Disposables have become a mainstay of many North American kitchens 鈥� plastic baggies, plastic wrap, paper towels, aluminum foil, plastic straws and more. Reducing or even eliminating them can save you money in addition to cutting down on trash that ends up in landfills.
鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to be overwhelmed by it all, but little differences really do add up,鈥� says Lauryn Tyrell, food editor at Martha Stewart Living magazine.
鈥淚 spend about 75 per cent of my time in the test kitchen and so I鈥檓 an excellent candidate for creating a ton of kitchen waste. But we鈥檝e learned some tricks to reduce the amount of trash we produce.鈥�
(Remember that in addition to reducing and reusing, recycling is an easy option for many items, including glass, plastic containers, bottles, cans, clean aluminum foil and batteries.)
Here are a few kitchen tips:
Paper towels
鈥淜eeping paper towel use to a minimum is one of the things Martha Stewart is really serious about,鈥� Tyrell says. Each workspace in the magazine鈥檚 test kitchen features cloth tea towels, bar towels (similar to rags) and a roll of select-a-size paper towels, she says. The latter is used sparingly.
Tea towels are great for drying hands or dishes, or folding up to use as a hot mitt. Bar towels can be used for most messes. Paper towels are reserved for messes such as juice from meat or raw egg.
鈥淚t helps to have all your towel options in one place, so I鈥檇 recommend keeping rags or bar towels near where you keep the paper towels,鈥� Tyrell says. If cloth towels aren鈥檛 handy, you probably won鈥檛 use them, she advises.
And if you can鈥檛 wean yourself off paper towels, there are now several types of reusable ones made of bamboo and other sustainable materials that can be used numerous times before tossing them out, says Brandi Broxson, articles editor at Real Simple magazine. Cleaner paper towels can be recycled.
Plastic shopping bag
Carry your own canvas or string tote bags for groceries and other purchases. The key, as with bar towels, is to keep them handy.
鈥淭here are so many types of reusable bags out there that there鈥檚 really no excuse for bringing home single-use plastic shopping bags anymore,鈥� Tyrell says.
Plastic produce bags
Avoid plastic produce bags by keeping a few lightweight mesh bags 鈥� often sold as 鈥渕ulti-use straining bags鈥� 鈥� in your purse when you head to the grocery store, Tyrell says.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e also great for making nut milks or straining yogurt,鈥� she adds.
To avoid plastic wrapping on meat or fish, try asking the butcher at the grocery store to wrap it instead in paper, which is biodegradable. Or bring a reusable container to put it in.
Plastic baggies
There are a variety of new products that can be used as an alternative to baggies. Broxson, at Real Simple, recommends one called Stashers. They鈥檙e like zip-top plastic bags but are made of Silicon, and can be washed in the dishwasher and reused. They are watertight, and can go from freezer to microwave.
Plastic wrap
Both Broxson and Tyrell recommend Bee鈥檚 Wrap as an alternative to typical plastic cling wrap. It鈥檚 made of fabric coated in a mixture of wax, oil and tree resin, and sticks to the top of bowls and jars. Like plastic wrap, it conforms to all sorts of shapes. Unlike plastic wrap, it can be washed and reused, and remains sticky for months, Broxson says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not great for wrapping something drippy like a tuna sandwich, where maybe parchment paper or aluminum foil might be preferable. But as a container covering, or to wrap drier types of foods or sandwiches, it鈥檚 great.鈥�
Aluminum foil
鈥淟uckily, unbleached parchment paper works great for baking and roasting, and also for wrapping sandwiches and snacks,鈥� and is biodegradable, Broxson says.
鈥淚f you must use aluminum foil, you can wad it up into a ball and reuse it as a scouring sponge for baking dishes to get one more use out of it before throwing it away,鈥� she suggests. Clean aluminum foil can be recycled if it鈥檚 free from food residue. And many stores now sell recycled aluminum foil.
Plastic straws out
The test kitchens at Martha Stewart Living have switched from plastic to stainless steel straws, says Tyrell.
鈥淚 carry my own titanium fork and spoon, with a nylon connector so they can even be used as tongs. They鈥檙e super-lightweight, and kind of cool,鈥� she says. 鈥淲ay nicer than plastic.鈥�
