After watching some poignant television moments on Blue Planet 2 and the recent awareness of our planet’s plastic crisis, I have decided that we, as a family of 6 have more of a responsibility to be reduce our waste.We’re definitely not eco- warriors (yet!) and truthfully we’re only doing the basics right now. So I have vowed to myself that we as a family need to act now and do our small bit to reduce our waste in our home. I’m not sure how achievable I will find it to be aiming for zero waste, but for now reducing our waste considerably is my aim. I really feel since starting to declutter our home and work towards having less stuff through the Marie Condo method, we are really aware of everything in our home now, and what we need and don’t need going forward. So in the habit of sharing most aspects of my life on here and social media, I want to share with you the start of our journey today and the progress we make going forward. So expect updates, tips, and hopefully a guest post or two along the way.
So this is where we are at, right now. I know it’s not much and we can do so much more and this will hopefully change slowly from now.
We currently recycle through the council (who doesn’t in 2018!) but the information from each council and how much is actually recycled isn’t always known. To help make our recycling actually recycled we are WASHING it out. Did you know that lots of recycling never meets the recycling grade as it’s classed as dirty and contaminated? So we give ours a good rinse through. It only takes a few minutes of your day.
We recycle our garden waste through the council service but they don’t accept food waste in the garden waste, so we will be looking to start our own composting.
We currently use bags for life when we’re out shopping like most, and if I forget my bag for life I will balance a whole heap of shopping in my arms. It takes between 10-1000 years for plastic bags to decompose, something to be mindful of when you’re contemplating heavy arms vs ‘just’ buying another plastic bag for 5p.
We ask for tap water when we’re out rather than bottled water. We use our own water bottles from home and refill on the go. This is crucial to stop the mountain of plastic water bottles getting even higher.
I have recently invested in an eco-coffee cup so I can stop using single use paper cups. In 2017 it was recorded that a trillion paper cups were in landfill, as most paper cups aren’t actually recyclable due to the plastic coating on them. Having my own cup is so much better as I’m more likely to be frugal and make my own before I leave the house, and some coffee shops give you a discount for using your own cup so totally worth having your own funky cup!
Palm oil- I have recently become more aware of trying not to eat products containing palm oil, and after watching a very sad orangutan documentary with Finlay, I’m now trying to be more aware of palm oil products. We all love peanut butter in our house and so we have been purchasing a few different nut butters now that are completley palm oil free and they are yummy, a little more expensive but well worth the eco-swap and we just have to teach the kids to go easy on spreading it!
Soap- We have recently moved to good old-fashioned soap instead of plastic soap bottles, another win on reducing plastic bottles in our home. I will endeavour to share with you any good soaps and eco friendly products that we come across on here or on my YT channel.
No sandwich/freezer bags- We have moved away from using throwaway plastic food containers in favour of sandwich boxes and hardy Tupperware type containers. My mum still has containers in her cupboard from when we were children. No need to use a plastic zip bag to then throw it away a few days later.
Kitchen Roll- We just use cloths and tea towels now instead of single use kitchen roll to mop up spillages etc.
There we have it, I told you we were only doing the basics. That said I have an excited head full of more ways to be environmentally friendly through sanitary, hygiene and baby products and improving the waste and plastic use throughout the home.
I can’t wait to update you all on what we do next. Our waste reducing journey starts now! I hope this post will inspire others who have been thinking about making more of a difference. If you’re streets ahead of me on reducing waste, please do share your tips for myself and others to see. Im really wanting this to become a thought sharing series.
Good for you. I am a teacher and put spoons and forks on my list of supplies. Next year I will not put it on the list. Moms and dads will have to pack a reusable one from home! #coolmumclub
Great idea! My son has got a great spork contraption that he uses on scout trips!
I think every little helps and we have made many of these changes in our household too….I think it starts with being mindful of these things and from there, the rest follows. Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub with this Charlotte and hopefully this will inspire others to follow suit! xx
Thank you Talya xx
I was late to the party in taking this stuff seriously but baby steps are good and we can build on them and I learned from your post. We need to do this thing – of that I am convinced even if it took me a while. I think Blue Planet made so many of us wake up and I am sure our children will look back in horror in time at how we have abused or planet #ThursdayTeam
We can make a difference and help others by spreading the word. It’s a real shame that we weren’t alerted sooner to the crisis! X
I love this! You are making some fantastic changes. I agree that going zero waste is probably quite a stretch. Perhaps it depends on where you love but certainly around me every shop is so heavy on product packaging, there is only so much I can reduce. But what I can I will. The recycling figure (or lack of) also worry me so I guess the less I have to put in the better. Our council takes food waste separately, this used to have to be in a biodegradable bag but now it can be in any bag…. This concerns me! But our garden is so small that composting isn’t an option. I just have to be extra careful with portion control and not over buying. I am a great believer that a change is still a change no matter how small so this is huge head way.
Thank you for joining #ThursdayTeam