Daily hacks: How to make your kitchen more environmentally friendly

You usually spend a lot of time in your kitchen, because this is where you do all of your cooking and meal preparations for yourself and loved ones.

These four tips can assist in making small changes in your life to reduce your carbon footprint and make your kitchen a more environmentally friendly space.

Cook with in-season ingredients

According to Chef Norman Heath of Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront, not only do in-season fruits and vegetables taste a whole lot better than those that have been imported, but using in-season fruits and vegetables as ingredients for your dishes is a great way to almost immediately reduce your carbon footprint.

“In-season fresh produce is also locally sourced, thereby reducing transportation costs as nothing needs to be imported and, you will be supporting local farms, local markets and local employment all with this one choice to buy in-season.

“As a restaurant and hotel, we also save money by buying local, in-season products and we pass these savings on to our patrons,” says Chef Norman.

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Make some changes to your electricity consumption

“Reduce your energy bill by making small changes. This may mean switching to LED bulbs or changing the timer on your geyser so that it only heats up when you expect to need warm water,” said Matthew Cruise, lead campaign manager of Hohm Energy.

A geyser can account for 40 to 60% of your electricity bill each month. By installing a geyser timer, you can regulate that the geyser is off during peak times. A geyser blanket will maintain the heat in your geyser, so that it does not need to be switched on as often. 

Use environmentally friendly cleaning products

Retail outlets across the country now have a wide range of environmentally friendly cleaning products and many often don’t cost that much more than your regular cleaning products.

Environmentally friendly cleaning products have less to none hazardous chemicals, which means that they are likely to pose fewer health risks.

Purchase in bulk and compost your food scraps

Not only does buying in bulk save you some money in the long run, but it also has many environmental benefits. For starters, bulk goods make use of less packaging and will result in you making fewer trips to the grocery store, which means that you will also be saving on gas.

When your peeling and chopping your fresh produce at home, consider composting your food scraps. If you are big on gardening, then you can use your homemade compost to grow and nurture your own plants, saving your money on store-bought compost and manure.