17 Easy Ways To Live A More Eco Friendly Lifestyle
What does living an eco friendly lifestyle actually mean?
When talking about living an eco friendly lifestyle it basically means, making small changes to our everyday lives in order to be less harmful to the environment. Living a greener lifestyle is thankfully becoming more popular but it's also more important than ever as we strive to protect and repair the planet from human impact.
By making sustainable changes with the products we use and the waste we produce, we can lessen the negative effect that simply living has on our amazing Earth.
We've rounded up 17 easy ways that you can start living a more eco friendly lifestyle.
1. Regrow food otherwise destined to be wasted.
It's amazing how much food we can easily regrow at home. Lettuce bottoms and green onion roots can be simply popped into a glass of water and will quickly regrow the useful leafy parts. Sprouting veg such as potatoes and carrots can be planted once sprouts appear and will produce crops of extra fresh, tasty vegetables, meaning less trips to the shops too.
2. Switch to shampoo and soap bars.
So many of the bath & body products we use daily come in loads of unnecessary plastic, plastic that often isn't totally recyclable. Swapping to a soap or shampoo bar cuts out all of that plastic waste. All of the bars we sell are also made with only natural ingredients which are perfect for the whole family, kind to you and kind to the planet.
3. Freeze leftover ingredients.
Things like herbs and ginger can be chopped and frozen either in water or oil in an ice cube tray. You can then just take out however many cubes your recipe requires. Lemons, oranges and limes can be juiced and again frozen into cubes ready to add to drinks or cooking.
4. Swap to a reusable coffee filter.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that paper coffee filters are recyclable (they're paper after all) but due to the nature of the coffee grounds and the oils from these, they actually can't be recycled at all. Switching to a good quality reusable filter not only helps to save the planet, it saves you money in the long term too.
5. Make your own household cleaners from citrus scraps.
If you have an empty spray bottle it's super simple to make your own household cleaner from the scraps of citrus fruit including the peel. Just make small pieces to fit into the bottle and soak in white vinegar for 2 weeks. The citrus spray will leave your kitchen and bathroom clean, fresh and sparkling.
6. Revive limp carrots.
This is a personal favourite eco tip. Carrots can go limp quite quickly but the good news is you can actually revive them really easily. Simple pop your soft carrots in a tub of cold water, put them in the fridge for a few hours, overnight if possible, and they'll come out firm, fresh and ready to use.
7. Make the switch to toothpaste tablets.
Toothpaste tubes are bad news for the environment but obviously you still need to maintain great oral hygiene. Toothpaste tablets are brilliant as they're plastic free and zero waste. Plus they're mess free and made from natural ingredients.
Eco friendly Toothpaste tablets
8. Use pasta water to nourish your plants.
Unsalted pasta water makes an excellent fertiliser for all of your plants, indoors and outside. The nutrients contained in the water from cooking your pasta are great for growing your flowers, fruits and vegetables.
9. Buy sustainable wood products.
Bamboo is especially sustainable largely due to how quickly it grows (39 inches in 24 hours if you were wondering) so by choosing when purchasing wooden items such as bowls, utensils and soap dishes you're doing great things for the planet. Bamboo is extremely versatile too and is used to produce biodegradable toothbrushes, dish brushes and even plasters.
Sustainable wood eco friendly products
10. Use a reusable water bottle.
A little bit of a no brainer but 80% of single use plastic water bottles end up in landfill and with these taking up to 1000 years to each decompose they spell disaster for the environment. There are so many reusable bottles on the market to suit everyone but if you find yourself needing to buy water when out and about try to buy a reusable glass bottle or a metal can.
11. Invest in good quality shopping bags.
A great way to reduce our plastic use is by taking our own bags when shopping. Most fold up super small and will fit in your pocket or in the door pocket of your car so there's less chance of forgetting them on your trip to the shops. A great, versatile option is the Green Island large organic shopping bag. It has a sectioned interior so makes an ideal daily bag or is perfect for trips to the beach or for a picnic too.
Eco friendly organic shopping bag
12. Repurpose old clothing.
Rather than throwing away old or torn clothing such as t-shirts or odd socks, find a new use for them. You can cut something like a t-shirt into useable pieces and make handy cleaning cloths or if your sock has lost it's twin they make great cleaning mittens, making cleaning round taps a breeze. Another way to use an old sock is to soak it a vinegar and bicarb solution and pop it over your taps for a little while, when you rinse the taps they'll be sparkling and limescale free.
13. Swap cling film to reusable wax wraps.
Cling film isn't just bad for the environment, it's also, surprisingly, not great for storing your leftovers, it actually suffocates the food. There's loads of eco friendly options including the amazing food huggers, silicone lids and air tight canisters but as a direct alternative to cling film you can't beat reusable wax wraps. Organic fabric, coated with either beeswax or vegan wax simply choose one to fit your food and keep it fresh the eco way.
Cling film alternative wax wraps
14. Blend food scraps for fertiliser.
If you can't compost or don't want to, you can still use your food scraps as fertiliser for your household plants or in the garden. Just blend up any scraps as finely as possible and use to give your plants a helping hand. It's especially great for any produce you're growing including kitchen herbs.
15. So no to plastic tape and replace with washi tape.
Washi tape is biodegradable, made from plant fibres and has natural rubber adhesive, making it the perfect alternative to traditional plastic tape. Aside from the fabulous eco benefits, washi tape comes in all kinds of colours and designs so looks great, especially when wrapping gifts.
16. Move to reusable make up removing pads.
Before you reach for those cotton wool pads again, consider the switch to reusable, organic cotton pads. They're not only much better for the environment, they'll save you a fortune too. They're super soft and don't lose fibres like cotton wool does.
Eco friendly reusable make up pads
17. Shop with us.
Don't worry you haven't got through an entire blog of 17 ways to be more eco friendly only to be met with a sales pitch, when you shop with us, you're already helping the environment. Yes we sell eco friendly products, yes we use recycled and recyclable packaging but we also plant a tree for every single order. So you see, by shopping for eco products with us you're already helping to save the planet.
Have you got any more eco friendly living tips? Leave us a comment below and spread the word.
Leave a comment