Must-Have Gear for An Eco-Friendly Kitchen
A quick rundown of the best eco-friendly gear we’ve have tested over the years.
Buy the OXO Reusable Straws:
Buy the GIR Suction Lids:
Buy the Abeego Food Wrap:
Buy the purifyou Reusable Produce Bags:
Read our full review:
Browse our latest recipes:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
Yikes — creating an eco-friendly kitchen by USING LOTS AND LOTS OF PLASTIC. Nylon bags, plastic lids, etcetera. There are natural, actually compostable, reusable alternatives. Do better please.
The GIR silicone suction lids you recommended are GARBAGE. This universal suction lid didn't work on 20 different kinds of bowls. All sizes. I was in shock at how truly terrible they were as I've never felt misled but ATK. I emailed them wanting to return the product and they said it was that I wasn't using them right and refused a refund. Seriously awful products with terrible customer support, take this off your list
Great ideas!
Not exactly about eco-friendly, just reducing plastic waste which, while important, is only a portion of waste reduction, and certainly a fraction of the whole eco-friendly realm. This could be a whole series, like, I'd be interested to know what the energy savings are for an induction vs gas vs electric cooktop, as well as different ovens, and how do they balance against the eco-cost of manufacture?
The biggest scam of the "green" movement is corporations convincing consumers that it's our job to clean up the environment. Corporations do the vast majority of the damage to the environment, and a few metal straws isn't going to help
I love Wetex dish cloths. They are reusable over and over again, dry fast so they don't harbor germs, you can wash them with your regular towels or my favorite in the dishwasher and when your done with them they are compostable!
I will say it if no one else will. These are all horrible plastic gadgets that you DO NOT NEED. Don't drink out of a straw. Use real containers for leftovers and reuse them. Cover your pots with a metal plate, etc.
Composting as well as keeping some veggie scraps in the freezer (to use for making broth) helps also… it’s interesting to see your garbage dwindle down and consist nearly only of plastic containers and wraps.
Wow, these look great. Thank you Lisa.
I need to buy more stuff so I can be eco-friendly!
🙄
Good grief. The most eco-friendly objects are the ones that you have that you keep using.
Came for the tips, stayed for Lisa McManus.
What’s the fluffy red thing at the beginning of the video?
Can you help with an easy and reliable way to determine what dishes are lead free and safe to use in cooking and eating?
Eco friendly items!
::also starts out with an item that is completely unnecessary and requires tons of extraction and manufacturing to create an object that solves the problem of people that are too lazy to use lids or tip their cups.::
Totally eco friendly!
The greenest thing you can do is swap your diet to ingredients with a low carbon footprint.
Veggies, grains, and beans are always better than mutton or beef in a reusable bag.
I use the produce bags and burn them once a week, to get rid of that accumulated rotten fruit sludge.
I have been using all of these items for years.
IKEA sells a set of grey-toned silicone covers as well, comes in small, medium, large
Imagine stabbing yourself with a metal straw because you walked around with it in your pocket
Love all of these ❤👏🏼👏🏼
interesting!
Buy second hand so resources aren't wasted in production of unnecessary new products. If you want but don't need DON'T BUY. But those straws are really needed, right?
Thanks for this review of the ecoproducts, and as the person below says – bring your own shopping bags. As of January 1st, 2023 – all stores in CO must charge 10 cents per bag and as of 1/1/24 – no more bags!
polyester = micro plastics in the wash bad bad bad, silicone breaks down within use in about 5 years – then what?
Metal straws are the poster child of misguided environmentalism. The amount of energy it takes to cast metal straws is far higher than what it takes to make bales of plastic straws (btw, we have compostable plastic straws, now), and the amount of energy and water you use hand-washing these straws makes it really questionable as to whether the time you take cleaning these stupid straws wouldn't be better spent just cleaning up trash from outside every once-and-a-while.
The solution to environmental problems caused by our current way of life are not individual adjustments, they're macro problems. We need to stop burning oil for electricity. We need local production of goods. We need more efficient transit systems for the goods we can't get locally. We need to stop building and living in wasteful, decadent suburbs and sprawl, and commute via public transit if we work in an urban center but live outside of it.
The silicone lids and produce bags in this video are great. I'm going to look into getting them myself. That said, I'm going to continue using plastic wrap and aluminum foil for food items I'm going to put in the freezer and I'm going to continue buying plastic straws. The real quantity of plastic used by these things is miniscule and is made up for by the amount of time they save me to improve the world in a more real way. Companies would have never been so successful replacing so many everyday items with single-use plastic versions if single-use plastics weren't really damn good at a few, specific things.
I'm not feeling this ATK! Seems you all are either unknowledgeable or gaslighting/greenwashing things. Polyester!! It's just synthetic fabric, made of plastic. Silicone (500 years to decompose in nature), is it really eco friendly due to intensive resources needed for its production? Maybe it's recyclable but probably not at your local recycling center. Are these things compostable/biodegradable? You need to do better! I'm ashamed of you. Consumers, I would look for items made of natural materials such as cotton, wool, etc that are at least compostable when they wear out.
Maybe the beeswax is okay, I'm not sure yet, but you certainly gave incorrect washing instructions. The ones I just looked at say make sure to wash with cool water, not warm water. Warm water will cause them to deteriorate faster.
Stupid nonsense. Cook how you want and use what you want. This video is so stupid.
Beware of SS straws. A woman in the UK impaled herself and died.
steel & silicon straws suck, if you want the best reusables, get borosilicate glass straws. they are by FAR the best straw around
I question the wisdom of replacing a tiny amount of plastic with a thicker amount of plastic that, while reusable, doesn’t have an endless life and thus ends up in the landfill anyway.
Just store stuff in glass jars or glazed ceramic containers with lids.
Just remember: reusable stuff has to be reused a BUNCH of times before it is more environmentally healthy.
Can you guys do reusable vacuum bags and zip lock bags?
More money to manufacture, more water and sewer usage, detergent usage and eventually you have to throw away because it is NOT recyclable. …how woke. LOL. As long as it makes you feel good even though it’s more wasteful.
For jotting notes in the kitchen Bic Revolution pens are made with 75% ocean-bound recycled plastic.
Also: bring your own reuseable shopping bags, there are even some that click directly into the cart. ❤️
I miss the young nice lady…
These help create an eco-friendly kitchen, sure. But are the products themselves eco-friendly?
They clearly have stock in OXO’s parent company.
You said to wash the wax paper with warm soapy water but you don’t, the warm water distorts the wax
LOVE THIS!!!
TFS!!
Eco-friendly kitchen. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I prefer glass straws over the aluminum for home use. The experience is bougier. You're also sure of how clean the straws are. I've had mine for years, use them daily and have yet to break one.
ohh is that how you store bread? i feel like i can never keep bread good for long
Most eco related stuff is just marketing.
I try to avoid stuff marketed like this or promoting the green religion. I've been doing most of these techniques for decades without the help of eco-marketing, and without the cost.
I am just going to be blunt, most "Eco friendly" stuff is a scam and usually useless crap you just don't need.
Reusable straws – Honest to god no one needs these. The footprint to manufacture silicone and steel straws eclipses more disposable straws than a normal person would ever use in their life. That said, just quit using straws people. I haven't used one in a decade.
The bowl covers – One of the very very few good idea's.
Reusable produce bags – First I'm just not carrying my own bags to the store, second if you don't have a million and 1 things to do with those plastic grocery bags, I don't know what you are doing with your life. People need to learn to reuse stuff. I have jars and can's and bags that I've had for decades that I use all the time for storage and movement. I don't throw away metal or plastics unless it is straight up broken. Instead of buying more stuff, learn to re-purpose the stuff you already have. Reusing is always more "eco friendly" than buying another product.
Once you start learning to re-purpose things instead of just "Buy, consume, dispose" then you start realizing just how many of these eco friendly products are just another method to sell you more crap.
I have most of those already, except for the silicone lids. I’m shopping for those now! Thanks!