Getting Rid of Waste in the Kitchen

Great tips from Wendy, too. In Seattle, the water is very soft so I don't use vinegar in the washing machine or dish washer here, but in Denmark, the water is very hard, so I always poured some vinegar in each wash.

Composting is of course a great thing, but only for house dwellers so far, at least where I live (in an apartment)

Another idea: I just bought a floor steamer to save cleaning products. It uses very little water and only water, a cloth - and electricity. Other users have complained because they are a little fragile, so you have to push gently if your floors are very dirty. For me, it's been a feast to use. It slides softly over the floors - AND carpets!!!! (when you add a special carpet glider to the rag) I HOPE the extra electricity I use makes up for the water and cleaning products I save!

David has a very good point: In Denmark, where I'm from, the health authorities encourage people to shift their rag/cloth to clean up spills/the one you use on your counter tops/stove every day for hygiene reasons. I do it 1-2 a week. The towel for your hands I shift once a week since I can see it needs it by then. The one for the floors I put for wash after 1-2 uses depending on how dirty the floors were. The towel to wipe dry kitchen ware that needs to be hands washed, I also change once a week since they need it by then. And when I wash these cloths, I use very hot water so I wait till I have a full load. I also wash the sponges. and dish washer brushes go in the dish washer.

All the above minus 4) and 9) since I usually don't eat yoghurt. I will now go looking for some cloth napkins - great idea :-)



I don't have a microwave, but getting a toaster probably saved some electricity instead of either roasting bread on a frying pan or in the oven.



I try to not let the water tap run unnecessarily, but I would like to find a water saving tap (as I had in Denmark)



I buy very little produced food, unless you count cheese and hard southern European sausages as produced. I TRY to buy local but I must admit that it is VERY hard to find good local cheese besides Beechers, and as good as it is, I like variation. I haven't seen any good local hard sausages (to eat on bead, not roasted) On the other hand, WA is a wine lover's paradise and not too bad for chocolate lovers :-))



Use low energy light bulbs. (although it's hard for me to accept that in WA they are supposed to be thrown in your normal garbage, I'm used to them being considered as highly toxic)



Try to only use 'eco-friendly' cleaning products. Although I don't entirely trust that such a thing exist. So I try to only use as little as needed each time.



Use vinegar and soda to clean/de-chalk as far as possible instead of more polluting/chemical products, which I'm allergic to.

Also, getting a case of Mason jars is very useful for storage of dry goods. We use them for leftovers and also for storing things like beans, rice, bulk spices, etc. Plastic in general I avoid for obvious reasons (BPA's, leakage).



If you are looking for plastic bags, many grocery stores have bins in front of the stores where people have dropped them for recycling. One time I forgot my reusable grocery bag and just pulled some out of the bin. Not only did I reuse the bag, the cashier credited me 5 cents per bag that I "brought" in. Ha ha!



Another big money saver is making your own homemade soups. Much, much cheaper and will give you a few meals for the week when you make enough. No recycling of cans of soup (although we do sometimes used canned organic ingredients to make some of the soups, such as black beans, but those can also be bought in bulk).

I also use microfiber towels for cleaning: surfaces, windows, spills. They are washable. I happen to buy the ones that were meant for car detailing because they were cheaper and more per package than the ones that are designated for home use. Big deal if I use them the way I want to! The secret to keeping microfiber cloths working well is to not use softener in the laundry (which I stopped doing a long time ago, white vinegar in the rinse cycle container is much greener and also gets rid of any laundry detergent residue, as if you are still using regular laundry detergent!)

Great suggestions! Just to add a couple of things -- you actually can wash sponges -- top rack, dishwasher. Also, consider composting. We have a fun how-to video for making your own composting bin for use indoors. It's easy and really works.

http://jm.ly/nvXraw

David, that's a good point, and you are right that one also has to be fairly careful to not over-wash ones rags! So it depends on your rag use. Personally, I have two kitchen towels: one I use to clean up spills, and one clean rag I use to do things like dry my hands when I wash them. The one I use to clean up spills, I wash more often: say once every couple weeks. The one I use to dry my hands I probably wash once every month, maybe less. Unless you have a major gross spill there is rarely a need to clean your rags more often than that. Also because I only throw in my rags with the rest of my laundry, there isn't any more water used. A couple rags are small enough that they are not going to result in another load! So yes, your point is well taken, but I think if people use some common sense, they will be able to use rags in a fairly judicious way that doesn't result in a lot of water waste.

A paper towel is not washed when it is finished with but a rag is. So there is a need to equate the loss of the towel with the wastage of the water. Your explanation does not take this into account, a situated sometimes called "pre-agenda".