Do yogis shop more sustainably than truckers?

*Disclaimer* I am stereotyping for the sake of making a point.

If you look at the “type of people” that buy plastic bottles, litter and really have zero knowledge of what is going on in our environment and don’t feel the need to preserve it at all, these people could, possibly, sometimes be labelled by different factors.

Often the ways of consuming and being aware and informed about

sustainability are related to different factors like education,

income, connection to nature, where someone grew up,

self perception, ego, . . .

🌱👨🏼‍🌾Now don’t get me wrong, a trucker can have a compost bin in his backyard and take produce bags wherever he goes.

🧘🏼‍♀️🛍👠And the well-off yogi who mediates 4 times a week and goes on spiritual hikes might be guilty of getting take away salads and green juices in heavy plastic containers every few days as well as be the owner of an overflowing closet that houses 50 polyester active wear sets next to 20 different pairs of plastic slippers.

👨🏼‍🌾👩🏼‍🌾So there is really no way of looking at a person and telling of the bat how much they care about the environment.

But, there are still certain types of people you see consuming differently.

Let’s take a daily supermarket scenario for example.

There are people who buy loads of plastic bottles, boxes of ready-made meals, frozen meat, laundry detergent that looks like pink slimy goo and 3 packets of white bread.

Then there are people who pick up a lot of produce, knock their knuckles on a melon before deciding on the ripeness and smell the basil before placing it in their cart. They have produce bags and glass jars with them and may later walk across the street to the small organic store that sells cheese and olives for 10 bucks each.

Then you have mothers doing their weekly shop who have a variety of produce, bread, kiddy food like fish sticks, chocolate and lollies, ham, ice cream, cereals, milk, laundry detergent, shampoo, toilet paper and so on.

Let’s evaluate this mother’s cart.

It is your run of the mill shopping cart.

💡With no regard or thought for sustainability. But certainly also not with an agenda to destroy nature.

Although this person might not have ill intentions,

buying these products time and again has a significant negative impact.

🔥Tons of plastic, outright poisonous, laundry detergent with fabric softeners and micro plastic which go into our water ways.

🔥Candy and cereal that have ingredients like palm oil in them

(which has become one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction). 🪓🪓

That is why informing and educating yourself and other people is so important.

If we look at that mother’s cart, there could be a few impactful, easy swaps and changes made.

🍞Bread: get at bakery and take a bread bag

🍣Fish sticks: get good vegan alternatives or buy fresh fish and batch prepare fish sticks yourself to freeze

🍬Chocolate and lollies: get fair trade and organic certified chocolate where the inside is wrapped in foil not plastic + look around the candy section and look for vegan, natural brands and one’s that use better packaging and check ingredients to make sure palm oil wasn’t used

🥩ham: avoid it if you can, meat is not really not essential to have in one’s diet (normally)

🍦ice cream: get a bunch of bananas, blend with some plant milk and freeze to have at the ready (it is sweet and delicious and kids get used to whatever you give them and it surely will not harm any child to not have regular ice cream at home, it teaches them to use natural resources and avoid packaging when possible)

🥣cereals: look for brands that have simple natural ingredients and come in a carton or get oats and put some mix them with sweet things like raisins and chocolate chips

🍼milk: get plant milk

🧴Laundry detergent: there are so many brands that are just as inexpensive as the “cheap” one’s and come in recycled plastic + have natural ingredients like Frosch products (https://frosch.de/en/index.html) or get a subscription to a brand like Everdrop (https://www.everdrop.de/)

so that getting these household items every week isn’t even a concern

🧼shampoo: get natural shampoo soap bars or brands that use recycled plastic (also not always more expensive than others)

🧻toilet paper: I beg of you – get recycled toilet paper – thanks

Making all of these changes to one’s shopping list can of course seem overwhelming at first but they can be made gradually.

Once you have “new products” on the list it will be the same shopping experience with knowing exactly what to grab in which isle, just with different products that are better for the planet and in turn for you, your kids, cousins, friends – heck even for your pet fish.😉🐠

It is so important to set an example for your kids, other people, yourself and to be aware of the impact that buying certain things has.

Most of the people don’t think about what they are putting in their carts.

They don’t know the impact of it.

Depending on who they are, they just want cheap products,

get whatever tastes good or just get brands that they grab out of habit.

As I said, there can be a bit of pattern regarding the groups or people who buy certain things.

I’m sure you know what I mean.

Next time you go shopping look at the people and their carts at the supermarket.

👨‍👧‍👧Families who are doing a “regular shop”,

🍟a guy who looks overweight, cracking a soda can while pushing his cart who has a pile of junk food in it.

👩🏼‍🌾Your neighbor who is a homeopathic doctor who you don’t even see at that supermarket because she only goes to an organic food store down the street.

These are just some observations that I make all the time.

As I mentioned earlier consumerism can be highly related to education, income, age, health, self perception, . . .

I know that some people simply don’t know:

That they have different options,

That buying what they are buying is really bad,

How bad our planets situation is,

That changes and swaps can be made on a low budget, . . .

I encourage you again, make your friends aware, encourage them to not get plastic bottles and go thrifting.

Find new sustainable brands and share them with people you know.

Get sustainable products like hair and body soaps, oils in glass containers and natural nail polish for a friend’s birthday to encourage them to buy them again for future use.

Get natural candles, second hand books or a starter set of sustainable kitchen tools at Christmas for mum or an aunt.

Show people around you that sustainable swaps are accessible.

Try to do whatever you can in an organic, not forced way to make sustainable buying the new normal in your surroundings.

#helpmakesustainablethenewnormal 🌱

Thank you for reading💚

See ya next blog👋🏼

Xx Stella