Plastic-Free Kitchen Challenges

Last week I was all gung-ho about pushing my kitchen to be more plastic-free. I even had a plan. But here's the update: This is going to be a bigger challenge than I initially thought.

I knew this change wasn't going to happen over night, but this is certainly going to take some serious doing.

It's this new awareness that's surprising me most of all. I thought I had a good idea of the amount of plastic I bring into my kitchen. But once I really scrutinized what's at home and then the markets -- and what goes in my shopping cart -- I'm COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY. It's A LOT of plastic.

Let's start with coffee. When we moved to France, I got a cute little Nespresso coffee machine that makes me cute little cappuccinos each morning ... with single-use plastic capsules. Yes! No!

I guess I could clean each little capsule and recycle the plastic, but that's not really the point, is it?

It's all about the swaps, right? So, the swap here is to teach myself how to use my French Press. I found this handy article (which includes making frothy milk and homemade chia, who knew?!) and added a few guides to my Zero-Waste Pinterest board. I'll admit it, I'm intimated by the numbers: The water temp and the coffee-to-water ratios. But let's look at the benefits here, WAY less expensive and removing the coffee machines frees up space on our counter space.

Then there are the convenient (because that's what makes plastic so great, right?) of the plastic-wrapped meal helpers from the market. What are the swaps there?

We have a Marks & Spencer (it's a British company) in the neighborhood and they have these handy meals -- a bag of veggie mix, pre-diced meat, a dish of noodles and a bag of stir-fry sauce. Voila! Dinner is ready in minutes with no chopping! But each and every item is wrapped in plastic. Much I can't even recycle. Argh!

They also have great soups in plastic jugs (Alice loves the tomato soup) and frozen veggies, ham and the most delicious little cookies with a dark chocolate coating. I eat them all day. All of these things are sold in plastic wrapping! Let's not even mention all the exotic juices the girls have come to love and drink down in one sitting.

Grr! It's so prevalent! It seems impossible, really. How are we going to do this?

Some of the blogs or advocates I've found are finished with their transition and are producing just a little waste each hear (it's awesome), and they can provide great advice. But I'm also finding a few folks who are still in the process, such as the folks from The Slow Home Podcast who are a year or so into their plastic-less home shift and still looking for swaps. I find their advice inspiring and reassuring. They are all about going at your own pace and hitting only a few things at a time. But enjoying the process; being creative, problem-solving, experimenting. There's no finish line and no one is keeping score.

So, step by step.

And as a reminder ...
From an Instagram Accounts I Find Helpful, Jarfull Co
Here are a few more Instagram accounts that all are about Zero-Waste living:



Related posts:
Read more about this Less Plastic project
My Zero-Waste Ideas Pinterest board 
More ideas about Reusing stuff instead of throwing it away 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The $80 Kitchen Pantry Update

Image
It took two days and about $80 in supplies, and now our kitchen pantry is REBORN! Here's a quick review of the project in pictures, starting with the BEFORE pictures: My main issue with the wire shelves were bottles or anything "thin" would tip over. And with my commitment to bulk, I wanted to store glass containers in here but knew they wouldn't be "safe." I foresaw broken glass at some point. Plus, it's a great space, so I knew I could add more storage space if I was strategic. Last, wire shelves are ugly. So then I demo'd the pantry and painted the walls (which was just primer) with leftover paint from the rest of the house. It's called Polar Bear. I paid an electrician to install an outlet at "counter height" in the pantry, so I could move the dumb microwave off the counter. (The electrician did a slew of other small jobs around the house, not just this outlet, including a motion-activated light in this pantry. Tres Fancy
Keep reading »

Family Calendar Improvement

Image
 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don
Keep reading »

Basement Shiplap Project

Image
The guys left me all the unused shiplap from the bathroom and I've been trying to think about where to use it. I had so many ideas but not a lot of shiplap, so I eventually settled on this corner of our basement. It's where the exercise mats and treadmill live, right behind the sofa. And also where the Marvel-themed bathroom with shiplap is located. So it made sense. It took much of a rainy Sunday to cut and nail up the new boards ...    I even had enough to do on the "backsplash" of our little kitchenette in the basement I've been slowly building out.  Next up will be to patch all the nail holes and calk around the edges for a clean look. And then the best part ... picking out paint color. Since this is a "free" project, I'm hoping I can find a color in my paint cabinet.  I'll keep you posted. 
Keep reading »