Olivia for the Ocean

A typical kitchen can be full of disposable plastic. While food packaging is the most obvious plastic in our kitchen, there are many other plastics that can be replaced. Here are some easy plastic-free swaps in the kitchen:

Paper Towels to Cloth Towels

Paper towels are wasteful. They generally come wrapped in plastic. They are made from trees and cannot be recycled. At best you can compost them. A better alternative is to have cloth towels made from natural fibers like cotton, hemp, or bamboo. I keep several cloth towels on my kitchen counter to clean the counters and wipe up after spills.

For dirtier tasks, I keep some old burp cloths from my kids were babies as rags.

Paper Napkins to Cloth Napkins

Same idea as a paper towels. We stopped buying paper napkins years ago when I bought a set of cloth napkins. We even have an extra set of cloth napkins for my kids’ birthday parties!

Sandwich Bag to Stashers Bag

As I talked about in Plastic-Free Food Storage Containers, I use Stashers bags to store cheese and deli meats. They’re a great substitute for plastic sandwich baggies.

Plastic Cling Wrap to Beeswax Wrap

Need to cover a bowl or wrap a cut avocado? Instead of plastic cling wrap, use beeswax wraps. They are made from cotton and beeswax and can be composted when no longer useful.

Dish Brush to Wood Scraper

I used to have a wood dish brush with natural fiber bristles until I discovered these wooden scrapers. Now, we never use our dish brush. It’s great for getting the toughest foods off pots and pans without damaging them.

Tea Bags to Tea Strainers

Nearly all tea bags contain plastic. Not just the pyramid plastic-looking ones, but also the paperish ones. With each cup of tea you could be drinking billions of microplastic particles! I switched to loose-leaf tea and use either a tea strainer or a tea clamp. Loose-leaf tea is a much higher quality and I like that there’s no more plastic in my tea!

Coffee Pods to Pour-Over Coffeemaker

In 2016, over 9 billion K-cups were sold and since each pod is a combination of different types of plastic, they are not recycled. Switching to a coffee maker is an easy swap to prevent a lot of plastic from entering the landfill or our ocean.

Plastic to Glass Food Storage Containers

As I mentioned in Plastic-Free Food Storage Containers, I don’t like my food touching plastic. Plastic leaches chemicals in our food and the cumulative effects of absorbing these chemicals is unknown. That’s not a risk I want to take with my family.

Plastic to Wood Cooking Spoons

Given the last point, I extend the same concept to anything I use to prepare food. So, I make sure all my cooking utensils that touch heat are either wood or metal.

Plastic to Wood Cutting Board

Finally, plastic bendable cutting boards look convenient but they can develop tiny cuts from your knife with can harbor bacteria. Wood cutting boards are tougher and can avoid those tiny cuts where bacteria can hide.

What do you think? Have you discovered a few swaps you want to try? Or do you already use some of these swaps?

For related and random posts, check out:

• My Minimalist Kitchen
• Beginner’s Guide to Minimalism