5 simple swaps to make your home more sustainable
August 1st 2018 is the earliest Earth Overshooting Day EVER.
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when we (all of humanity) have used more from nature than our planet can renew in an entire year. We’re using more ecological resources & services than nature can regenerate. We’re over fishing, over harvesting forests & we’re emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ecosystems can absorb.
We only have 1 earth so we had better start taking care of it.
To be zero waste is a goal of mine, both in the studio & at home. It’s an uphill struggle & in some cases I'd go as far as to say it's impossible, but the challenge is too important to not to give it my best. I'm slowly chipping away at my own plastics usage & trying to find alternatives where possible.
Although I'm no expert, I’ve put together a list of small changes that we can all use to help reduce our plastic usage. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list, but they’re the first few steps on a long journey.
Hopefully, it gives you a few ideas to help cut back on plastic this August. If you have any ideas, tips or tricks please let me know either on the comments section or over on my Instagram or Facebook page! This is a journey that will be much easier together.
MATCHES
Most of us have matches in our homes, but sometimes they’re left at the back of the cupboard for occasional use. Just swapping out plastic lighters for using only matches is so easy it’s crazy not to make this change. They biodegrade & they come in cardboard, excellent!
BAMBOO TOOTHBRUSH
Say goodbye to those throwaway plastic toothbrushes with plastic packaging too! There are lots of bamboo toothbrush providers that package their products in paper or cardboard. And… sorry here’s the maths bit. Dentists say that you should replace your toothbrush every 3 months, that’s 4 toothbrushes a year. In 10 years that’s 40 toothbrushes.
Obvs you have to keep it in your Zigzag Pot.
CANDLES
A plastic-free way of ridding unwanted odours from our homes. A lovely relaxation inducer in the morning & evening. No need for plug-in air fresheners, plastic pump sprays or aerosols! Also, my Hannah Harriet candles are poured by hand in the UK! Which helps to keep the carbon footprint down.
SHOPPING
Let's remove single use plastic produce bags from our lives. On the whole, they're usually unnecessary altogether, but for food that needs a bag - like loose runner beans, peas & nuts - My canvas bags are the perfect size. You get a bag for free when you buy a pack of my tealight candles. Reuse, reuse, reuse. If we use our reusable bags instead of the plastic ones in the shops, it will save hundreds of millions of plastic bags each year.
*The cups my tealight candles come in ARE recyclable*
PLANTS
These days there is very little to choose between real or replica plants, visually at least. Artificial indoor plants now look so lifelike you normally need to touch them to tell if they are real or not. Have plants in your home - and lots of them - NOT plastic plants but real, living, breathing ones. Our overpopulated planet needs plants to improve air quality. Plants take the carbon dioxide from air to produce oxygen that humans can breathe. Plants purify the air, removing harmful toxins, they provide us with lasting health benefits and they're even scientifically proven to improve our moods.
The long list of benefits for having live plants over plastic ones should make us consider live plants a necessity, as well as an object of home decor, because honestly, good health should never be out of style. They make our environment overall cleaner.