17 Eco-Friendly Swaps You Can Make Today
Let's reflect on what we’re doing together to protect the earth and keep her free from pollution, plastic, synthetics, and toxins. Here we offer 17 eco-friendly swaps you can make today to clean up your lifestyle and be more environmentally conscious.
1. Make More Meals at Home
Eating out less and cooking at home more might seem daunting for the kitchen-challenged. Yet, it is a powerful way to reduce single use plastic. That’s because most drive thru, takeout, and fast food restaurants package their food in plastic. When you make a meal at home you can use re-usable dishes while also cutting down on food waste.
2. Plant a Garden to Grow Your Own Food
Organically growing your own fruits and vegetables is not only good for YOU, it’s good for the world around you. That’s because it’s a sustainable and renewable method for replenishing your food source. And you can avoid using chemicals that pollute our environment and waterways. If you don't have easy access to a yard never fear - some berries and herbs can grow quite well in containers either in your house or on your porch if you maintain them.
3. Shop Secondhand
Buying used items or clothes is a great way to reduce, re-use, and recycle. We recommend stopping by your local second-hand store regularly to keep an eye out for gently used appliances, shoes, clothing, dishware, home decor, and more. Doing so means no additional energy was used to create those items. You can use the same trip to drop off a few household items that you're ready to part with, making the second-hand ecosystem vibrant and lively.
4. Eat Less Seafood
It’s estimated that 45-85% of the plastic in the ocean comes from fishing nets. More information is coming to light about the impact of commercial fishing on the environment (specifically our vulnerable oceans) but one switch we can all make is to reduce our consumption of fish.
5. Ride Your Bike Instead of Driving
While this isn’t possible for everyone, depending on where you live and work, some of us can make an effort to use public transport, walk, or ride our bikes to work, the grocery store, and around town. Riding your bike instead of driving reduces fossil fuels and is a pollution-free way to get from here to there (it’s also great for your heart & lungs!).
6. Use Re-usable Cups and Bottles
This one speaks for itself. We all understand the impact of plastic water bottles, so let’s make the swap to reusable water bottles instead. Just plan ahead, get some quality re-usable bottles that suit your common needs, and then use them. And wash them. Again and again. Try to completely eliminate the need for plastic bottles.
7. Use a Menstrual Cup Instead of 1-Time Use Feminine Hygiene Products
One menstrual cup (like this one from Dot Cup) can save the waste of more than 2400 pads or tampons per user! That ads up quickly when you consider that 26% of the worlds population menstruates!
8. Use a Refillable Razor
It is estimated that billions of plastic razors are tossed in landfills each year in the U.S. alone. Most recycle programs don’t accept razors since they are mixed materials. Instead, we recommend going with a metal razor and refillable blades, like this one from LeafShave. These can be easily recycled and don’t contribute to plastic pollution.
9. Switch from Cotton to Bamboo
Cotton can take up to 20,000 liters of water to produce 2.2 pounds of cotton (reference). Wow. Think of that. Bamboo requires ⅓ of the water that it takes to grow the same amount of cotton. It’s also incredibly soft and breathable. Try these Ettitude bedsheets, for instance, made from 100% Organic Bamboo.
10. Use a Bidet
If you've been to Europe you know - bidets are awesome. Each day the equivalent of 270,000 trees are flushed down the toilet as toilet paper. You can save quite a few trees by switching to a bidet. And you might find they clean better, too... Check out the Tushy bidet. And if you need a little more time before taking that leap, opt for bamboo toilet paper like this one from Reel.
11. Use a Low-Flow Showerhead
There are tons of ways to reduce the amount of water you use. One easy one has a compounding effect for years to come: swap out your regular showerhead for a water-saving, low flow showerhead. And maybe try using colder water from time to time, too - which we guarantee will shorten the length of your shower and the amount of water you use!
13. Make Coffee at Home
Globally the waste produced by coffee to-go adds up to about 2.5 billion single use coffee cups. When you make coffee at home, you can use mugs or reusable coffee cups. If you use an espresso machine or a french press you can even avoid using a coffee filter. Coffee grounds are also an excellent nitrogen source for composting and soil - so use them.
14. Use Compostable Skincare, Not Plastic
We're a skincare company, so naturally we're pretty passionate about this one. If you walk the aisles of the skincare section in your local grocery store or beauty shop, can you picture how many plastic bottles are on the shelf? Most of these bottles are never recycled because they are not properly cleaned and separated. This is one of many reasons why we invented compostable skincare: lotion, lip balm, recovery balm, and (coming soon!) sunscreen all packed in paper tubes that are compostable and biodegradable. These dense, concentrated products aren't diluted with water, which is both why they can come in a compostable tube and why they work so much better on your skin - they're filled with concentrated goodness. Try them today.
15. Use a Compost Bin
Now that you're using compostable skincare, get yourself a compost bin. Composting food scraps, packaging, shredded paper, grass clippings, and more has enormous environmental benefits by recycling organic resources and conserving landfill space. When incorporated into the soil, compost helps save water by increasing the amount of moisture the soil can hold. And now you don't have to drive down to the home improvement store for as much gardening dirt - you make some of it at home. Try this compost bin for the backyard. And while you're at it, switch to compostable dog waste bags like these Moonygreen ones.
16. Use a Bamboo Toothbrush
50 million pounds of plastic toothbrushes are thrown away in the United States annually! We recommend swapping to a bamboo toothbrush and silk floss or other alternatives to plastic. If you want to do one better, find toothpaste that isn’t packaged in plastic tubes, too. Try this bamboo toothbrush from Bite.
17. Buy Organic & Local Food
Supporting local farmers reduces the carbon emissions it takes for food from further away to be shipped to your grocery store. Supporting organic farmers and responsibly sourced food keeps more toxins out of our soil and bodies. It's simply the right thing to do. Let's vote with our fork - and our wallet!
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This is the synthetic plastic bottle buster! Four highly popular skincare items packaged in compostable and biodegradable paper tubes: Lotion Bar 2oz Original for all-purpose skincare, Lotion Bar 0.5oz Cedar for easy on-the-go convenience, Lip Tube 0.3oz Peppermint to keep those lips moisturized, and RIDICULOUS! Lotion Bar 2oz for relief from tension and discomfort.