5 easy swaps for a more sustainable home
5 Easy Swaps To Make Your Home More Sustainable
Going sustainable can be a daunting task to take on, especially changing your routine. It’s not as hard as you may think! Here are some simple swaps that you can make to go a little greener on everyday household items.
Grocery: The Supermarket is a chore regardless of if you are a planner and have a list of things you want to purchase or if you wing it inside. A simple and cheap investment is to purchase reusable grocery bags. For a £1 investment which after 10 trips to the store will be recouped, the amount of plastic waste would go down exponentially. You can also purchase reusable produce bags and sandwich bags. Switching from reusable containers or bags saves tonnes of single-use plastic.
Coffee: A morning cup of tea or coffee on the way to work is a ritual for most people. Every time you buy a cup of coffee they give it to you in a single-use coffee cup which ends up in waste. If you drink that same coffee 5 times a week for 50 weeks that is 250 single use cups in the trash. A simple solution to this is burning a reusable coffee thermos or cup with you to your favourite café because they offer a slight discount if you bring your own mug and go green.
Beauty: Swapping out your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo toothbrush helps save plastic from ending up in the ocean. Every year about 3.6 billion toothbrushes are used and about 80% of them end up in the ocean after. Makeup wipes are an essential part of the makeup lover's routine. Most makeup wipes are single use, unfortunately. Now you can purchase reusable makeup pads which are washable and more efficient.
Kitchen: It’s time to ditch the single-use napkins and the paper towels. Reusable cloth napkins and kitchen towels are a simple investment but are much better for the environment; plus they are easy to wash and reuse. When switching to containers for excess food, skip the plastic ones and get a glass container. Glass containers will last longer and are better than plastic for the environment.
Food waste: Ideally our food waste would be zero, but unfortunately that’s not realistic. For banana skins and fruit pits, we have to dispose of them and the bin is not the best place they could go. Incorporating a composting bin into your household is a simple way to help make fertiliser for plants or a garden. Once you have the composting bin in place, it is simple to use. Any food scrap you have and won’t/can’t eat can go into the compost. When the bin is full you can add it to a garden to create healthier plants. Composting is a form of recycling that is simple to do from home.
These sustainable swaps are easy to implement into your daily life routine and will have Mother Nature thanking you. Becoming a sustainable household is much easier than it sounds, it’s about making conscious decisions when you purchase something.