A guide to sustainable beginnings🌳

Recipay for sustainibilitay :)

Sometimes people feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start when they want to make changes to their lifestyle and habits, to make their living more sustainable.

As with everything, knowing where to get all of the things you need, what to look for and to buy, takes time and it is a learning process.

You have to educate and orientate yourself.

Here are some tools for starting out:

🌳put a key word like "eco" into instagram's search bar and many related profiles will pop up, if you have found one that you like, click the little arrow below the profile and it will show similar accounts that are suggested for you

some great accounts to serve as an example are:

@ecoyoucommunity

@theearthlingco @plasticfreemermaid @zerowastehome @going.zero.waste @packagefreeshop

@the.eco.warrior

by starting to follow accounts like these, more and more similar one's will pop up and come to you without searching😊

And I promise that you will find some cool stuff that will excite you.

🌳same goes for the internet (I hope you are using ECOSIA as a search engine😊),

you can search things like: "best sustainable accounts to follow on instagram" or "sustainable clothing stores UK"

🌳if you feel like it's too much work to make your life completely sustainable, choose a part of you life. start with your bathroom or kitchen or closet and then search for eco-friendly swaps on the internet or your socials

🌳if I am in a city near me I sometimes search key words like: "second hand store, eco-friendly, natural" on google maps and see which stores pop up near me.

Or I search for specific stores with those key words on the internet before I set off on a shopping trip.

🌳if you find stores that you like, ask the owners if they know about other sustainable shops in the area or about certain products that you can't seem to find.

After a while you will build a network and won't have to think twice about where to shop.

Some super simple things with a big impact to start out with are:

✅bring produce bags to the grocery store for your fresh fruits and veggies

✅shop clothes second hand in thrift stores online or offline (apparently it's trendy, so why not? vintage is what's up 😉)

✅start to put your organic waste like banana peels into a compost bin in your backyard or balcony instead of throwing it into the regular garbage bin

(organic waste biodegrades to nutrient-rich soil, but gets dumped into landfills which are basically huge plastic-lined wholes and breaks down anaerobically which releases different greenhouse gases into the atmosphere)

✅use bamboo or wooden razors and toothbrushes instead of plastic ones

✅absolutely refuse single use (plastic) products like:

plastic bags,

bottles,

coffee cups,

straws,

cotton pads

tampons and pads

single use masks and latex gloves

for all of these things there are reusable, in the long run cheaper swaps,

that are better and healthier for you and the environment.

And please, if you are in a store and there is a bar of hair soap or shampoo in a bottle made from recycled plastic right next to the brand that you grab without thinking about it because it's what you usually buy -

Grab the product that is the greener choice.

They don't even have to be more expensive.

Look around you, sometimes there are other products that are better options in the stores you visit all the time.

And don't hesitate to ask friends who are already doing sustainable things or even cashiers at a store if you are looking for new and better options, for help.

Everybody learns and it will become like second nature before you know it.

Ok, last thing,

Look at me...

You have the power to change things and your acts make a difference.