Kitchen with less trash

Napkins, paper napkins?, cloth napkins?…

The paper napkins? In plastic packaging? With different patterns? I didn’t like them. The patterns? Especially Easter and Christmas patterns. No, not for me. Or the simple white paper napkins? No, not for me. But this is purely a matter of taste, too. I never liked them. I bought them, but I didn’t like them. And then just through away? Not anymore. I like the simple way.

We always had some paper napkins at home, we didn’t use a lot, and my little son came and won this time, too :-). At every meal one napkin. His mouth always has to be clean. Lots of paper napkin… in the trash.

I had some pieces drapery at home, so I sewed some napkins. Now I just have to wash them…

Paper kitchen rolls? Ye, ye!

No, no… When I began to read some zero waste articles, I just realized that whatever happens, first thing: GET a paper towel! Why? Lately we can live without paper kitchen rolls, my husband too :-). If I have to wipe up some water, tee or whatever, I can do that with a dish-towel, for example. But I sewed some little drapery kitchen towel. They are just perfect for these things. Honestly I didn’t know when I heard last time from my husband: Please, by next time buy some paper rolls! He can live without them, too!

Plastic wrap? Aluminum foil?

These things are so expensive and are in no time used up! I’ve got some leftover aluminum foil, but I don’t use them. Plastic wrap? Not anymore. Somehow I can live without them. Now I don’t know for what I used them. If I have to put something in the fridge, I cover it with a plate or put it in a box or put some beeswax food wrap on it. Lots of possibilities. Originally I wanted to put sandwiches in the beeswax food wrap, but the handmade napkins are just better.

Kitchen cleaning sponges

I always thought, that these things are hateful. They look just blaaa… Okay, I’m done with sponges, I thought… First I crocheted a scrubbing sponge from yarn, but it became be so big, that I use it for bathing. After that I crocheted a little sponge that brown packaging rope. It smelled and would never dry out. So I threw it away! After this I sewed a couple of cleaning cloths from an old bed sheet. Na ja, not perfect. Finally I bought some 100% recycled sponges and a wooden dish scrubber. The recycled sponges are awful too and are falling apart, but are halfway perfect for cleaning the cooking plate.

Drinking straws

Children like them, of course. We always kept some straws at home. My big son didn’t use them so often. But my little one? He simply likes them. Every day one new plastic drinking straw? Not anymore. I couldn’t watch it anymore. A little bit research and I found on amazon.de some metal drinking straws with good reviews. They are easy to clean and my son likes them, too.

Drinking straws

Garbage bags, garbage bags, Go away!

Plastic garbage bags. Obviously comfortable. But not environment friendly. These bio, eco, etc garbage bags are NOT environment friendly, too. Quite simply, these become micro-plastic (fall into small pieces)! I think everybody knows, why that is not so good.

I try reducing our trash. It is becoming less, but we still have a lot. I’m not using garbage bags anymore. We have some trash bins in the kitchen: one for kitchen waste (bio), one for plastic, one for residual waste, one for paper. For the bio waste I use some newspaper as garbage bags.

The residual is mostly contains the used tissues from my little son. We don`t have cloth tissues, yet. From September until May the nose of my little son is always running. Used up about 15 tissues per day… That amount of thing coming from his nose, is blaaa… So paper tissues are staying for a while, but am buying the eco-friendly paper package tissues.

Our plastic trash mostly contains the packaging of cheese, whipped cream, sour cream. I didn’t find a solution for these things, yet. Milk and yogurt are now in glass bottles. I just use yogurt for muffins, one bottle per week, milk, too. Whipped cream and sour cream one per week, too. I definitely have to find some place, where I can buy milk in refundable glasses.

Food things

Nearly everything in the supermarket is wrapped in plastic. That is insane… I’m walking and walking and all I see are plastic packages everywhere. It is a challenge to find something in packaged paper or in a glass. Paper is okay, paper is paper. It could be less, some day.

Paper package: flour, yeast (not dried), pasta, butter.

Bottle: milk, yogurt, olive

Plastic: cheese, whipped cream, sour cream, meat, chocolate

What I should do, is to sew some bags for the vegetables and fruits (I have some, but more would be good). I should buy some metal boxes for salami and meat.

I have to work on these things.

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