There are numerous ways you can make your home – and your life – more eco-friendly. Conserve the planet and feel better about yourself with these essential ways you can incorporate sustainability into your home.
Environmentally friendly living is easier to achieve than you might think. You don’t need to go off-grid to live a more planet-conscious lifestyle. There are increasing numbers of alternative materials, replacements for less environmentally positive building and crafting wares. With a little thought and inspiration, you can use these new homeware devices to do your bit to save the planet.
Eco-Friendly Materials
Not all eco-friendly materials are as odd as you might think. Yes: bamboo is far better for the planet than cotton or plastic, but it does take some convincing for we westerners to use it. Did you know that there are eco-friendly materials which are exactly like the products you already use? For example, replacing plastic with bioplastic or recycled plastic does not alter the product itself. It does impact the cost to the planet per product though. Bioplastics are made from biomass materials, which means things like vegetable oils, cornstarch, and even seaweed.
Other eco-friendly materials to consider replacing your household plastics with include cork, bamboo textile, paper, jute, enviroboard, and even old corn cobs. Dried out, these are often used as a fuel source.
Ways To Replace Homeware With Eco Friendly Products
There are a thousand slight changes you can make to your home which will let you incorporate a guilt-free, planet-friendly lifestyle. Here are the best ways to turn your homeware into eco-friendly products, instead:
1. Soap
Do you have a soap dispenser? These nifty gadgets only dispense enough soap to clean your hands with. They help regulate how much soap your kids are washing down the sink. But a refillable hand soap is a good investment. Buy yourself a pretty dispenser and choose refillable packets to keep it topped up. Look for recycled plastic packets or shop in a container free store.
2. Coffee
Modern coffee companies have the right idea. They still sell their glass jars, but instead of making this the only option, they also sell paper packets, or packets made from recycled materials. Start using these refill packets to top up your glass jars of coffee and you will help the planet with every cup.
3. Soft Furnishings
You might not believe this, but eco-friendly replacements for things like wool and cotton exist already. Switch out your cushion covers, towels, and blankets and sheets with bamboo materials, rather than cotton materials. The fabrics can still be as luxurious as before, but this way you have less of an environmental impact. How much less? The amount of water it takes to make any cotton soft furnishings is 10,000 liters per kilogram of cotton. That’s a lot of water wasted on one bag of clothing or blankets. Compared to cotton, Bamboo costs around 1/20th of this. Added to that, bamboo takes 1/3 less water to grow to begin with. However, there is an even better material…
4. Rug Replacements
That better material is slightly tougher than cotton and has a negative carbon footprint when harvested correctly. That material is hemp. Hemp farming has increased in popularity recently due to the production of CBD oils. However, the fibrous nature of this stalky plant make it perfect for blending a fabric. Like bamboo, hemp plants grow very quickly. They suck more carbon out of the air while they are growing than it costs to harvest and process the fibers. Everyone should switch out to hemp as much as possible, but especially for things like rugs, tapestries, tough outdoor clothing, and even your carpets.
5. Sustainable Kitchen Ware
Kitchen ware is the main place where you can make important changes. All of your ceramics are generally OK, but you should try to minimize how often you replace them. Think twice before picking up new mugs.
Bamboo is the new important thing in sustainable kitchen ware. Unfortunately, it cannot always go in the microwave, so you will still need a glass bowl or two for your microwave. You can replace your metal and ceramics with stone and clay. Use wax wraps instead of cling film and keep glass or bamboo storage jars which you top up. If you want to go the extra mile here, try shopping at your nearest no-plastic refill store.
Small Changes Make A Big Difference
What you must realize is that we are so close to the planetary point of no return that all these slight changes add up to something big. Every little helps, so do your part to stay guilt-free.
