Kitchen Essentials for the Eco-Conscious Homebody

Taking small steps to give mother earth a little extra love lately, we’re rounding up some of our favourite eco-conscious kitchen essentials to shop and share with you. Although we’d love to be able to build you the environmentally friendly kitchen of your dreams, we can at least help you with the small changes that make a big impact. Curating a kitchen that suits your needs can often take years of gadget collecting and one-too-many broken dishes, but when you can insert small, eco-conscious pieces into your day-to-day routine, the kitchen, aka the “heart of your home”, becomes a space for intentional and impactful living.

Here are some of Scout’s eco-conscious kitchen essentials:

1 | Bamboo Dinnerware from Xenia Taler 

Made of bamboo fibre, a well-loved renewable resource and therefore eco-friendly alternative to plastic dinnerware, these plates are BPA, PVC and Phthalate-free (and dishwasher safe, could it get any better?). Available in a variety of vibrant, conversation-starting colours and patterns, you can add these stunning and sustainable pieces to a kitchen built for bright souls and feel good about adding to your eco-conscious collection.

 2 | Reusable Snack Bags from Colibri

Made in Canada with a 100% cotton outer layer and messy-proof inner compartment, these snack bags come in a few sizes and patterns and are ready to go on adventures with you and your family. Great for sliced fruit, loose snacks, sandwiches, or baked goods, these machine-washable bags are a super simple alternative to single-use plastics in your kitchen. 

3 | Beeswax Wrap

A personal favourite eco-conscious kitchen essential of mine, beeswax wraps are an easy (and much prettier) alternative to traditional kitchen plastics. This pack of wraps by Ten & Co. comes with three different sizes, keeping your food fresh for longer in breathable, beautiful, washable, and most importantly, reusable style.

4 | Handmade Mugs

One of the beauties of handmade ceramics is that you are often supporting small, local businesses while also purchasing items that aren’t made in large-scale factories. Purchasing from small businesses can help offset single-use, wasteful consumerism. The handmade mugs we have collected on the shelves of Scout are handmade by artisans and artists, supporting small-batch crafting and sustainability.

5 | Recycled Fabric Napkins from Knotted Nest

Available in a variety of colours and patterns, these fabric napkins do a double-take as an eco-conscious kitchen essential, as they are both reusable AND made of recycled materials. These napkins are built to last for years, so you’ll be saying goodbye to your paper napkins and never looking back. These napkins are washable, durable, and lovingly handmade right here in Toronto, Ontario. 

6 | Bowl Covers

Bye bye plastic wrap! It was good to know you! When talking about reusable kitchen essentials, bowl covers are always a must. With a lining that prevents moisture from escaping, keeping your food fresh and your fridge full, these bowl covers can be used for a variety of different leftover-saving needs. Not only does it replace single-use plastics, but it also helps reduce food waste by making it easier to save and store your kitchen creations for another time. 

7 | Swedish Dish Cloth + Tea Towel Gift Set

Swedish dishcloths can absorb 15x their own weight in liquid and replace the use of up to 17 rolls of paper towel, instantly reducing your overall waste that ends up in landfills, making this an easy kitchen switch. Safe to use on all surfaces and naturally anti-bacterial, the swedish dish cloth makes kitchen cleaning easier and better for the planet. Paired with a matching tea towel, this set makes a great gift for your eco-conscious friend, but if you're just looking to simply make the trade for the best dish cloth on the market, we carry a big variety of different swedish dishcloths, too!

8 | Reusable Tumblers

Good for the environment and for your wallet, to-go tumblers are a simple way to remove smaller, single-use plastics from your everyday use. With different styles, sizes, and needs in mind, we carry a handful of tumblers that will make packing your coffee, smoothies, or water on the go both easier and eco-friendly.

9 | Loose Leaf Tea from New Moon Tea Co.

Blended and packaged in Vancouver, BC, New Moon Tea Co. keeps a focus on 100% organic, small-batch, farm-to-cup tea products that sing sustainability practices from the rooftop and proudly package really good teas with a really great cause. Using biodegradable packaging and plastic-free shipping methods, adding a little treat to your kitchen in the form of a warm cup of tea (that cares about the environment as much as you do) is essential. 

10 | Dish Soap Cubes and Plastic free Brushes from Make Nice Company

What if I told you that we had the secret to making dish washing a bit more enjoyable AND eco-friendly? We love these solid dish soap bars, omitting the plastic bottles we’re all used to. This dish soap replacement does all the same washing, but happens to also be vegan, 100% natural, and environmentally sustainable. With different brush styles to go with your dish washing preferences, the brush and soap combo mitigates multiple throw-aways in your kitchen and provides a luxurious product while you’re at it.

Small businesses are often the backbone of big movements like eco-conscious kitchen tools and changes in our everyday steps to take towards environmental protection. Being able to source and sell these eco-conscious kitchen essentials at Scout and share their impact with our community is an absolute dream, and we hope you find one (or all) of these heart-of-the-home shoppables to be helpful in starting to curate your own eco-conscious dream kitchen.