Tips for living more sustainably and being more eco friendly?

[GoldenPlover]

Does anyone have any tips or recommendations on how to live more sustainably?

Any tips for eg cleaning products, clothing brands, ideas for things around the house that just generally make living a bit more eco friendly?

I'm not planning on going vegan or exclusively wearing dresses made from hemp or anything but at the moment i'm:

• Trying to have 1 meat free day a week
• Have more evening meals that are meat free
• I use reusable cloths instead of kitchen roll
• Try to buy eco friendly household brands where I can
• Reusable water bottle
• Buy organic cotton tshirts where I can but as I'm not that well informed on the topic I wouldnt be surprised if the ones I have are more likely green washing from the clothing brands rather than being truly sustainable

Any other ideas?

[wheresmyhairytoe]

Washable sanitary wear and or mooncup.
Bamboo toothbrushes.
Reusable water cup and coffee cup.
Grow your own veg.
Cut out meat and dairy.
Hang washing outside rather than using dryer.
Walk or bike places.
Don't fly.

[Blue5238]

Way less meat and dairy
Minimise car use
Don't buy stuff.... Its not so much about buying the more eco friendly version as realising you don't need so much stuff at all
Minimise packaging and single use items

[BanditsBum]

We have been making an effort for a while now so far we have:

switched to reusable cloths only, no wipes.

get shopping delivered, I saw it described as 'public transport for groceries' once and that stuck with me

use Smol for laundry and Splosh for cleaning products plus wash at low temp for everything except for the reusable cloths mentioned above which get a hot wash.

period pants

selling/donating used things and not just throwing them out and vuy second hand where feasible

when we were in the office we started taking lunch every day in a reusable box, no meal deals wrapped in plastic

reusable baking mats/beeswax wraps etc.

still more to do, we can't really use the local refill shops as we are a food allergy household and need to have ingredients etc. that come printed on packets.

[purpledagger]

Try to reduce packaging on any products that you buy. Take your own bags with you, don't get a receipt if you don't need one/ask for an email receipt, buy items in glass/paper instead of plastic.

[BlueChampagne]

Review where your money is, and what it's funding! Review of current accounts and investments in current issue of Ethical Consumer.

[dooof]

Great suggestions!

I was looking at lovely reusable snack bags which I couldn't afford before realising that the frozen fruit and cheese I bought weekly came in resealable plastic bags. I now wash these out and use them as sandwich/snack bags - easy to clean and free!

Love the suggestion to grow your own food. Even starting with herbs like basil/corriander/parsley can be easy + save the single use plastic wrapping 👍

[Himawarigirl]

Vinted is great for second hand clothing and so far my kids love the stuff I get on there.

[CheapandTrashy]

I’ve mentioned this in another thread but composting is a brilliant way of reducing your household emissions and reducing the volume of waste that needs to be managed by your council (a LOT of transportation and sorting involved in that).

For example, cardboard. once emptied from your recycling bin at the roadside it may be transported to a waste transfer station, then collected and transported to a recycling centre, run through machinery to separate it from other recyclables. The cardboard would then be baled and then shipped to a card recycler - this is might be in China which is true for a significant proportion of our cardboard recycling.

If the recycling load is contaminated it might then be loaded up into another lorry and driven to a residual waste transfer station where it may be run through more machinery to prepare it for incineration which may be in the UK or sent abroad. or sent directly to landfill.

recycling isn’t as good as we’ve all been sold it to be….. so yeah, I rip up paper, card, anything biodegradable and compost it. It stops with me. That and other zero waste swaps wherever I can. I find it very satisfying!

[cookiecrew42]

have typed this about 4 times now! maybe this will work!!

We have chickens so they use scraps

Sanitary pants - did use the reusable/washable pads and now trying these

Bamboo toothbrushes, compostable bin bags everywhere

Laundry sheets - daughter has eczeme so brilliant for that and my cupboard space.

Grow veggies from weekly shop - peppers, cucumbers - got the idea from instagram and its easy, kids love it.

Found an eco subscription pack - attached a photo, who knew - compostable clingfilm was a thing?

They have just launched bamboo nappies which look good too