Zero Waste Kitchen

Old kitchen concepts

The project provides a kitchen that does without produce waste. The current climate crisis and the demands of young people (Fridays for Future) for new sustainable concepts have moved me to deal with how a kitchen that meets zero waste requirements should look like. Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky's Frankfurt kitchen was designed and built in 1926 is 95 years old and at the time when housewives started working outside and the household had to keep work very efficiently in the kitchen. Every move in the kitchen with minimal distance. Equipped kitchen with upper cabinets is still standard.

New climate concept

Almost a hundred years later, a new concept comes - we should dedicate our kitchens to the current climate crisis and combat it. The young people of Fridyas for Future direct their focus to nature and away from the material world. They want to concentrate on the climate and its changes and take responsibility for each person. Zero Waste does not hope that politics and business will tell you how and when you will implement your environmental measures and goals, but rather that each of us can actively contribute to climate protection through a resource-saving lifestyle. Zero waste not only includes avoiding waste, but also how we deal with nutrition and cooking. If we concentrate on fewer, regional foods without packaging, we can actually implement changes in our immediate surroundings.

The young society is changing radically. In 10-15 years they will occupy responsible positions in politics and business and their political orientation will be environmental protection.

The kitchen produces most of the household waste and is the right place to reduce waste. Achieving “Zero Waste” is an ambitious project, but sometimes when the crisis is there, radical concepts are needed. As a designer and architect, I did field research. I was out and in six Unpacked shops in Vienna and talked to local salespeople and customers. I also created a “zero waste focus group”, which consisted of people who actually live with zero waste. All women living next to zero waste also live minimal lifestyle and own few things, which they really need. For this the Zero waste Kitchen doesn't need upper cabinets.

“Zero Waste” community

I worked a lot with the “Zero Waste” community to develop the prototype for their needs. The average European produces 580 liters of waste a year. That means everyone could start with themselves and use less plastic, aluminum and paper packaging in order to reduce it so that we can work together to counteract the climate crisis. Any recycled product is good, but it would be better if we didn't use recycled paper in the kitchen. All recycled paper still came from a tree and we need the trees.
Perhaps not everyone can achieve zero, but less waste would move a lot.

CO2 Footprint

According to the German Federal Environment Agency, each person in Germany causes 11,17 tons of CO2 a year. 2,8 tons for electricity and living, 1,3 tons for heating, 1,7 tons for food, 2,1 tons for transport, 3,8 tons for other consumption (such as furniture, clothing and electrical goods). This does not reduce the greenhouse effect reinforce and protect the climate should amount to 2 tons of CO2. If we create zero waste in the kitchen and deduct part of the transport because we only eat seasonal products, as well as furniture with a sustainable kitchen that can be used for several decades, we could save 3 tons. That would be 8 tons per person. 2 tons would be, but desirable. This kitchen can be seen as an entry-level model, for those who want to live zero waste and produce less waste and do not know how.

Recycled steel

The kitchen is made of recycled stainless steel and recycled glass and has a long shelf life of 150 years. There is a difference between the production of steel from iron at 3000 degrees in a blast furnace and the production of recycled steel in completely different processes is an electrical process at 1000 degrees where there are no emissions. There is a lot of steel, which can be recycled. Every steel product is a typical recycling product. Steel that was once a washing machine, bicycle or beverage can in a previous life. Steel scrap is collected almost completely across the board and then completely recycled. After repeated recycling ("multi recycling"), a total of four tons of new steel products are produced from one ton of steel. And every ton of steel and iron scrap used avoids the mining of 1,5 tons of iron ore.

The interesting thing about recycled steel is that it can be recycled several times without the material changing. For example, wood becomes paper when it is recycled, or wood chips. If the kitchen is no longer needed, it can be upcycled (reused) as a workshop bench. The idea is to think of the kitchen as a spatial element (a large table), which stands for common cooking within the family or the community. The community stated that since you stopped buying frozen products and prefabricated products, they cook fresh and regionally.

How does a zero waste kitchen work?

The zero waste kitchen functions as a large table around which you can gather to cook or eat together. The structure consists of an elegant form made of stainless steel with areas for glass containers, baskets for regional fruit and vegetables, a worm box, storage space for multi-purpose glasses for dairy products, linen bags and pouches and a vertical herb garden. For the vertical herb garden, a daylight lamp is needed for the plants if the kitchen is too dark. The humus comes regularly from the worm box and can be used for the herb garden. It is also possible to grow certain types of vegetables.

A tumble dryer is essential for the zero waste kitchen. This is important because you do without kitchen rolls and serviettes and only work with textile wipes that you wash and dry regularly. The wipes are divided into three groups: for products, for hands and for cleaning surfaces. The towels are washed every other day, or as often as necessary. The community stated that this drying facility is now missing in the kitchens.

That's why the Zero kitchen has a fold-out clothes horse where you can dry the textile wipes.

Under the sink there is a stainless steel compost container called "the worm box" that you can cover. There all organic waste is converted from worms to humus. Community stated that the proportion of humus that is produced is sufficient for house plants. The worm box can remove biological waste and immediately produces the humus for the herb garden.

The only things that cannot be decomposed in the worm box are bones, citrus fruits and garlic. Anyway citrus fruits are not consumed in the Zero Waste Lifestyle because they are not regional fruits. Beeswashes are used instead of aluminum to store parts of food (half an avocado, half a pear). The kitchen has two pull-out elements that can be used to bake bread. Zero waste users very often bake their own bread and would need more space. You grind different grains in bulk shops and are looking for alternatives to classic wheat bread. There are two sinks, both of which you can plug and let water in when washing with the dishwasher and save by not rinsing the dishes under running water. The rest of the water comes into being when we switch from hot water to cold water and wait for the water to get warmer or cooler. Compared to the dishwasher, the water consumption is lower or similar, but the electricity that is needed to heat the water is saved.

There is a water jug there that is supposed to collect the rest of the water and so that the herb garden is watered. The shape of the water jug is based on the aluminum chutes from the Frankfurt kitchen and is supposed to be a kind of formal quote that connects the kitchen of that time with today's. At that time the aluminum chutes were used to store food. Today she is supposed to hold water.

Unpacked shops

What is important is the number of unpacked shops in the city center, in Vienna there are currently 6 big one, where you get everything from food to soap and there are also small shops who sell unpacked products. There are already a few in other cities. The trend towards more unpacked shops, mostly in urban areas, can be observed. The food is not packed there, but stored in glass containers. So that they can take you to the health food store. The ingredients can be transferred to a glass container with scoops or funnels that you bring with you. There should be three types of containers. Once for rice, barley, various grains and once for oils and again small ones for spices. The dairy products are stored in multi-purpose areas and can be exchanged after use. Linen bags are used for transport, but also for storing bread, fruit and vegetables. The kitchen is not meant to be vegetarian, it should rather support the conscious use of meat. In the unpacked shops there are documents where you can pre-order meat from organic farmers and thus learn how to handle meat more consciously.

Storage space is also required for returnable bottles (milk, cream, yogurt), as returnable bottles cannot be returned every day.

The kitchen doesn't need wall cabinets - the “zero waste” is based on a minimalist lifestyle where you only keep things that you use every day. Only a limited number of 12 deep plates, 12 flat plates and 12 small flat plates, 12 water glasses and 8 wine glasses are used so that not much storage space is required.

The kitchen does not have a dishwasher to save electricity, the dishes are washed by hand. The kitchen has two sinks where water can be let in and so the dishes are first washed with water in the dishwashing liquid and then washed in the second sink with pure water, which saves a lot of water compared to the dishwasher.

Zero Waste movement

The Zero Waste movement is about minimalism, awareness and also slowing down more for the climate than for a competitive society. According to the salespeople in the unpacked stores, 30% of customers are “zero waste users” and the number is increasing. A zero waste user is mostly female around 25-35 years old. Another target group are mothers in their 40s who come with children. In these two groups men are presented below. The new target group are many young people between the ages of 15-19 who still live at home and do not yet have their own kitchen. In this target group, the young men are increasingly coming to shop. You can ask yourself whether sustainability and food is still a feminine thing? Is sustainability female? The women have been driving the food machine in private for hundert years and know they are making the slow shift.

The last group are women over 70 years of age who come out of nostalgia, as there were such unpackaged shops in their childhood. The salespeople were very nice and helpful to me and took a lot of time to explain everything to me about how the business works.

I see great potential for this kitchen in the Friday for Future movement, they won't want to buy and use their own kitchens for 5 years, and this kitchen offers an alternative. You want to eat, cook and live sustainably. I took the liberty of taking the Fridays for Future slogans and stamping them on the refrigerator door and on the textile bags. "There is no planet B." Or "Don't meld my future" I would like to see the kitchen as a political revolution kitchen combined with a political message. The kitchen as a political instrument for sustainability. This community is young and takes to the streets for their rights. The community shows a strong sense of attachment.

Despite its sustainability, the kitchen should be a design object that is visually appealing. The idea is to create a table with beveled side edges that should be accessible from every side in order to also stand for the meeting point of the Zero Waste Community. Elements are built up to 60x60cm and can be bought individually and built into existing kitchens. Especially the element with the glass containers and the one with textile bags and pouches.

A corner version of the kitchen for small apartments, where the kitchen will be against the wall.