I want to show you how simple it can be to make more sustainable decisions in your day to day life. Without it costing you tonnes of money and having to change your life style completely! So, here are 25 simple ways you can be kinder to the environment...
1. Stop buying single use plastic bottled water
Buy yourself a reusable bottle. Chilly's bottles are amazing as you can use them for both hot and cold drinks and you can personalise them!! Check them out: https://www.chillysbottles.com/uk
2. Stop impulse buying
Put the item in your basket, take a couple of hours to mull it over. If it is still on your mind, ask yourself these questions.
Do I really NEED it?
Is it good quality?
Will it still be stylish next season?
3. Ditch disposable wipes
As a nation we use 11 billion wet wipes a year! We can reduce this massively by choosing to use reusable face cloths! TALA a sustainable activewear brand has a great range of disposable face cloths. Check them out: https://www.wearetala.com/collections/leaf-face-cloth
4. Organic cotton
Make sure your cotton garments have a GOTS certified stamp on them. It takes 2,700 litres of water to produce enough cotton for one T-shirt. GOTS certified cotton recycles water used in production and doesn't use pesticides or chemicals.
5. Up-cycle
There are so many cool ways to up-cycle your clothes. Check out wild strings blog to see how: https://www.wearwildstrings.co.uk/post/howto-upcycle-clothes-at-home
6. Tote Bags
The best way to reduce single use plastic bags is to bring your own reusable one!! You can buy them at most retail stores. Here's my favourite from ARKET check them out!
7. Order Online
Now this may seem strange, but if you think about it, ordering online reduces the amount of carbon emission. If 20 people went to a store to pick up one item that's 20 separate car journeys, instead of one delivery driver. Kinda makes sense now doesn't it.
8. Shampoo Bars
Using shampoo bars reduces the amount of plastic packaging consumed. Check out The Evening Standard blog to find out which is the best shampoo bar for you!
9. Natural Beauty
Beauty products that don't contain chemicals reduce chemical pollution which is extremely destructive to the environment. TROPIC is an amazing company that only uses natural ingredients. They also use recyclable packaging.
10. Shop from small, local brands
Small brands are naturally more sustainable than big brands that mass produce as they rarely hold lots of stock. Shopping local also allows you to put your money back into your community.
11. Reducing single use plastics
There are so many products out there to reduce how many single disposable items you use on a day to day basis. Check out WEARTH LONDON for their amazing products including toiletries, homeware, beauty etc.
12. Handmade clothing
Opting for 'made to order' and 'handmade' clothing ensures the quality of a garment as small brands who don't have a production line take more care with the sewing in comparison to mass production lines. Check out these brands WILD STRINGS, BEFORE JULY, BY MEGAN CROSBY for amazing handmade fashion!
13. Charity shops
You can get some really good finds in charity shops and the best bit is you get to give a garment a second life!
14. Let your hair air dry
Just a quick simple way to reduce the amount of electricity you use.
15. Sell your old clothes
When you do finally part with your clothes, the best way to ensure they live out their full life span is to give them a second one with a new person! There are so many selling platforms such as Depop, Gumtree, Facebook Market Place, even a car boot sale!
16. Reuse packaging
When you buy something new, keep the packaging to use to pack your re-sold clothes!! Just refrain from getting too excited when your new stuff arrives and ripping open the bag!
17. Don't wash your clothes too often
When we wash our clothes, especially those made from synthetic fibres hundreds of thousands of micro fibres get let out into the ocean. Which creates a toxic environment for underwater animals. TALA sell a fibre bag you can place all of your clothes in when washing, which catches all of the microfibres before they go into the ocean. https://www.wearetala.com/products/fibre-filter-bag
18. Reduce food waste
This one is pretty simple, and there are so many ways you can reduce waste and reuse waste. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/reduce-food-waste#section5 read this blog to find out how.
19. Good on you app
This app allows you to search any fashion brand and will give you their rating on how sustainable and ethical they are. It saves you from having to do all the research yourself as it's already done for you! If you type in a brand that is not up to scratch on their sustainable practices the app will suggest one that is. https://goodonyou.eco
20. Go paperless
Many of us now have access to technology, therefore able to go paperless. With simple things like receipts, bank statements and invoices it can make a huge difference.
21. Don't eat so much meat!
Now, I'm not telling everyone to go vegan because I'm not even vegan! But, making at least one meal a week meatless can make a huge difference to the demand of meat production. There are so many yummy veggie recipes out there! https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegetarian
22. Recycle everything that you can
Before throwing something in the bin, take a look at the label and see if it can be recycled. Nowadays most things can!! Here is a website that gives clear guidelines to what can and cannot be recycled http://www.netwaste.org.au/recycle-it/what-can-be-recycled/
23. Turn everything off standby
Just because something is turned 'off' doesn't mean it is not using electricity. Make it a part of your night time routine by going round the house and turning things off by the switch. It will save you so much electricity!
24. Make your periods green!
So many brands are now offering sustainable sanitary products. You can even go a step further and buy reusable ones! Check them out at Wearth London: https://www.wearthlondon.com/eco-friendly-sanitary-products
25. Natural chewing gum
Did you know that you're literally chewing plastic? ew, right? Here's a great company that offers plastic free chewing gum https://www.ohmygum.com which are biodegradable!
I hope you found a few things on this list that you can adopt into your day to day life to be more sustainable! Remember any conscious decision to be more sustainable is being sustainable! Nobody is perfect, not everyone can live an off the grid type of life. If everyone does what they can, we'd be in a much better place!
Love Amy xo