Eco-Friendly Kitchens

from Worcestershire Now - FEBRUARY 2020

The Leap Year Proposal - Is It a Good Idea?

More and more people are trying to do their best to become environmentally friendly in their on homes. By making simple changes to your everyday life, can make a big impact on the environment. Eco-Friendly Kitchens Harvey Jones - Arbor Kitchen

Worcestershire Now

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Green cleaning Use biodegrable soap for washing your hands or cleaning dishes. Ethical cleaning company Bio-D are the UK’s leading manufacturer of environmentally responsible, ethically sound, hypoallergenic, vegan cleaning products. Containing only naturally derived ingredients, they produce a number of kitchen cleaning products. Alternatively, create your own simple surface cleaner from distilled vinegar, lemon juice, essential oils and water.

Save Water Structure plumbing so that the water can be used for multiple uses. When you’ve boiled water for veg or pasta, use that for continued cleaning or to water the plants. Only use the dishwasher or washing machine when you have a full load. This way, you will be making the most out of your appliances every time.

Qettle is a 4 in 1 kitchen tap that dispenses 100°C boiling water, cold fi ltered drinking water, plus normal hot and cold flows from a single spout. It costs just £0.02 pence a day to run; by comparison, a kettle will cost £0.03 pence every time it’s boiled. The availability of cold fi ltered drinking water is another

bonus – the Qettle tap’s fi lter system removes unpleasant tastes and odours e.g. chlorine – so there’s no need to purchase bulky, expensive bottled water – or to contribute to the plastic waste mountain!

You’ve got it covered Energy saving ways don’t just have to be about what you consume, but also in the structure of your kitchen. Apollo Blinds have introduced a range of blinds made from recovered shoreline plastic They utilise recycled plastic, retrieved from beaches, remote coastlines and inland waterways, transforming it into a long-lasting high-performance roller blind fabric. Greenscreen Sea-Tex fabric is energyeffi cient, fi lters sunlight and is fully recyclable. It’s also PVC free. Fifty per cent of the fabric’s weight is recovered ocean plastic.

Check your appliances When using your washing machine using a 40°C wash cycle rather than 60°C means you use a third less electricity. Make sure your fridge freezer has a A+++ energy label We found the difference between the A+ rated fridge-freezer and the A+++ one is about 5%

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of an average household’s total electricity use. The difference between the C rated one and the A+++ rated one is a full 20%.

Try not to put your appliance next to a heat source such as a cooker or radiator, as this will make it work harder to stay cool. Air also needs to be able to circulate around the back of the fridge freezer, so make sure there is enough space around the back of the appliance. It is also important to keep it clean as dust increases energy consumption.

In 1979 the inventor and engineer, Ossie Goring, was bothered by how much energy his old cooker was using and, living at a water mill in the village of Coaley, he decided to set about creating a much more environmentallyfriendly range cooker which could run off a small water turbine he had installed. A few months later, Ossie had perfected his ‘tricklefeed’ design, which allowed his invention to be powered by a small but steady flow of electricity – enabling it to run off the water turbine (or a standard 13amp plug) – and the fi rst Everhot was born. Everhot range cookers use less than half the energy of comparable range cookers. Ossie’s ‘trickle-feed’ design requires only a small but steady flow of electricity, so they can run off a standard 13amp plug and remain the best heat storage range to work with renewables.

Recycle, recycle, recycle The UK recycling rate for Waste from

Households (WfH; including IBA metal) was 45.7%, increasing from 45.2% in 2016. There is an EU target for the UK to recycle at least 50% of household waste by 2020. Check with your local council for ways that you can recycle your rubbish. There are a multitude of ways that you can recycle and it can be overwhelming and time consuming having several different coloured bins to put each separate item of waste in. Here is a run down of what Worcestershire County Counil advise on recycling.

Worcester City Council is responsible for the collection of all municipal waste. Waste disposal is carried out in partnership with Worcestershire County Council An alternate week wheelie bin scheme is operated in Worcester.

Food waste in the black bins should be wrapped or contained within a bag. This will help keep the bin clean and reduce the potential for smells.

Recyclable materials should be placed loose into the green bin. As these materials should be clean, they will not create smells or a mess within the green bin. n