Eco Friendly Products to Invest in This Year*

Over the last year there has been a lot of talk about doing your bit for the environment and to reduce your carbon footprint, and rightly so. Although personally I’ve never been under the delusion that the Earth has infinite resources it’s become a pressing subject with fears that our home planet will beyond repair THIS CENTURY. That’s terrifying! With concerns like that, it’s not hard to avoid getting swept along in the hysteria and you may no longer wish to wade through the pages of paper work provided by scientists to support the facts for fear you’d be too anxious to even live your life! In a nutshell there are a few things you can do to help the environment, you could change to a plant based diet, walk more and leave your car at home, install solar panels to your home for clean reusable energy and you could invest in eco friendly products rather than using one use plastics.

It’s the last point i’m going to focus on as it’s something i’ve been working hard to do this year (we always walk and I’m very conscious about over using electricity).

Here is a list of reusable products I’ve invested in this year to reduce my consumption of one use plastics;

Shopping Bags
The easiest change you can make. Reusable shopping bags are a great investment and if you’re anything like me you can pick out ones that most represent your personality. I always have one in my handbag and if I’m going for a big grocery shop I take a few more. My sister keeps a stash in her car for unexpected shopping trips and even when I was little my parents always had ones they used until they broke. I wouldn’t even care if they stopped selling the stronger plastic ones in store and completely switched to paper, we’ve had enough time to realise this is a simple change and you simply need to be prepared.

Straws
Last summer my mum received a metal straw from one of the kids leaving her pre-school. I tried it a few times and wondered why I’d been using those paper ones places provide now when I could simply bring my own. So I bought a couple and a little pouch with a brush to carry them in and i’ve never looked back. Yes, you might see it as more rubbish you throw in your handbag but at least I know the straw I use for 5 minutes isn’t going to end up in a landfill for years. If you can use metal straws (I know not everyone can), it’s such a cheap change to make.

Water Bottle
I’m so proud of myself, I recently got my mum to invest in a reusable water bottle for the house. Every week she was buying a pack of water but I showed her the way. Fill a bottle of water and keep it in your fridge over night for cold water. Take it with you when you go out so you’re not buying bottles. I love adding slices of lemon to mine!

Take Away Coffee Cups
I drink a lot of take away coffee, iced and warm, and I honestly dread to think how much I was contributing to landfills because of my filthy little habit (I don’t smoke or drink much). So I now have a couple of take away cups. One that’s small enough to throw into my handbag, and a slightly larger one when I know I’m going to need a lot of caffeine. Like with the bags you can get some really use cups that reflect your personality way better than one of those red cups everyone raves about at Christmas.

Cutlery
My newest addition to my eco friendly collection. I was watching someone’s Disney Vlog on YouTube and I saw them whip out their own cutlery when they sat down for a quick service meal. Until that point it hadn’t even occurred to me how damaging plastic cutlery must be at huge theme parks! So I bought a pack of picnic cutlery that is easy to wash and fits in my straw pouch to take with us to Disney next month.

Face Pads
Finally, reusable face pads are a thing and they’re great. Face wipes (and baby wipes) are a huge contributors to landfills these days and it can be so easily avoided by using reusable pads and cloths when it comes to cleaning your face. You can also buy a net bag to wash them in so they don’t get mixed up with your undies. I bought mine from a small shop and they’re Spider-Man, you can’t get cooler than that!

Lots of people shame others for making small changes, but if everyone made small changes to their lifestyles it would soon add up to the big changes we so desperately need!