5th of 7 Ways to Zero Waste-Small Steps to a Zero Waste Kitchen: Frugal Fairfielder Edition

zero waste paper towels — The great Zero Waste compromise with DH.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, we started the road to the Zero Waste kitchen when we bought a compost bin. Back in 2003, I just wanted to start making my own soil and stop paying a lot for garbage service!

Since then, we’ve started practices that got us hooked onto finding ways we could increasingly decrease the garbage we created in the kitchen.

Way #5 Start the road to a Zero Waste kitchen by changing one thing/practice at a time.

Click on links for resources for each; After we started composting, in order, we’ve replaced:

a lot of packaged food by buying in bulk: flour, rice, oats, popcorn, and dried beans by joining a food co-op (2004), and, later, a beef share from a local farm (2011). Storage containers have come from Freecycle.org, Goodwill and Crate and Barrel (with coupons, of course!)
paper napkins with cloth napkins – from Kohls Department store clearance racks (using my 30% off coupon, of course!) and make-your-own. (2006) I started when the kids were young. Dear Husband eased into it just fine. The next item was not so easy with him.
paper towels with rags from old clothes and fraying towels. This caused a battle with DH that has ended with a compromise to have a supply in the garage. I am happy to say we’ve had the same 3 rolls of a 4-pk of paper towels sitting in the garage for a year. (2007 – present)
plastic straws with stainless steel straws from Amazon.com (2010)
plastic vegetable bags, whenever possible, with either recyclable brown paper bags or mesh bags from Amazon.com (2010)
plastic wrap with Beeswrap from a friend who was selling it wholesale. (2014) It can be found here.