10 Tips to Green Your Kitchen
Many people these days are looking for easy ways to make their daily lives greener than ever before. What better place to start helping make your lifestyle a little greener than in the kitchen? Known as “the heart of the home,” kitchens can be transformed into eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable rooms with certain changes in place.
The following list has some great suggestions, some of which are feasible in most situations and some that are not. Take a look through them and see what you can do to make your kitchen a green kitchen.
1. Dish cloths and towels
Over the last couple of decades, people seem to have forgotten about reusable dish cloths, towels, and rags for cleaning. Using far less paper goods will not only save you money but will cut down on your waste too.
2. Recycled paper goods
If the situation requires paper goods, buy recycled. They are more affordable now than ever before and help minimize environmental impacts of paper usage.
3. Make your own cleaning products
Vinegar and water is an excellent cleaning and disinfecting solution that can be used to clean nearly everything around the house. Other ingredients, such as lemon and baking soda can be quite versatile, and are gentle and safe to use in many applications around your home.
4.Update old appliances
This may not be possible to do all at once, but you can swap your old refrigerator for a new energy efficient model. The same goes for any old major appliances.
5. Embrace natural lighting:
Whenever possible, open the curtains or blinds and use natural light to help reduce your energy consumption in the day time.
6. Compact fluorescent lighting
Most kitchens may already employ some form of fluorescent lighting, but the area where you eat may not. Compact fluorescent bulbs last 10-15 times longer and use less than one-third of the energy of regular incandescent bulbs.
7. Use biodegradable soaps and cleansers
In nearly every supermarket these days, you can find the biodegradable products all together in one place. These are really great if you have small children or pets, as there are no harsh chemicals that could cause any harm.
8. Indoor plants
Indoor plants not only brighten things up and make things look pretty inside, but they help remove carbon dioxide from the air and turn it back into oxygen. Plants also help remove impurities in the process.
9. Grey water system
One of the more challenging tips on this list, grey water is the used water from your kitchen sink. Using biodegradable soaps only, the water from your sink is re-routed to containers, rather than into the sewage system. Once the water is collected, it can be used for watering plants, gardens, etc.
10. Dedicated recycling containers
Have several containers near your trash can where you separate your recyclables by paper, plastic, and glass. Sorting your recyclables will help make the process easier once the goods reach the recycling center.
This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of Organic Coupons. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com
Related Links
