10 Simple Swaps To Make Your Kitchen Plastic Free (Almost!)

Plastic invades our lives, particularly in the kitchen. A supermarket shop always produces a mound of plastic landfill before anything has been eaten. From the film covering the broccoli to the plastic packaged pears. It’s no wonder 8 million tonnes of plastic are dumped into our oceans each year causing pollution and harm to marine life. But what can we do about it? Well, I thought I’d take you through a few simple swaps we’ve been making to help make our kitchen plastic free (almost.) But don’t worry, these swaps are family friendly and achievable.

If you’re interested in what what swaps we’ve been making in the bathroom, then please click here. 

Think About Where You Shop

Probably the biggest change to making your kitchen plastic free is where you do your food shop. I’d love to advocate shopping at specialist stores, i.e. the bakery, greengrocer, butchers or a zero waste store.  But as a working parent even finding the time to do an Internet shop is a challenge. So here are a few tips for busy mums.

Order a weekly veg box.

Riverford and Abel & Cole deliver to your door delicious organic, seasonal fruit and vegetables as well as other produce. They also use much less plastic packaging. We’ve just started getting a Riverford box. This week’s packaging included the cardboard box (which they use up to 10 times), 2 plastic bags, the plastic rain cover and a paper bag. They take responsibility for their packaging and you can return anything you can’t use or recycle. By the end of 2020 Riverford will be using certified home compostable plastic. Their food tastes amazing and I think this is a great way to encourage the family to try different vegetables. Tonight, my husband and I are have a radicchio, pear, blue cheese and walnut salad with homemade bread, a recipe that I found on their website. 

“the biggest change to making your kitchen plastic free is where you do your food shop”

It also might be worth checking if there is a scheme in your local area. In Haringey we have Crop Drop. Again it’s locally produced organic fruit and vegetables, but to keep costs down you just pick them up at your local drop off point. If you have time!

Don’t buy bulk cans.

Sounds nuts, as it is often cheaper to buy 4 cans together than 4 separate ones. But they come wrapped in that horrible plastic film and it is only pennies difference in cost.

Give back the plastic bags

We all know that ordering a bag free shop will actually result in being sent lots of bags, so just give them back there and then.

Contact your supermarket

Tell your supermarket you don’t want the plastic. If you have an Instagram account, twitter account or even just a good old-fashioned pen and paper, let them know you aren’t impressed.

Buy Bulk

These days it is really easy to get hold of big packets of dried goods from your local supermarket. Things like rice and pasta can be bought in 4kg, 5kg, 10kg etc. bags and provided you have the space to store them this is a great way of buying your dried food. It means you never run out of key ingredients and you are significantly reducing the amount of non-recyclable plastic packaging used.

 Make Your Own Bread

We are in love with our bread maker. Particularly waking up each morning to the smell of freshly baked bread. It’s so simple and quick that my husband puts it on each night. We’ve also made pizza and artisan style loaves too. We got our bread maker from John Lewis and they have a good choice with a range of prices. This is a great way of making your kitchen plastic free, as lots of shop bought bread comes packaged in that flimsy non recyclable plastic.

“we wake up each morning to the smell of freshly baked bread”

 Buy Loose Leaf Tea

We British drink 165 million cups of tea each day. Yes that is a lot. However many of our tea bags actually contain plastic. Currently many brands use polypropylene, a sealing plastic, to keep the tea bags from falling apart. This is something that is being addressed, but going into the details would be a whole other blog post! So, for the time being I have switched to loose leaf tea with a tea infuser. As a pink tea drinker I personally love Tea Pigs super fruit tea and for 20% off Tea Pigs, please click here.

Grow Your Own Herbs

If you’re fed up of rotting basil at the bottom of your fridge, then stop buying it in plastic bags for one recipe. You don’t need a garden to grow your own herbs, just a windowsill. And if you’re not green fingered, well neither am I. We have a garden and for the past year have had success with mint, sage, rosemary and even bay leaves. I just water them every so often and they look after themselves. Plus it is a real treat to have fresh mint tea every once in a while.

“fed up of rotting basil at the bottom of your fridge, then stop buying it in plastic bags”

Plastic Free Paper Towels

Most paper towels come wrapped in flimsy plastic, so to avoid this and to make your kitchen plastic free there are a couple of options.

Who Gives A Crap, who make my favourite recycled toilet paper, also produce paper towels. Each roll comes wrapped in paper with very cool designs on it and 50% of all profits are donated to help build toilets in developing areas. They cost £14 for 6 rolls. Though the rolls are much larger and last longer than usual, that is still quite expensive. So, either use this special code N4MUMMY for £5 off your first order or opt for my second option.

There’s a new online plastic free store for mamas and babies called Set Me Free. And they sell Marley’s Monsters unwrapped paper towels. Made from 100% cotton they easily clear up messes and are completely reusable. Simply pop them in the washing machine once used. They cost £16 for 6 and I really love the lemon pattern. They’ve been so popular that they’ve actually sold out, but owner Triin assures me they’ll be back in stock soon. If you can’t wait you can also get them through Etsy though Set Me Free is cheaper.

Plastic Free Scourer

Most kitchen scourers are made from metal or plastic mesh. But I recently discovered the euroScrubby by Kilo in my local kitchen shop. Made from 100% cotton it is safe to use on even non-stick pans and is completely reusable. To clean it you can either put it in the dishwasher (yes I was surprised too!) Or put it in the washing machine, just don’t put it in with any beautiful or precious clothing, think tea towels and dish cloths. It costs £3.99 per scourer and according to the company lasts 6 months – 2 years depending on use. I’ve only had mine for a month so can’t comment on that! The only thing I would say is buy two, that way when one is in the wash you can use the other one. Check your local kitchen shop or you can buy them from Trouva.

Use Beeswax Wraps Instead Of Clingfilm

Clingfilm is seriously useful, so to make our kitchen plastic free we’ve swapped to using Abeego beeswax wraps. They are made with beeswax, tree resin and organic jojoba oil infused into a hemp and organic cotton cloth. They fold over and stay in place so keeping food intact. And they are also fully biodegradable and reusable. When dirty you just wash them in cold water. They last around a year, though we’ve had one for 18 months now and it’s still going strong. The only draw back is that you can’t use them to wrap up raw meat or fish. You can buy them from the online plastic free store And Keep or there are similar alternatives on Etsy.

Buy Ground Coffee

This is a really obvious one that you are probably already doing, but drinking ground coffee is probably the easiest way to be eco-friendly. The granules are compostable and your percolator, if stainless steel, will last for life. Though I should point out coffee often comes in plastic packaging, so buy big.

Switch Baby Wipes For Natural Cloths

As a mum you won’t get through a day without using baby wipes, they are incredibly useful. But did you know many actually contain the plastic polypropylene? So one easy place to stop using them is in the kitchen. Instead of using a baby wipe to clean grubby faces and hands, switch to a natural reusable cloth. We use Cheeky Wipes which are amazing. You put them in a box with water & a few drops of essential oil and you have wet wipes ready to go. When dirty you just pop them in a wash bag which can be chucked straight into the machine without you even touching them, genius. You can choose from a range of cloths including 100% cotton, bamboo or an organic version.

Oh and as a side, I found this very old picture of Daisy the other day, and just thought it was too cute not to use! Please excuse my indulgence.

Now it may feel that these changes are trivial and won’t make much of a difference. However, we have to start somewhere and if we all made little changes to our daily lives, then that would have a big impact on our planet.

Do let me know of any changes you are making/ have made to make your kitchen plastic free, I always love new ideas!

The vegetable box was gifted to me by Riverford as were the unwrapped paper towels by Set Met Free. This post also contains afilliates, which means if you purchase I make a small commission, thanks x