For the last year we as a family (mostly me) have attempted to live in a more sustainable manner, by making small swaps in some areas to reduce the amount of waste we produce, we still have a long way to go and over the course of this year I would really like to reduce/reuse and recycle as much as we can, food packaging is the thing we struggle with most, why does everything come in a plastic wrap or container?
Did you know as much as we all recycle in our lovely multi-coloured bins, only 9% of plastic is actually recycled, most of the plastic ends up bundled up and shipped off to other countries where they do not have the means to dispose of it either, most clothing recycling ends up in Africa where there are beaches filled millions of clothing garments that are unused as there are far too many for the population. I learned these facts after watching a documentary called Buy Now on Netflix.
Swaps we have already made:
Kitchen roll-we no longer buy or use kitchen roll, we have napkins for when we are eating food that can be washed and microfibre cloths that also go in the washing machine.
Cleaning sprays-I always felt really awful after cleaning with chemical sprays, my chest felt like it was on fire which is obviously no good, I started using a refillable spray bottle with water vinegar and a few pumps of washing liquid and everything is as clean as it was before, really simple and it works-also saves a small fortune over the course of a year.
Washing Pods- we use SMOL washing pods, the come in a small cardboard box, contain no nasty chemicals and the best part is it is a subscription service so they are delivered to the door and the subscription can be paused any time if we ever have too many which is not very often with two messy boys.
Glass food containers- we recently bought 8 glass food storage containers instead of the usual plastic ones that we all have a cupboard full of orange stained tubs without lids, we use the glass containers for lunches for work, freezing foods and for spare party dishes if we have people round.
Bubble bath/washing up liquid-we buy from Bower Collective and they use re-fillable pouches that can be posted back free of charge and they are amazing, smell great and work just as well as the bigger brands.
Deodorant-I tried the Wild deodorant but felt like it wasn’t quite up to the job and haven’t tried anything else, this year once my normal deodorant runs out i will look to buy a more sustainable option. haircare i have been using supermarket brands but have tired Chāmpo® | Shop Chāmpo Natural Haircare Products and will probably go back to these once i have used up all I have in the house currently.
I think that’s it for consumables but I really want to reduce my food packaging this year by eating more fresh unpackaged produce, we have a famers market close by on the second Saturday of the month, so will try and go there and also be conscious when shopping in supermarkets to look for an alternative choice-freezer food in a box rather than plastic for example, I am trying to save money but sustainability is important to us so I don’t mind paying a little extra if we as a household reduce the waste we are putting to landfill every year.
Clothing and soft house furnishings
These 2 things are my downfall and last year i decided not to buy anything new which was partially successful but I found the loophole of “new items” on vinted and marketplace, and strictly speaking this is a sustainable way to shop but if you are like me and continue shopping for things you don’t need even if they are second hand then it is still over consumption and these things will end up being recycled or in the skip at some point. This year the aim is to buy no new clothes for myself of husband, the kids will need school uniform and football boots but on a whole they shouldn’t need much other than that unless they both take a huge growth spurt which is not unheard of.
Technology
This really isn’t something we buy on the regular, we both have phone’s which we bought at a couple of years old a few years ago from https://www.musicmagpie.co.uk/ and we will keep them until they are irreparable, we have an ipad that was bought from the same place as our last ipad was over 10 years old and the screen was broken on every level.
My oldest son is 16 and has his own iPhone which he pays for with his little job and he will have it until it breaks beyond repair also, we do not own smart watches and we have a TV and subscription to Netflix only.
Cars
We both have a car as we work in different parts of the city, my car is a 10 year old diesel estate and my husband drives a 9 year old SUV but they are both paid for and we have a sinking fund for car expenses, we will keep our cars for as long as we can and eventually replace with hybrid or electric models, public transport routes are not a viable option as to drive to work takes me 10mins but I would have to take 2 buses and over an hour to get these.
I look forward to keeping you all informed of the swaps and changes we make throughout the year to help us become more sustainable!