Your wasteful kitchen exposed
To have a truly eco-friendly kitchen, you’ll have to kiss goodbye to that coffee pod machine. Caroline Botting reports.
To get an eco-friendly kitchen, you may have to break up with some of your favourite things – including that coffee pod machine and the waste disposal unit.
More waste is created in the kitchen than any other room in the house, and while recycling has its place, it is reusing and reducing that really make a difference.
In her new book Eco Home author Melinda Williams shares practical guidelines on how to improve your green-star rating if building or renovating a home.
‘‘We need to rethink waste and minimise this in the first place,’’ Williams said. A simple step is to have a system where you can recycle everything possible, including your soft plastics, paper and food waste. ‘‘Have three to four different bins, including the landfill, but recycling should be the biggest and landfill the smallest,’’ she said.
Set up your pantry for bulk refills and get rid of your coffee pod machine and waste disposal, too. ‘‘Everything you put down the waste disposal you can compost. You’re putting waste into the sewage system that doesn’t need to be there. It can be much more effectively returned to the earth as compost. They use electricity and water,’’ Williams said.
Used coffee pods can’t be placed in a standard recycling bin and are often made of mixed materials. While you can send them back to be recycled, the issue is actually doing it.
‘‘Go old-school and make the change back to a plunger or stovetop brew,’’ Williams said.
The kitchen is one of the best places to start when you’re re trying to decrease your environmental footprint. Here are more tips from Eco Home.
Cabinetry
If you have a kitchen where the layout works for you but the doors and handles are looking tired, you can save on doing a full renovation by simply replacing the doors and handles.
If replacement is necessary, ask for the VOC (volatile organic compounds) emission information of the cabinetry you are considering. Look for low- or zero-VOC products.
Using recycled cabinetry is an environmentallyfriendly option. Salvaged cabinetry can be found at demolition yards and on Trade Me.
Taps and mixers
Kitchen sinks can chew through water. Many new kitchen mixers restrict water flow or have aerators that can get the flow down to as little as 2 litres a minute (though 4 litres is usually more practical).
Appliances
The Energywise website (energywise.govt.nz) has a brilliant running-costs calculator that will help you compare the annual energy costs of different appliances based on their star ratings. A 400-litre fridge-freezer with a 2-star energy rating might cost you $138-a-year in running costs, but if it had a
4-star rating, it would cost $81. Dishwashers with a
5-star Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme (Wels) rating use as little as seven litres of water per wash, making them more environmentally friendly than washing dishes by hand.
Ovens and cooktops
If the environment is a priority for you, induction cooking is the clear winner. It’s faster and more
‘‘Everything you put down the waste disposal you can compost.’’ Melinda Williams
efficient to heat than gas – which in turn is faster and more efficient than standard electric.
Bench tops
Quartz composite is a by-product of several mining processes, so this is sometimes advertised as a ‘‘green’’ choice. It’s durable, and unlike stone does not need sealing. Some brands of quartz composite bench-top carry Greenguard certification.
Stone is naturally water-resistant, inert and emits no VOCs. However, it’s worth investigating where it comes from and researching worker standards there. Look for locally quarried stone or stone with a transparent sourcing process.
Stainless steel is easy to clean, hygienic, resistant to corrosion, long-lasting and recyclable.
Concrete gives flexibility in the bench-top form and edging but has a high embodied energy, and the production of cement releases significant greenhouse gases.
Solid-surface terrazzo is similar to concrete in that it contains a marble or granite-chip aggregate in a cement or resin binder. Most epoxy resins contain bisphenol A (BPA). Look for terrazzo that uses polyester resins instead.
Solid wood is a natural surface which you prepare food on directly. Wood bench tops can also be sanded back and refinished easily.
Reducing food waste
A single New Zealander sends on average 61.2kg of food waste to landfill each year. Here are some tips to reduce this:
❚ Pay attention to the foods you regularly eat over a couple of weeks. Tiny changes to your shopping habits can easily eliminate rubbish that you throw out every week.
❚ Go fresh. There’s a direct correlation between the amount of processed food you eat and the amount of rubbish you generate.
❚ Make basics. It can be rewarding to make your own staple foods like bread, butter, yoghurt and stock.
❚ Lightweight, reusable produce bags (usually string or recycled plastic mesh) will help bring your plastic bag count to zero. Invest in reusable storage containers for bulk foods.
❚ Segment your bins to make waste separation easy.
❚ Save money and lessen your plastic waste by growing herbs instead of buying them already packaged in pots.