25 ways to a greener kitchen

1Do you really need all that

cling flm?

Stick to reusable plastic boxes, or use a plate to cover a bowl. For half-used fruit and vegetables, Food Huggers – fexible silicone lids that ‘hug’ the leftovers – work brilliantly (£9.99 for 4, lakeland.co.uk).

2Use microfbre cloths They reduce the need for harsh sprays but need frequent washing – just throw them in the machine with your regular load.

3Don’t pour fat down the

kitchen plug hole

Fat gathers in sewers to form a solid mass, clogging them up and costing millions to dispose of. Closer to home, oil around outside drains attracts rats. Small dribbles can be scraped into the food recycling bin, but for larger amounts the advice is confusing, so it’s best to check your local council’s policy online – or give up deep-fat frying!

4Switch from halogen bulbs to LED lighting It’s a big initial investment, however it should repay itself in lower energ y bills within fve years.

5Faulty seals on oven and fridge doors waste energy They can also mean patchy performances from the appliances. Check the seals by closing the door on a sheet of paper – if it falls down, or you can slide it out without tugging, then the seal needs changing. 6Use your electric kettle to boil water

for cooking veg

Kettles convert 80 per cent of their power into heat – twice what a pan on the hob can manage. The Energ y Saving Trust (energysavingtrust.org.uk) calculates that three-quarters of us boil more water than we need – in a year, this is enough electricity to cover half the country’s street-lighting bill. For a cup of tea, try flling your mug from the tap and pouring it into the kettle.

7Chest freezers are more effcient than front-opening freezers They use up to 25 per cent less power. If it must be front opening, a freezer on the bottom is more effcient than a top freezer or a side-by-side fridge-freezer.

Cool dishes to room temperature before putting them in the fridge because hot food will force the fridge to use more power to keep cool. Equally, thawing food in the fridge isn’t just safer, it’s more fuel-effcient, and the cold air from the frozen food helps to keep the fridge itself cold.

Frost-free freezers can be up 40 per cent less effcient than ones you must defrost yourself, providing you defrost regularly – an iced-up freezer isn’t effcient either. 9 Grow your own Even if it’s just a few herbs on the windowsill, growing your own produce is the ultimate in k itchen karma – zero food miles, plus nothing tastes better!

8Use your food-waste recycling bin Food that goes into regular landfll releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Also, think twice about buying compostable bin liners, as they have to be manufactured and transported, so they have a carbon footprint too. Newspaper does the job just as well.

10 Turn off your oven 15 minutes early For slow-cook dishes such as stews and casseroles, it’s fne to turn the oven off 15 minutes before the end of cook ing time. The dish will complete its cook ing perfectly well, as long as you keep the oven door shut.