Green Kitchen

Manufacturers are vying with one and another to show their customers how green they are and eco-friendliness is one of the biggest trends in kitchen design. There is a wealth of information on how to ‘green’ your kitchen with numerous products and production methods showing that kitchens of the future will be kinder to the planet and more efficient for the user. If you are thinking of a complete new kitchen, it makes sense to talk to manufacturers about eco-design and there are many companies who specialise in helping you achieve the 'green' kitchen of your dreams. Check out www.thehouseplanner.co.uk/kitchens.

Some years ago I was invited to tour the eco-house in Leicester, one of the first in the country. The worktops were made from yogurt pots and were virtually indistinguishable from expensive granite surfaces, the only difference being they were not cold to the touch and had been imported from Germany. I remember when I helped on the first eco-house for the Green Show, my friend Bernadette and I had to source many of the recycled materials from abroad. Now there is a company in the United Kingdom making work surfaces from recycled plastic.

Milestone is run by Julian Richards who has over eighteen years experience of kitchen design. In 2007, he was worried about where all the plastic bottles and containers he and his wife recycled were going. He hit upon the idea of a recycled kitchen where worktops and cupboards were made of recycled products and two years later manufactured his first 'recycled' kitchen.

Worktops are made from plastic coffee cups and cupboards are made from yogurt pots. It takes around 700 pots to make one door! The frames of the cupboards are made from pallets and fruit crates.

"We collect all these materials in our kitchens," says Julian, "so it's absolutely appropriate that they should return as kitchen furniture. When we are so obsessed with recycling, why shouldn't we have something to show for our efforts?"

"Our materials list may seem a little bizarre but by using waste yoghurt pots, vending machine coffee cups, wooden pallets, fruit crates, packaging and trimming from saw mills, we have produced a good quality, attractive, contemporary kitchen and have done it well within most peoples' budgets." Visit www.milestone.uk.net.

For those that want an environmentally friendly material, which has a limitless colour range and a polished surface, Resilica could be the answer. The product is suitable for work surfaces, floors and furniture and is made from 85% recycled bottle bank glass and held together with a specially developed solvent free resin. It is considered a contemporary alternative to quarried stone but beware it is not cheap. The company that makes Resilica, Eight Inch is based in the South East at Newhaven in Sussex. Visit them at www.eightinch.co.uk

The UK lags behind other countries when it comes to promoting the use of recycled goods in building and design. On mainland Europe and in the US, materials are more widely available and imaginative use of hemp, straw, recycled wood or plastic is used in building materials. We tend to see these materials used on innovative buildings such as Grand Designs and we need developers to be far more pro-active in sourcing recycled materials. We need more people like Julian and those at Eight Inch who understand the challenges ahead of us and come up with innovative solutions to combat them.

You’ve designed your kitchen to make the most of room’s natural light, you’ve bought an eco friendly kitchen and you now need to think about those energy guzzling appliances. Fortunately appliances are energy rated and there is no need to buy the most energy wasteful dishwasher or fridge. The ratings go from A-F, and the Energy Saving Trust has a compare page on their website. Visit www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/energy_saving_products. Alternatively contact your local energy advice centre on 0800 512012 for free impartial energy efficiency advice. They will also be able to tell you whether you are entitled to any grants for upgrading your boiler or improving your insulation.

Of course, you can have the most eco-friendly kitchen imaginable but if you don’t consider what you are putting in the fridge or on the dinner table, you can lose all you have gained from your eco-makeover.

Are you addicted to bottled water? The bottles, whether glass or plastic, have to be manufactured. More energy is used to bottle, package, store and ship it. The environmental cost of bottled water is staggering and is a completely unnecessary product. If you don’t believe me, please try the following experiment. Take two bottles, one empty and one containing your store-bought water. Fill the empty bottle with tap water, then refrigerate both overnight. In the morning, get someone to pour the waters into two glasses without telling you which is which. Each person that I have tried this experiment on has not been able to correctly identify the bottled or the tap water. All admit it they guessed. If you can’t tell the difference you can immediately quit your expensive, environmentally destructive habit.

Last Saturday I was invited to dinner at friends Steve and Cathy in Egerton, Kent. Steve edits a magazine called The Bushcraft and is an expert on wild food and runs courses on foraging. We had nettle soup for starters followed by hop-top quiche and wild garlic. We then ate wood pigeon before rounding the meal off with a wonderful berry crumble. Over 80% of the food on the table was sourced locally and sourced for free. For more information on natural food and foraging visit www.bushcraft-magazine.co.uk and for details of courses email info@bushcraft-magazine.co.uk

Penny Kemp is a broadcaster and writer and runs The Headcorn Sustainability Group and is currently working on making Headcorn and the surrounding area a low carbon community. www.headcornsustainability.co.uk