Top 5 Eco-Friendly Kitchen Swaps

ICYMI — 2 weeks ago I wrote about my top 5 eco-friendly bathroom swaps. So now it’s time to move on to the kitchen! First up — let’s talk about those kitchen cleaning and organization items (food items are a whole other story!).

The item: Paper towels
The swaps: Cloth napkins (or IKEA dish towels) for dining and old tea towels for spills, cleaning, etc.
I found our cloth napkins at Homegoods years ago (but you can also cut up an old sheet and hem the edges if you want to be extra conscious). I also find cloth napkins to just feel a bit more special so it’s a win-win. And old tea towels, hand towels, microfiber rags are all used for any kitchen cleaning required. Basically — I don’t buy paper towels at all anymore.
The item: Dishwasher detergent packets
The swaps: Bulk detergent?or powder detergent in a cardboard box
I was able to get my hands on bulk detergent from Refill Revolution (they shipped it to me in a little pouch (with a stamp on it) that I just stuck back in the mailbox after I emptied it out into my own container. However, they’ve been sold out for a while now and I have yet to see bulk detergent in the Dallas area. My backup is the eco-friendly powder detergent that comes in a recyclable cardboard box.
The item: Dish soap in a plastic bottle
The swaps: Dish soap in a glass bottle
I did really try to just use a bar soap (like Dr. Bronner’s) to hand wash dishes BUT it just left too much white residue… so ultimately, you ended up wasting water just to keep rinsing away all the residue. I managed to snag normal dish soap in glass bottles at my local Homegoods/TJMaxx. The pump mechanism is plastic but I will be sending that one piece to TerraCycle. I’ve also heard of Common Good products?– they have refill stations across the country and now you can get refills shipped to you in containers that utilize much less plastic than buying new bottles each time.
The item: Conventional sponges
The swaps: Dish Brush and cellulose sponges
I love my Redecker dish brush… the brush heads are replaceable and compostable so wins all around! Cellulose sponges are also compostable — I’ve found some at Trader Joe’s. I also recently came across walnut scouring pads online!
The item: Plastic tupperware
The swaps: Glass or metal canisters
Listen — if you already have a ton of plastic tupperware. USE IT. Don’t go out and buy new stuff. However, if your tupperware is on it’s last leg and you need new food storage options — make the switch over (after recycling the old stuff) to glass or metal. These options last significantly longer and don’t tend to get as gross as the plastic options over time. And honestly, you can just start saving glass jars from peanut butter, pickles, coconut oil, whatever else you buy and reuse those as storage for all your bulk items. And speaking of bulk items… we’ll talk more about that next week!