Guest post by Jakob Barry

If you’ve been thinking about going green at home the kitchen is the perfect place to start. That’s where we spend much of our time preparing and eating food and it’s probably where ninety percent of our household waste originates.

Alternatively, when it comes to water and electricity usage a good portion of our household utility bill can almost certainly be traced back to the kitchen. Resourcefulness when it comes to utilities is another way to cut down on waste.

That being the case here are a few essentials that can transform the kitchen into a more efficiently working eco-friendly environment.

1. Recycling bin: Since one of the easiest ways to go green in the kitchen is reuse and repurpose, recycling is a good place to start. What’s needed is a bin sectioned off for plastic, paper, and glass that can be placed under the sink or off to the side in the pantry. If there’s room having three bins for better organization is the preferred option. Either way the point is for the recycling station to be in a non-obstructive place but easily accessible so it’s ‘used and reused.’

2. Compost bucket: Second on the list is something to round up all fruit and vegetable peals and various other scraps of food for composting. This will cut down on waste sent to the landfill but more importantly once the compost is ready it will provide spectacular nutrients for your garden’s soil. Eventually, between recycling and composting you’ll find you may not need garbage bags again.

3. Eco-friendly cleaners: So many of the products we use to scrub dishes, tiles, and floors are made from chemicals that harm our environment. Replace these with eco-friendly brands which won’t taint soil, contaminate aquifers, or produce unsafe fumes that can affect our breathing and cause illness. Useful natural cleaners could also be made from household staples such as vinegar and baking soda.

4. Energy saving bulbs: You may think that when there’s a lot of daylight the type of bulb in the kitchen ceiling doesn’t matter because you won’t use it often. However, even in sunny states like California, San Diego electricians will tell you switching from incandescent bulbs to compact florescent lights (CFLs) is worth it. As energy savers they will last hundreds, sometimes thousands more hours and leave less of a carbon footprint on the world both during manufacturing and when in use.

5. Local produce: Much of our produce comes from across the country which means it leaves a long trail of various carbon footprints just trying to get to your neighborhood supermarket. Whenever possible stock up with products grown and manufactured locally.

6. Organic food: Local is one thing; organic is another. When fruits and vegetables are not organic they’re usually covered in chemical pesticides known to be extremely unhealthy. Part of the problem with buying organic, though, is the price which is usually more than regular produce. One solution is to research and find out which fruits and vegetables in a regular market carry the most pesticides and buy them organic. That way the produce in your kitchen is on the lower end of the pesticide scale.

7. Non-Teflon pans: In recent years it has been confirmed that cooking with non-stick Teflon can be very dangerous because of the fumes that leach into food and the air. Go with eco-friendly non-stick options which aren’t Teflon or consider other materials like stainless steal or ceramic.

8. Green cookbooks: If you like to cook try going with healthy and hearty recipes from ‘Green’ minded cookbooks. They will provide eco-friendly tips not only when it comes to ingredients but on how to be more resourceful in the kitchen.

9. A resourceful faucet: Of all the water in our world only a minute percentage is of drinking quality. That’s why conserving as much as possible, especially in our kitchens, is important. There are a number of devices that attach to nozzles which prevent the maximum flow of water from pouring out. Other faucet mechanisms are specially made for better water conservation.

10. Reusable bags: In most of our kitchens we have a plastic bag or drawer full of non-biodegradable plastic bags brought home with the groceries. All of them are unnecessary because they take hundreds, if not thousands of years to degrade and when they do will leave environment unfriendly residue in the earth. Having several reusable ones readily available when going shopping will prevent the need to use more plastic and greatly improve our situation.

Jakob Barry is a home improvement journalist for Networx.com. He blogs for pros across the U.S. like Albuquerque, NM plumbers.