The 6 Affordable Essentials Every Sustainable Kitchen Needs

The contemporary kitchen is a nightmare to all dreaming of sustainability.

If you use paper towels regularly, you are contributing to the 254 million tons of waste that just paper towels alone create globally each year. Over 51,000 trees need to be cut down to accommodate the paper towel usage of the world in a single day. That’s so wildly unsustainable I’m struggling to put it into words! And that’s just one item in your kitchen. Don’t even get me started on the sponges.

However, there is a way to beat back the mind-boggling amounts of waste that ordinary kitchens create. Below, we’ve collected 6 items that every person even attempting an eco-friendly kitchen needs (and before anyone gets worried, they’re all very reasonably priced).

Read on to find out how you can fight the environmental impact of your kitchen!

Prestige Eco Non-Stick Frying Pan

When they said Prestige they meant prestige, and when they said eco? Oh boy, they meant that one too. It feels a bit odd to gush about a frying pan, but you’ll understand when I’m done.

Not only is it fully plant-based, but it’s made using recycled materials and is recyclable itself. Past that, it’s totally palm oil and PFOA free, and Prestige has teamed up with Tree Aid, supporting their Great Green Wall project in Africa. This means that with every item they sell, a tree is planted!

Beyond its sustainability, it’s also a brilliant pan to use in your (increasingly sustainable) kitchen. It’s non-stick and scratch-proof, while also having a handle boasting “Stay Cool” technology, and being built for good heat distribution when cooking.

Huski Home Coconut Husk Bowl

Recommended by The Eden Project, who use their products in the Project’s ongoing quest to put a stop to single-use plastics and protect the environment, Huski Home is a family-run business that specialises in eco-friendly, sustainable homeware created using repurposed natural waste.

These bowls are made from coconut shells once the fruit has been removed and the shell would be thrown away. So not only is this process reusing potential waste, but the bowl itself is fully biodegradable, so if it breaks (look, we’re all clumsy sometimes) or needs to be thrown away for any reason, it can be disposed of without contributing to environmental harm!

They’re the perfect crockery for the dinner you just cooked with your new plant-based frying pan.

Given the process used to create them, bowl sizes and shapes vary, but that’s a little exciting when you think about it - not only is this eco-friendly, but each bowl comes with just that extra bit of uniqueness. One thing to bear in mind with this bowl is that the bowl will need to be regularly treated with coconut oil (or another alternative) in order to prevent drying out or cracking - but like we’ve said, if it does crack it can be disposed of guilt-free!

Peace with the Wild Dishwashing Soap Bar

Free from plastic, palm oil and borax, this brilliant eco-friendly soap bar from Peace with the Wild (a small family-run company that aims at making eco-friendly living accessible to all) is fully vegan, septic tank friendly and handmade in the UK. Using naturally antiseptic and antibacterial ingredients it’s perfect for washing up the biodegradable coconut shell bowl and plant-based frying pan above that we’re sure you’ve already jumped on and purchased.

The small amount of packaging it comes in is fully biodegradable, so no need to worry about waste in the same way you would with a plastic bottle of washing up liquid.

And if you’re looking for an eco-friendly soap dish, both Peace with the Wild also offer a great selection of those!

EcoVibe Compostable Sponges Twin Pack

Wanting to clean your new plant-based frying pan and coconut shell bowl with your new sustainable dish soap? EcoVibes has just the thing to help out. Made in the UK by a company committed to providing eco-friendly alternatives to everyday essentials (and whose website boasts of 374 tonnes of plastic waste prevented), this sponge is not just biodegradable and compostable, it’s also plastic-free, being made from plant cellulose.

These fab little sponges are also very durable and absorbent, so even though there’s nothing to worry about when you do need to dispose of them, you won’t have to do that for a long while!

For their customers who have made the switch to this sustainable sponge, EcoVibe estimates that their sponges replace about 52 plastic sponges per year - roughly 0.5kg - per person!

And if you’re not satisfied with either of your sponges, there’s even a rather generous 30-day “love it or get your money back” guarantee!

That’s nice of them.

Helen Round Kitchen Tea Towels

Now that you’ve cleaned your plant-based frying pan and your coconut shell bowl with your sustainable dish soap and compostable sponge, you’ll obviously want to dry them with something similarly eco-friendly. Helen Round has you covered.

Not only would the very tasteful colour selection look right at home in any suitably fashionable kitchen, but each of these pure linen tea towels is handcrafted by local artisans using only ethically sourced materials at Helen’s studio in cornwall. It is also printed - using traditional screen printing techniques - with flora and fauna patterns inspired by the British countryside and coastline.

Go on, wouldn’t that look just fantastic hanging in your kitchen? And when someone says “oh my goodness what a lovely tea towel” (as we have all done) you can get smug and say “thanks. It’s sustainable and ethically sourced, as well.”

ecoegg Bamboo Towels

At the end of this list, I don’t have a fun link to the ongoing story of frying a meal in your plant-based frying pan, eating it out of your coconut shell bowl, washing up with your sustainable dish soap and your biodegradable sponge, and drying it with your sustainable and ethically made linen tea towel. Sorry. Some bits can only go so far. Maybe wiping the counter after your meal? Hmm. Don’t want to force it.

This was the big and scary one from the introduction. The source of a truly mind-boggling amount of unnecessary global waste. Don’t live in fear, ecoegg has solved it (and thank goodness they did, I was feeling very guilty).

The idea of putting your kitchen towels into the washing machine after you’re done with them so you can clean and reuse them is an odd one at first, I’ll give you, but it’s hard to argue with what it’s doing for the planet. The company reckons you can wash their bamboo kitchen roll up to 85 times before needing to replace it (that’s an estimated 1700 uses!), so it also saves from having to frequently splash out on kitchen rolls.

Bamboo is naturally strong, incredibly absorbent, and much better for the planet than traditional paper towels. The packaging for this incredible roll is also plastic-free and recyclable, being a paper outer wrap you can pop straight into the recycling bin!

Also, this is the company that made that incredible reusable laundry egg you may have read people raving about over the past year or so - neat, huh?

Congratulations! After 6 quick and surprisingly uncostly purchases, your kitchen has made big strides in sustainability with only a handful of incredible eco-friendly products that are kind to your wallet and kind to the world.

If you’re looking to decorate your new kitchen - so your guests have something visual to admire while they’re already ooh-ing and ahh-ing as you tell them about your new sustainable kitchen lifestyle, then look no further. A company committed to becoming more and more sustainable, Hidden Botanics offers a wide range of dried and artificial floral arrangements, that would be perfect for any home (and won’t wilt as easily or quickly as fresh flower alternatives). Find our shop here!

Alex x