7 Eco-friendly Practices Our Asian Immigrant Parents Taught Us

This article is part of Mochi’s winter 2023 issue, exploring what “environment” means to us as Asian Americans. From the environmentally friendly to your workplace, favorite neighborhood bar, or ethnic enclave — our environments are all that surrounds us, influences us and makes us who we are. Check out the rest of our issue here!

Like many other Asian American kids, I used to be infinitely embarrassed by the things my immigrant parents and grandparents used to do around the house to save money. Instead of cabinets filled with neatly stacked Tupperware and a pantry filled with individually packaged snacks, our family hoarded and reused every possible container and only bought off-brand in bulk. Back then, “eco-friendly” wasn’t even in our limited English vocabularies; it was simply yet another sign that we were poorer and weirder than my white friends’ families.

Nowadays, “zero-waste influencers” are touting these same practices as trendy — albeit in much more aesthetically pleasing ways — on social media. And as we learn more and more about the impact of our individual carbon footprints on climate change, I’m realizing our elders were on to something. 

The little things we can do to help are more important than ever, especially as rising sea levels, deadly extreme weather, drought, and famine disproportionately impacts low-income communities around the world. Of course, it’s important to understand that corporations are absolutely to blame for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, with about 100 corporations responsible for 70% of climate change according to a CDP report. The following tips are not meant to shame the individual and shift the spotlight from the real problem, but to provide suggestions for alternative practices and start showing corporations that consumers want change, and that we will continue to hold them accountable. As we’re all co-inhabitants with wildlife on this beautiful, blue and green planet, we can start re-adopting our immigrant parents’ eco-friendly and cost-friendly practices.

7 Eco-friendly Practices You Can Implement in Your Own Life

1. Save and reuse every bag/container ever!

While it may be tempting to buy fancy Mason jars and pastel Tupperware, we can reduce the environmental effects of consumerism (specifically, how much creating and shipping products emits greenhouse gasses) by saving and reusing existing containers instead. Every pickle jar, pasta sauce jar, and mayo jar in an Asian household has gotten a second chance at life to store homemade kimchi, ginger garlic paste, sawsawan, and more. (Just use hot water, baking soda, and cooking oil to remove the label and label residue so you don’t confuse the heck out of everyone else in the house like my parents did.) While you’re at it, put another cog in the capitalist machine by forgoing the unnecessary purchase of new products and reusing things like paper egg cartons to plant seedlings, and tofu and yogurt containers to organize and store food, stationary, craft, and hardware items.

2. Pack food to go in reusable lunch boxes instead of single-use Ziplocs

In a similar vein, the West seems to be finally catching on to the brilliance of bento boxes and tiffin carriers (also known as dabbas or rantang) as alternatives to foil, paper bags, and Ziploc bags for packed lunches. Whether you pack lunch for yourself to bring to the office or for your little ones to bring to school, reusable containers are less wasteful and more affordable. And let’s be honest, food looks way more appetizing in cute containers (if you haven’t already, look up bento box prep videos on TikTok and Instagram for inspiration). If you’re a fan of Ziploc bags though, they also have plenty of reusable ones that you can wash and reuse over and over again. Even if you don’t have leftovers or you run out of time to pack lunch, try asking your local restaurants and food vendors if they would be willing to pack the food to-go using your own container.

3. Save your water from washing rice 

If your household is Team Wash Your Rice in the Great Washing Rice Debate, you were probably taught to rinse your rice a few times, perhaps until the water is no longer cloudy and starchy. While this gives rice a cleaner taste and springier texture, this does use quite a lot of water, and sending that water down the drain is wasteful — especially considering how much nutrition is in that water. For that first rinse, which may have more dust and impurities, you can pour it into a watering can for your house plants. For that second rinse, reserve that water to wash your hair, a traditional practice that’s been used by Asian women for hundreds of years for healthy and shiny hair. For the third rinse, my paternal grandmother used to save the water to make stews, like kimchi jjigae, even more savory. There are so many cool uses for rice water, that if you weren’t Team Wash Your Rice before, maybe it’s time to switch over.

4. Make your own homemade tofu

I could write pages and pages about my family’s love for tofu. Baked, fried, boiled, raw, we’ll eat it all. And although those packaged blocks of tofu are a lifesaver after a long day of work, they also come in plastic. And there’s only so many ways to reuse those tofu containers! Instead, try making your own tofu from scratch from soybeans. While making your own tofu from scratch is a bit time consuming, it’s easy, delicious, and best of all, cheaper and more eco-friendly! Check out this recipe by Kimchi Mom (apropos to this article, she reuses a Driscolls strawberry container for the tofu mold) for a step-by-step guide.

5. Save and incorporate leftovers into new meals

Many of our elders grew up in places where food scarcity was the norm, and food waste was unthinkable. Not only is throwing out food costly and a waste of all the resources it took to produce, but contributing food to already overflowing landfills releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas, as it rots. Instead, elders have always taken leftovers and stretched them into another meal by adding more vegetables or mixing them with rice or noodles. Have wilting greens? Throw them into soup or stir fry with soy sauce and Szechuan chili oil. Bought too many carrots or have a giant radish that you’re not sure how to use? Pickle them to make do chua for banh mi or spring rolls. Forgot about that rice in the rice cooker, and now it’s dry and sad? Well, you’re in luck because that’s the ideal kind of rice for fried rice! 

6. Make your own cleaning supplies

No, making your own cleaning supplies doesn’t mean mixing a ton of strange concoctions. Instead, natural ingredients, like baking soda and vinegar, are your best friend when it comes to making your home spotless without using toxic chemicals, like ammonia or bleach — all of which we’re sending into our waterways and eventually our oceans. To unclog drains, my parents prefer sprinkling baking soda and then using vinegar and boiling water — instead of using harmful chemicals like Drano — to cut through the grease. In fact, you can use baking soda and vinegar to remove grease and tough stains and smells in your kitchen and laundry. While you’re at it, reuse old clothes as cleaning rags and use newspaper to wipe down glass instead of wasting pricey paper towels. Citrus peels can also be saved to rub down stove tops and sinks or placed in shoes to freshen them. Growing up, we also had a box of old toothbrushes for cleaning dirty sneakers and scrubbing hard-to-reach crevices around the house. For extra eco points, switch over to bamboo toothbrushes that can be composted once they’ve reached the end of their lifespan.

7. Repair instead of throwing out and rebuying

As fun as it is to shop for new things, we know it hurts both our wallets and the environment. We can instead take inspiration from philosophies like kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with golden lacquer, and give our beloved objects another chance. Sew the holes in your socks, embroider cute patches over worn fabrics, and make friends with your local shoe repair shop to reheel or resole your favorite boots, or restore worn leather shoes or bags. Leather oil (my parents simply use olive oil) is fantastic for buffing out scratches in leather couches or chairs, and in the long run, it’s cheaper and more sustainable to invest in high-quality furniture and get it reupholstered when needed. Giving your money to these repair shops, rather than buying new from corporations, is just another wonderful chance to support local Asian American businesses! 

No matter where you are on your eco-friendly journey, it’s important to prioritize your well-being, and your Mochi Mag sisters want to emphasize that you’re already doing great! Feel free to start with just one or two of these practices and ease yourself into a greener lifestyle so that we can continue the fight to save our planet. When you do make new purchases, make sure to do your research and avoid businesses that “greenwash” or falsely brand themselves as eco-friendly. And come election season, let’s vote for politicians who recognize the importance of both BIPOC communities and our environment.

What are some eco-friendly practices your immigrant grandparents and parents passed down to you?

Cover credit: Noah Buscher