R3project round-up 2: the Kitchen

Our kitchen is an open one, and forms part of the living room, because we like to cook with our friends around.

KITCHEN FLOOR
The kitchen area is defined by a change of flooring. The cork floor of the rest of the apartment gives way to funky green and white tiles. We tried hard to find some local tiles made from recycled TV screens, but because the company went bust, we decided on some local colourful tiles by TAU Ceramics, whose effort towards sustainability we appreciate.

FURNITURE & STORAGE
The kitchen cupboards are made from recycled wooden wine boxes, carefully assembled by our amazing carpenter Rodrigo Diaz. The countertop is solid FSC-certified, untreated wood from IKEA. The same goes for the central piece of furniture called FÖRHÖJA that serves as storage and extra work surface. As a storage solution for the upper parts, we chose GRUNDTAL, fully recyclable stainless steel shelves from which you can also hang things like pots and pans. We prefer this system to cupboards for both aesthetic and practical reason, plus they are made from a minimum amount of materials.

WATER USAGE
As far as saving water is concerned, we installed a very special low-flow tab by Tehsa. We are still trying to fit in a dishwasher, as “the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap, to boot”, according to one study at the University of Bonn in Germany. However, as you can read in 'dishwasher versus hand washing' on TreeHugger, the situation is not as black and white. We are also looking for a water filter to drink the currently not very nice tasting water from the tab and stop buying plastic bottles. This has turned out to be a difficult mission, any tips are appreciated!

ELECTRICITY USAGE
We also try to use as less energy as possible. CFL lights illuminate our kitchen, and all the necessary electric appliances such as the fridge, oven and cooking surface, are A+ energy efficient.

THE FOOD
Of course you can’t have a kitchen without the food. Our fresh produce comes in a box every 2 weeks: 10 kg of locally grown, non-chemically treated vegetables and fruit from Recapte. All leftovers are fed to the worms in our compost bin on the balcony. To serve ourselves meals, we use fully recyclable glass plates.

CLEANING PRODUCTS
Last but not least, we like to clean green. Most of our eco cleaning products are mixed together in the kitchen, or at least stored under the sink.

More:
R3project round-up 1: General Installations at Home
R3project round-up 2: the Kitchen

Recyclable Glass Dinner Plates

We needed new dinner plates and asked ourselves which ones are the most eco-friendly; Ceramic long-lasting ones? Bamboo ones? Biodegradable throw-away ones that need no water or detergent during their use? Edible plates? Recyclable metal ones? Organic fibre ones? Second hand plates? Of course the aesthetics also play an important role at the R3project, and so in the end we decided to look for glass plates: practical, easy to clean, durable, aesthetically pleasing, and fully recyclable.

Or are they? In theory yes, but as the Catalan Government’s Recycling Agency explained to us, the only glass that is properly recycled through the green glass containers are bottles and jars, in order to make new ones. Because at the moment the quality of glass coming from plates or drinking glasses cannot be guaranteed to be perfect for recycling, the government recommends giving broken glass objects to the special recycling facilities around town, where it can be recycled correctly.



La Mediterranea, a local glass and ceramic factory, even do recycled glass objects under the brand VIDRECO. We preferred however the more simple design, and lower prices of IKEA’s glass plates. MOTTO GLASS plates are 24cm in diameter, made form 100% recyclable virgin glass and microwave as well as dishwasher-safe, and only cost 0,60€ each. They come in different colours and with an extra benefit: For those of us who like working and eating at our desk, you can read your notes through the plates as you work on the next article!

Also see glass in the shower.

Kitchen cupboards made from recycled wine boxes

You might think it was just an excuse for drinking lots of boxes of nice wine, but this project is all about recycling, restyling and skilled handy work. We recycled old wooden wine boxes and turned them into kitchen cupboard doors. What might look easy actually required very good carpenter skills. We were lucky to have Rodrigo Díaz make our ideas come true. The doors open with a push system so we didn’t have to add extra handles except for the drawers.



Apart from the look of it, we like the fact to have memories embedded into our kitchen. One box for example contained a bottle of organic beer, a gift from Hernani and Loida, and another one contained Olga’s nice wine she decided to open one evening in a tapas place in Barceloneta…

How to make furniture from recycled wooden wine boxes

Once you have taken of the sides of the wooden boxes and removed all the nails, lay them out flat to design the layout. By overlapping and mixing different kinds of wood layout the desired design. Mark the pieces with a pencil and start cutting. To give the doors the necessary structure, nail them on to a 8mm wooden board. Cut out the shape of the doors, attach the hinges and install them. If the wood from the boxes isn’t varnished already, we recommend you add a layer or two of for example Livos eco oil so that possible fingerprints from cooking can easily be removed.

The countertop is from IKEA. We chose NUMERÄR: solid wood from a certified source.

Eat Local! It is better for you and the environment

We had been looking for quite a while for a local organic vegetable box service like Able & Cole we knew from London. Finally Josep recommended the company Recapte to us, we tried it out and are very happy with our choice.

Here is how it works: Every week (or every 2 weeks if you’re only 2 people like us), you get 10 kg of chemically free grown vegetables and fruit delivered to your home. Recapte even lets you choose what vegetable and fruit you like from the ones available, depending on the season. In every box you find around 10 different products. Last week for example we received beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, silverbeet, lettuce, asparagus, cherries, apples and beetroot.

You can really taste the difference and probably learn to cook a few new recipes along the way. Their gardens are in Lleida (around 180 km from Barcelona), and they deliver all over Spain, using an ordinary messaging service, which means transportation is optimised. 4 boxes cost around 120€ including transport, which equals 3€ a kilo. Prices go down if you order 26 or 52 boxes.


Apart from the better quality vegetables and the fact that they are free of chemicals, we love that they come in a simple recycled cardboard box and are locally grown. This saves a lot of packaging waste and transport emissions. And we get to enjoy the seasons again- right now it’s cherry season here in Catalonia. Enjoy!

Taps & Tools To Save Water

We told you about the recyclable pipes and tubes we used for the water installation but what about the water that runs through them? How can we REDUCE our water consumption?
We looked into actually REUSING some of our water, like for example the water from the bathtub to flush the toilet. Or other waste water to water the balcony plants. The trouble with recycling your own water in a small apartment is that you need a deposit to store it, taking up quite a bit of space. And then you need a pump due to Newton’s law on gravitation and the fact that water doesn’t flow upwards. The pump needs more space and energy to run, so not such a great solution. You might say we should use the water from the flat above us and we have thought about that too. The trouble is that our dear neighbour would not be very happy if we started building works in her home and for a start, her bathroom is right on the other side of the flat to where ours is situated… So, that leaves us with more humble solutions but no small results nevertheless.
The secret lies in the tabs. You can get a low-flow faucet aerator for your existing taps or get a tap which has one built-in if you’re buying a new one. This small and easy to install device costs around €3 and saves you up to 50% of water by mixing the water with air bubbles. You won’t notice any difference as you brush your teeth or rinse the dishes but filling up the bathtub might take longer. Our bathroom taps are from the Spanish brand Roca and are all equipped with low-flow faucets.
In the kitchen however we installed a truly eco-friendly tap by another Spanish company called Tehsa. Tehsa specialise in water saving taps and water systems for hotels. Apart from having built-in low-flow faucets, the handle helps saving water in the sense that it opens first half way and only if you flip it up harder does it release the full amount of water. That way you don’t end up with wet trousers and can control the flow much easier. The other difference to ordinary mixer taps is that when the handle is in the middle, it doesn’t power the hot water. This is because we automatically open the tap with the handle pointing straight out, even if we don’t need hot water. With this tap, the hot water only starts running when you point the handle to the left. These three features make the Tehsa tap the best tap for saving water.
Now the other big one to save water on is the toilet. Here we went for a Stop Flush system, which means you can control the water you need to flush the toilet. You flush once, the water runs; you flush again, it stops. Another option would have been the half button system, where you can choose between using 12 litres or 6 litres to flush. And then there is the ‘Conscious Tank’ by the Terra Foundation. A clever piece of technology (a rubber band), which costs you €0,02 and provides you with 2 years of less water down the toilet.
Last but not least we have the washing machine which depending on its use and model, can save you more or less water. We went for a Fagor one (Model FT-309) since it’s a local brand, and found a washing machine with eco-fuzzy system, meaning that they adjust the water and energy consumption depending on the wash load. And of course it has been rated an ‘A’ for efficiency.
So much for tools but the rest is up to you… ‘brushing your teeth with the tap running wastes almost 9 litres a minute; just taking a five minute shower very day, instead of a bath, will use a third of the water, saving up to 400 litres a week; you can use less water by turning the hot tap down, rather than the cold tap up, if you require cooler water; a dripping tap could waste as much as 90 litres a week’ (from the BBC's A to Z of water saving tips).
And check out TreeHugger for 50 Ways To Save Water!