Go Green: 4 Easy Eco-Friendly Swaps for a Sustainable Lifestyle

Simple Ways to Go Green: Making Sustainable Living Easy and Fun

 Do you love the idea of living a more sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle but don’t know where to start? Being greener doesn’t have to be difficult or overwhelming and you don’t need to do everything at once. Sure, in an ideal world we would all be eating organic, home grown produce, driving electric cars, wearing sustainable fashion 100% of the time and eradicating single-use plastic from our homes but for most people, being greener is an on-going journey involving small steps. If you haven’t started yours yet, let us help you out with some simple, sustainable switches that you can make with minimal effort: 

Sustainable soap 

Hand soap and shower gel is so often bought in single-use plastic bottles these days, but this packaging is so unnecessary. Why not save yourself money, clutter and waste by reverting to a traditional bar of solid soap instead? It’s just as effective, readily available and generally comes in cardboard or paper packaging. You can even find a variety of solid shampoo and conditioner bars on the market now too, suitable for all hair types.

Eating and drinking on the go 

Did you know that coffee cups aren’t typically recyclable? Thanks to the waterproof lining on the inside the cups, they often end up in landfill rather than the recycling plant. So, if you’re a regular coffee drinker, or often grab a bottle of water on the go, do the planet a favour and get a reusable coffee cup or water bottle.

Perhaps you’re in the habit of keeping your food in sandwich bags or plastic wrap. If so, check out silicone food pouches or beeswax wrap alternatives. You can use them again and again with minimal effort. If you’re feeling crafty, you could even have a go at making your own beeswax wraps- it’s pretty easy to do! 

Eco-friendly cleaning

When it comes to cleaning our homes, we are spoilt for choice with products. There are multi-purpose products, bathroom products, kitchen products, child-friendly products…the list goes on and on. Before you know it, you can find yourself with cupboards stuffed full of different plastic spray bottles marketed for cleaning every possible surface in your home. According to Ocean Saver, the homecare industry generates 29 billion plastic containers each year!

So why not switch to a refillable alternative? There are many companies around the world today which can supply you with dissolvable cleaning tablets. All you need to do is add the tablet to water in an old spray bottle (or purchase a reusable glass bottle if you prefer).

Alternatively, if you’re up for a bit of DIY, you can even make your own cleaning products using natural ingredients that you might have around the house. Take a look at these ideas from Good Housekeeping. 

Greener grocery shopping

Next time you’re heading off to do a grocery shop, keep these things in mind to help make it a greener experience:

• Take reusable shopping bags
• Avoid plastic wrapped fruit and veg – it doesn’t need packaging! And when buying it loose, simply stick the price label straight onto that bunch of bananas or put your potatoes in a cloth bag instead.
• Buy in bulk – it can be so tempting to buy food items conveniently packaged in smaller portions but doing so just increases packaging waste.

If you’re interested in reducing food and packaging waste in your kitchen, read our interview with “zero-waster” Hannah Husband. She shares so many easy ways to improve your grocery shopping and cooking habits.

Share your sustainable tips with us!

We hope these simple suggestions have inspired you and if you’re already working towards sustainable living, we’d love to know what changes you’ve made to your daily life. Please tag us on Instagram or Facebook with your stories and ideas. And before we go, we of course couldn’t end this post without mentioning sustainable fashion, so we’re just going to throw it back to our blog post “5 Steps To A More Sustainable Wardrobe”.

 Please don't forget to explore these links for more information:

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-make-beeswax-wraps.html

https://www.ocean-saver.com/pages/our-story

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/tips/a24885/make-at-home-cleaners/

https://vinosupraja.com/blogs/news/zero-waste-living-with-hannah-husband-via-vino

https://vinosupraja.com/blogs/news/5-steps-to-a-more-sustainable-wardrobe

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