Eco-friendly Living appears to become a standard in marketing nowadays with ‘Earth-friendly’ and ‘eco-friendly’ being common buzzwords. How do we prevent this marketing to become greener, becoming pushy and thereby overshadowing the importance of the message behind.
What’s the Answer? The Long Game. The way forward for future generations depends on it.
Start with easy, sustainable house swaps.
Let’s take an audit of the bathroom.
In the bathroom, we actively consume the most energy and expel the most waste.
From modern plumbing to ventilation, hair dryers, razors, and hot showers, there’s an ecological price to pay for convenience.
What can we do to start the eco-living bathroom journey?
The amount of chemicals we use to clean our bathrooms is quite surprising and considering how small and often how poorly ventilated the ‘smallest room in the house’ is they can’t be good for your health. Find yourself green bathroom cleaners which don’t allow harmful chemicals to go down the drain. Alternatively, there are plenty of home-made options you can try as well. Baking soda and vinegar are your friends!
Does your hot water have to be as hot as it currently is? If not reduce the temperature the bit. It’ll save energy and money over time.
Just as you should be replacing light bulbs everywhere else in the house with LED or more energy efficient light bulbs, don’t forget to replace the bathroom lights as well.
Americans could save more than an almost unbelievable 400,000 trees if each household bought just one roll of recycled toilet paper, according to Greenpeace. Check out lots of eco-friendly toilet paper or toilet paper alternatives.
Most towels are made of cotton, and although that sounds nice and natural the truth is that the cotton industry is pretty damaging to the environment. Towels made from organic cotton or bamboo are a much better choice for the planet.
“Cotton uses 3% of global water, and the damage from cotton farming is $83bn.” – The Guardian
PVC shower curtains do nothing for the environment or you. Not only are they not recyclable but they let off harmful toxic compounds which are not great for the air quality in your bathroom or your health. It is possible to get PVC free plastic shower curtains or even better why not go for a hemp shower curtain which is naturally resistant to mould? (Just make sure your bathroom is well ventilated)
There are loads of simple ways to reduce to the amount of water you use and waste in the bathroom, from installing low-flow taps to having shorter showers.
Have a look around your bathroom and in the bathroom cabinet. There’s probably loads of plastic around, from cotton buds to toothbrushes and shampoo bottles. Fortunately people are catching on and there are lots of plastic free alternatives. Why not try a bamboo toothbrush, use a shampoo bar or buy plastic free cotton buds? And don’t forget to swap disposable razors for safety razors too!
You might find that your bathroom is full of items that you don’t really need. Do you really need 4 different types of bath bubbles, why not use bath salts instead? Reduce the amount you’re buying!
Another way to reduce plastic is to find a local shop that offers refills for bathroom cleaners, shampoos, body washes etc. You don’t need to throw away every spray bottle and buy a new one every time, buy a refill or make your own to fill it.
The amount of cotton pads or balls that are thrown away each day after removing makeup or using them for cleansing can be massively reduced by buying reusable makeup removers. And don’t even think of buying disposable cleansing wipes (for your face, bum, countertops, glass or anywhere in the house). Not only do wipes come in non-recyclable packaging but you’re creating so much more waste with these single use items than if you just used old rags, microfibre or washable cloths / flannels. For the women you could also look into reusable sanitary products, it’s easy to have plastic free periods.
