5 Eco Friendly Kitchen Swaps
Have you ever thought about swapping out your everyday products for better, healthier and more sustainably products?
Or have you even ever thought of what it takes for your items to be made? What they contain? Who they harm? Their carbon footprint? Their impact on the environment?
Maybe you had not thought of any of this, but most of your everyday items are made of pesticides, chemicals and harmful substances. Yikes! Oh and like if that was not enough, they DO NOT BIODEGRADE! They stay in our environment from hundreds to even thousands of years before they break down into small particles.
Want you find our what are some of the easiest swaps you can make to start living more sustainably? Keep reading. I also have a YouTube video on this with all the links.
Kitchen Sponge
Let's talk about an item we all have in our homes and use on a daily basis, your kitchen sponge. Did you know your kitchen sponge has toxic chemicals.
Makes no sense but they are loaded with several different chemicals and pesticides. They are linked to cancer, skin irritation, and other diseases. Not only are they bad for us but they hurt the environment during production and as they decompose. They are can take up to 52,000 years to decompose! That's crazy!
Swap to a more environmentally friendly product, a plant based, biodegradable sponges or a bamboo dish brush.
Produce Bags
Produce Bags can sometimes be harder to swap out because we forget them in our car or in the kitchen drawer. I can't stress enough what a great change is it to swap out those plastic single use produce bags.
Plastic produce bags are not recyclable, the material is too thing and often gets stuck in recycling machinery. Not to mention they are made of plastic which comes from petroleum and contains horrible chemicals.
They are a pest to our environment and eco system. After thousands of years they breakdown and are found in our animals and oceans. Choose reusable produce bags rather instead, they are aesthetically pleasing too!
Straws
What is the deal with straws? Why are they so harmful?
They ARE NOT recyclable. They DO NOT BIODEGRADE. They enter our food chain by breaking into micro plastics and most of our small animals mistake it for food.
Our oceans have more plastic in them then they do fish. Our fish have more plastic in them then they do food. It's so sad to see the side effects that eating plastic causes our animals.
Remember: The usage of a plastic straw is of minutes for a lifetime of harm to our animals. Opt for a reusable straw or no straw at all.
Beeswax
Do you use a lot of aluminum or ziplock bags? Chances are you do. Did you
know aluminum is made to withstand hot weather? That means that it will be very hard and will take hundreds or even thousands of years for aluminum to decompose. Aluminum foil is not recyclable due to how thin it is.
Beeswax can be mold with just the warmth of your hands and they can be use just as you would aluminum. They also come in many pretty prints which is a plus!
Cleaning Supplies
Our cleaning supplies are full of junk. They are pack with harmful chemicals that can lead to cancer, asthma, heart problems and more. It never made sense to me how something that is suppose to help clean your home was harming us more.
Now you can find lots of great companies offering cleaning supplies with cleaner ingredients, how it should be. You can also buy a couple pantry staples and create your own. For example white vinegar, distilled water, essential oils, just to name a few.
If you decide to make your own cleaning supplies don't forget to use a reusable bottle sprayer!
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These are just a few simple swaps we can make in our everyday life that if we all did would have a huge impact. The environment will thank you and so will yourself. Let me know in the comments below what you will be swapping first or what you already have swap.
Remember The Who point of being sustainable is not to go out there and buy more items but to reuse the items you have at home.
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