I’ve made a lot of changes in regards to how I consume and what I spend my money on. I think it’s really important to, at the very least, become more aware of your impact on the environment. Here’s some changes I made and love and I think that you could also implement into your daily routine. Or not! It’s entirely up to you.
Reducing my use of single use plastics
I used to use a ton of plastic baggies and saran wrap. All my leftovers would go into a plastic Ziplock of some size or in a bowl with saran wrap on top. I replaced these with glass containers with air-tight lids, silicone reusable plastic baggies and beeswax fabric food wraps.
Replacing my cleaning supplies with better products
I have OCD and having a clean home is really important to me, so I’d go through quite a bit of cleaning supplies. Most came in plastic containers and most products probably weren’t great for the environment. This was a very easy switch for me. Clean Cult and Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning products were my solution. I love their products.
Multipurpose surface cleaner
I ordered a Mrs. Meyer’s glass bottle bundle. It came with a glass, reusable bottle and 2 glass bottles of concentration. You can then buy more concertation solution bottles as you need them.
Laundry detergent
I’ve replaced my laundry detergent with Clean Cult’s Juniper and Sandalwood detergent sheets. They smell amazing and don’t give my son hives or bother my cat’s eyes. I’ve had problems with different products in the past as we have sensitive skin. I also purchased Wool dryer balls to replace single use dryer sheets.
Paper towels
I used a lot of paper towels, even for silly things like drying my hands off. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I started to really pay attention to how much I was going through. I went through 2 rolls a week, now we go through 1 roll every 2 weeks. I bought cloth washable “no paper towels” and I love them. They also come on a roll like paper towel.
Bathroom cleaners
Clean Cult has a Fresh Lemon toilet bowl cleaner sheets that I use for our toilet. Their products all come in 100% plastic free boxes. For my shower I use dish soap as it cuts human grease. I also use vinegar quite a bit in my cleaning, and sometimes add it to my laundry.
Dish soap
Initially I had tried a solid soap that came in a ramekin. I purchased this a couple times, but I realized this wasn’t the solution for me. I then purchased Clean Cult’s Lemon Verbena Dish Soap. It smells amazing, comes in an aluminum bottle and is refillable. I’m really enjoying this one instead of the ramekin! I just felt like the soap got so dirty with continuously dipping back into it. I also buy all of my dishwasher tablets from Clean Cult. I really like their products and packaging.
Cutting back on food waste
I spend a lot more time meal/ingredient prepping, as well as washing and making sure my produce lasts as long as possible. Finding recipes that use up what we have instead of letting it go to waste. I’ve also been saving things like onion peels, carrots, etc. in a bag in the freezer so that I can use these to make a yummy vegetable stock.
Going mostly plant-based, local and whole food
Animal agriculture has the biggest negative impact on the environment. I feel like a lot of people don’t want to talk about this. Veganism gets a bad reputation for how some people handle the conversation, but I think it’s important to stay informed even if you choose to eat meat.
Processing a single pound of beef uses 2,500 gallons of water. Raising livestock for human consumption generates 15% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. I’m not going to go into detail about what happens to these animals, because I find it really disturbing and I think most people already know. But animal agriculture also causes a lot of deforestation, water pollution and biodiversity loss.
So, what now? No one is going to be perfect at everything. I won’t sit here and shame you for consuming meat. But if you want to be kinder to animals and the environment, cutting back on red meats is the solution. Try non dairy milks, stop supporting factory farming. Small changes make a big difference and I’ve noticed my body feeling so much better since going mostly plant based.
Something I want to start getting better at is buying local. It’s so much easier to buy produce from the grocery shop, but supporting your local farmers and their produce is a huge step too. Local farmer’s markets produce is infinitely better and typically cheaper as well.
Reusable feminine pads
When taking a moment to look back at disposable, single use things I used frequently, feminine pads were a glaringly obvious change I needed to make. Unfortunately, the idea of using a cup and the suction feeling of removing it made me really hesitant to go with one. I’ve heard great things, but fabric pads are very soft and comfortable.
Buying books secondhand
I’ve been using Thriftbooks to purchase all my physical books for a long time now! I’ve never received a book I was disappointed with. I typically only purchase books I plan to reference in the future (things like textbooks, books I do learning out of, etc.)
Not using AI
I’ll be the first to admit that before I understood how awful it was for the environment that I used ChatGPT. It was only a couple times when it was first released, but I’m not going to lie and pretend like it didn’t intrigue me initially. ChatGPT in particular uses 500ml of water to write a single 100 word e-mail. While training ChatGPT-3 alone, it’s said to have used 700,000 litres of water.
I definitely think it’s nearly impossible to avoid all AI, but not using generative AI (like ChatGPT) is an easy step one can take. Also things like Stable Diffusion, creating AI “art” (slop) and falling into the trap of creating a Fortnite or Disney princess character of yourself.
It’s okay to not be perfect!
Making all these changes at once could definitely be a lot. Slowly transitioning to eco-friendly alternatives as I ran out of what I was using made it a lot better on my wallet. But these changes never felt like I was downgrading or giving something up. In fact, I prefer all of these alternatives to what I was using before. Not only do they smell nicer, but it feels nicer to feel like I’m doing something positive.
You can’t do everything perfectly, but don’t stop that from allowing yourself to make steps that make sense of your and your home. Some things may not work for you and that’s okay. It’s important to just do your best and whatever you can.
Things I would like to personally work on
- I would like to stop utilizing Amazon as much as I do. My husband and I don’t have a vehicle until we move, making buying certain products more difficult. The shops where we live only carry certain things and not a lot of them are what I’m after.
- I want to use the library more. Not only is the library a free space to be and spend my time, but they offer so much more than just books. I think it’s really important to support local libraries!
- I want to volunteer and give back to my community more. I want to spend more time outdoors picking up trash (I recently purchased a trash grabber!)
- I want to figure out a solution to how many water bottles we go through. I’m currently living in Florida and we cannot drink the tap water. I’d love to get a refillable container for our water.
- Get better about buying more local produce and less grocery store produce that comes in plastic containers.
- Buying all my clothes secondhand. I wear my clothes until they’re literally unusable scraps of fabric already. But I would love to have an entire wardrobe of secondhand clothing pieces.
Lune, rooted 
Leave a comment