essential tips to embrace Mother Gaia and take care of your body better. These cooking tips will not only save the Earth–they’ll save time!
Try These Three Hacks to Make Your Kitchen Eco-friendly
1. Ditch the Teflon
A kitchen seems never complete without at least one nonstick pan. It just makes cooking so much easier and faster. When properly taken care of, it can last for about five years, and it’s easy to maintain and clean.
However, it might not be the healthiest cookware because of polytetrafluoroethylene. Because it’s a mouthful, you know it by its more popular brand name, which is Teflon.
This primary component in nonstick surfaces releases toxic fumes that are harmful to humans, animals, and the environment. Many studies show that it can be carcinogenic and disruptive to hormone functions. In other words, it increases your risk of thyroid disorders, cancer, and even infertility.
Because of the damaging effects of Teflon, the United States gradually phased it out since 2008. Instead, manufacturers now use a different chemical called C8 or perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). While some claim this is safer than the traditional Teflon, others said that it can be just as harmful.
As for you, you can ditch Teflon and nonstick pans altogether and go for better alternatives, such as cast-iron and ceramic.
2. Use Bamboo for Cutlery
Opting for bamboo for your cutlery and entertaining silverware sets also make for great conversation pieces. This plant too is one of the most durable in the world despite being extremely pliable. It has up to three times more fiber than timber!
Even better, it is environment-friendly. To be clear, unlike other biodegradable materials, bamboo takes a while to decompose. The one you find in a toothbrush could disappear only after three years. However, it will go back to earth even if your bamboo kitchenware ends up in the landfill.
Bamboo is also a rapidly growing plant and doesn’t need fertilizers to regenerate. To produce bamboo cutlery and kitchenware demands significantly fewer resources, such as electricity and water.
3. Avoid the Zip Top Bags
There’s good and bad news with zipper top bags. You can reuse the bags as often as you like (although some homemakers say they could do so up to five times). However, if this is what you want to do, you cannot use them to store meat and eggs.
Further, although you can give your worn zippered bags to recycling facilities, more often than not, plastic ends up in the landfill.
What’s the next best option? You can use glass bottles and BPA-free containers instead. Glass containers with lids can store cut-up veggies and fruits (and they’re great for canning and pickling too). Those BPA-free ones can keep blanched broccoli, corn, and cauliflower, to name a few.
The Bottom Line on Making Your Kitchen Eco-friendly
In this age of climate change and chronic diseases, it’s time to be proactive. Do your part by making your kitchen eco-friendly. By substituting those cooking skills for some that can do more harm than good to Mother Earth, you might end up taking care of your body too.
She has a B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education/English and a Spanish Minor. In addition, she holds a Certificate in Natural Health from a fully-accredited program and is a Certified Herbologist. She pursued these natural wellness certifications due to her love for herb gardening.
Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."
Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.
Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and two rescue pets a sweet toy fox terrier and a cat who showed up one day and moved into the house. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
