These 8 Tricks Will Make Your Cooking More Sustainable

Your lifestyle affects your carbon footprint, whether you’re driving around town or hanging out at home. It can even harm the planet when you’re cooking. Check out how to make cooking more sustainable without changing your entire diet. You’ll support the environment and still get to enjoy your favorite foods.

1. Buy Local Ingredients

When you pick up a cucumber from a grocery store, there’s a good chance it arrived by truck, plane or cargo ship. Getting produce from a farmers market staffed by local farmers ensures it used much less gasoline to arrive in your hands. Shop for food at nearby farms to shrink the carbon footprint of every meal.

Remember, local food only supports the environment depending on the manufacturer and its business practices. A farm down the road from your house will likely provide food with lower carbon emissions than items shipped from across the country.

However, if your local farmer uses chemical-based pesticides and the distant manufacturer uses biodegradable methods, their environmental effects may equal out. Look for farms with eco-friendly practices to ensure your purchases are as green as you want them to be.

2. Cover Microwave Dishes With Silicone Lids

People often cover food with plastic wrap before microwaving it. You’ll keep sauce from splattering all over your microwave, but you’ll also contribute to single-use plastic waste that fills landfills. Opt for reusable silicone lids if you need to warm up a meal or melt an ingredient. You’ll eliminate plastic from your kitchen routine without increasing how often you need to wipe down the inside of your microwave.

3. Thaw Food Before Cooking It

Frozen foods almost always have recommended cook times on their package, which may vary by each food and its size. You would need to cook a frozen lasagna much longer than a single frozen burrito due to its depth. If you defrosted them before putting them in the oven, they’d cook much faster.

Faster cook times use less electricity, which shrinks your carbon footprint. Experts note that thawing and refreezing food can cause bacterial contamination, but if you cook your food immediately when it finishes thawing, you won’t have to worry about getting sick.

4. Swap Paper Towels for Cloth Alternatives

Paper towels simplify how people clean their kitchens, but they also rely on environmental destruction like deforestation. Swapping them for washable hand towels is much better for the planet. You’ll still be able to wipe down your counters and dry your hands, but you won’t generate paper waste. It’s an easy way to start transforming your kitchen routine as you learn how to make cooking more sustainable.

5. Utilize Water More Efficiently

Water is essential when you cook. There’s no way to get around its necessity when you’re boiling spaghetti or rinsing veggies so they’re safe to eat. Instead of letting it wash down the drain, save your water whenever possible.

You could use the water from boiling pasta to fill dishes that need to soak in the sink. You could also use it to water your outdoor plants if you have Earth-friendly pesticides on hand.

Insects already eat starch in plants because it’s their form of carbohydrate, so they’ll swarm your yard even more if you add more to your landscaping. You could save the water you use to rinse produce and water your plants with it.

6. Compost Food Waste When Possible

Although you can’t compost meat, you might be able to help food break down naturally if you eat lots of produce. Fruit and vegetable scraps can decompose in a compost bin and transform into fertilizer for your next outdoor project. Depending on your household waste, you could also add things like grass clippings, cardboard and peanut shells.

Hang a list of compostable goods in your kitchen so you always feel confident that you’re adding the right waste to your bin. You’ll send less trash to your local landfill and improve the environment with the nutrients that you’ll put back into your soil.

7. Enjoy More Plant-Based Meals

Skipping meat one or two nights a week won’t just reduce your grocery budget. It could also support the environment more effectively than any other kitchen habit.

Low-meat diets affect the environment 30% less than those with lots of meat. Enjoy plant-based proteins like beans, nuts or legumes for at least one weekly meal. Your cooking could become more sustainable overnight because you’re not funding the meat processing industry and all its carbon emissions.

8. Start Recycling Food Packaging

It’s always possible to recycle some of your food packaging. The plastic container that held your salad or the cardboard box that contained your frozen meal could easily turn into new goods at a recycling plant. See if any companies pick up recycling where you live. If not, save time once a month to drive your kitchen waste to a recycling plant. You’ll stop sending reusable materials to landfills without changing what you buy at the grocery store.

Make Your Cooking More Sustainable Today

Anyone can learn how to make cooking more sustainable. The key is finding the strategies that work best with your kitchen routine. Think about how you could save water, source groceries from local farms or even swap ground beef for pinto beans once a week. If you try one strategy at a time, you’ll build sustainable kitchen habits that improve the planet’s health.