One easy way to go greener is to change to eco-friendly versions of products you use every day.
Here’s our Big Green Ideas List of eco-friendly food, household products, and personal care items. These are products that we personally recommend, plus a few alternatives for choice. Please email us at info@biggreenideaslist.com to let us know about any excellent sustainable alternatives to everyday products that we’ve missed!
Food
Choosing a plant-based diet (or moving towards one) is one of the most effective and simple climate change actions you can take. We’ve chosen our favourite vegan alternatives to help you avoid wasting money on poor substitutes.
Cheese
For me, cheese has been the hardest thing to give up when going vegan. With most cheese alternatives, either the texture is wrong, the taste is wrong, or it doesn’t melt or slice like you want it to.
These products, however, are brilliant alternatives that will make your vegan transition much easier.
Let’s start with this one.
| Instead of: | Choose: |
| Mature Cheddar | Cathedral City Dairy-Free Block Available in Tesco and Sainsburys, this cheddar alternative is a game-changer which has been making a lot of vegans very, very happy since 2022. Not only does it taste like actual mature cheddar, it grates, melts and slices properly too. If you too have suffered underwhelming and downright terrible vegan “cheddar alternatives” for years, you will appreciate just what an achievement this is! |
| Blue cheese/stilton | Blue by Kinda Co A lot like stilton, but more tangy and it doesn’t taste like mould! Great on a cheeseboard and melted into pasta. It freezes well, so buy several at once or go for a couple of varieties (e.g. my other Kinda Co favourites, Farmhouse and Garlic & Herb) |
| Cream cheese | Violife Creamy Original Flavour. It’s perfect in taste and texture. Use it in sandwiches or crackers, or in a no-bake cheesecake recipe. However, it does not work in a baked cheesecake recipe, because it is coconut oil based. You can buy it from Tesco or Waitrose. |
| Boursin | Kinda Co Garlic & Herb Good on a cheeseboard or for melting into pasta. For melting, I also recommend Boursin Plant Based Garlic & Herbs Cheese. The texture is rubberier, but it is more easily available, as you can buy it from Sainsburys and Asda. |
| Camembert | Honestly Tasty’s Shamembert is a delicious and convincing creamy alternative to camembert. As there is a minimum basket value to check out, I recommend trying it as part of one of their excellent collections for Christmas or your birthday. Two more accessible, and cheaper, alternatives are Nurishh Plant Based Alternative to Camembert (available from Sainsbury’s and Tesco) and Violife Le Rond Camembert Flavour Block (from Sainsbury’s and Tesco). |
| Parmesan | Did you know that parmesan isn’t even vegetarian? It’s made using rennet, which comes from the stomach lining of calves, yet doesn’t have to be listed on UK food labels. Nutritional yeast (also known as “nooch”) is a popular vegan alternative. It’s kind of nutty, kind of cheesy, and a bit umami. Very useful in vegan cooking, and easy to use; you just sprinkle it on to make everything taste cheesier. You can buy it from Sainsbury’s, Tesco or Waitrose. |
Milk
There are a lot of alternatives to dairy milk, but the trick is working out which one is best for which purpose.
Oat milk and almond milk work anywhere you’d use dairy milk in cooking (e.g. pancakes, bread, or sauces), and both are really nice to drink cold and on cereal. Oat milk has a lower environmental impact than almond milk because it takes less water to grow. Due to food intolerances, the vegans in our household use either Naked Health Almond Drink or Naked Health Oat Drink for cooking, drinking and cereals, depending on their needs.
It’s hard to find milk alternatives that taste and act right in tea and coffee. I found sweetened soya milk to be closest to dairy milk in taste, but I drink a lot of tea so all the extra sugar was a problem for me. In the end, I trained myself to drink it black. However, friends and relatives like both oat milk and soya milk in their tea and coffee, and they particularly recommend Alpro’s “My Cuppa” soya milk, which was developed specifically for use in tea and doesn’t curdle.
Cream and custard
I love a good apple crumble, and find it hard to choose between cream or custard on it. So I usually have both.
For cream, I recommend Coconut Collab Double Cream. It’s virtually indistinguishable from dairy double cream in both taste and texture (it doesn’t taste of coconut at all).
For custard, I like Alpro Vanilla Custard. Even the non-vegan in our household now prefers this to regular dairy custard, as it’s sweeter and smoother than dairy custard.
Yoghurt
My favourite yoghurt for both savoury and sweet uses is Koko Dairy Free Plain Live Yogurt, although I have a feeling there may be better ones out there I just haven’t found yet. It’s quite neutral tasting, and it gets more tangy the longer it goes beyond its best-before date. When I use it in savoury dishes, e.g. in a curry or on top of nachos, I usually add a dash of lemon juice to make it less sweet.
Sausages
We’ve tried so many vegan and vegetarian sausages over the years. The best, by far, are Richmond plant-based sausages (most vegans on social media agree). They have a perfect texture, and the flavouring is as good as the “real thing”, probably because most of the flavour in a sausage comes from the seasoning.
Richmond’s plant-based sausages won Meat-Free Product of the Year in 2020 and Best Vegan Sausage in the Vegan Food & Living Reader Awards 2022. You can buy them from Sainsbury’s and Tesco (and you really should).
Burgers
Our favourite on both taste and cost is Aldi’s Plant Menu Ultimate No-Beef-Burgers. But when we can’t get to Aldi, we buy Plant Pioneers Ultimate Plant Burgers.
Ready meals
Aldi does a fantastic range of vegan products including the tastiest no-sausage-rolls and no-beef-burgers we’ve found (excellent for persuading children to try vegan foods). There’s a good range of vegetarian products too, including a great knock-off of Higgedy’s feta, spinach and pine nut tart. Other benefits are the low prices and cardboard-only packaging in the frozen ranges.
Chocolate
“Milk” chocolate
I won’t lie to you – most vegan “milk” chocolate tastes a lot like cheap Easter egg chocolate. I have spent a fair bit of money trying lots of new brands and being disappointed.
The closest I’ve found to milk chocolate is the Co-op’s gianduja (hazelnut-based) vegan chocolate. It doesn’t taste completely like Cadburys Dairy Milk as it has a slight nutella-like taste; but the flavour is well-rounded, rich and creamy, unlike most vegan chocolate.
Marks & Spencer’s gianduja chocolate is a close second (more expensive, not quite as good).
My previous favourite was Vego Hazelnut Chocolate Melts, but unfortunately they appear to have been discontinued. Vego’s Whole Hazelnut Chocolate Bar, which is made of the same chocolate, is still available and very good, provided you don’t mind the whole hazelnuts in it. You can buy Vego’s Whole Hazelnut Chocolate Bar direct from Vego, or from Holland and Barratt.
Dark chocolate
You might think you can avoid dairy by choosing dark chocolate, but unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, as even Cadbury’s Bournville now has milk listed as an actual ingredient (not just a may-contain).
Our favourite dark chocolate, for many reasons, is Tony’s Chocolonely. (Note – not all Tony’s bars are vegan – only the ones with the little green leaf on the coloured strip on the packaging.) Tony’s Chocolonely tastes like proper chocolate, has interesting flavours as well as plain dark, is palm-oil free, comes wrapped in FSC-certified paper, and is 100% slave-free (yes, sadly, there is illegal child labour and modern slavery in the chocolate supply chain).
You can buy Tony’s Chocolonely direct from Tony’s, your local zero-waste shop or Sainsbury’s.
Chocolate truffles
Booja Booja vegan chocolate truffles have a superbly rich taste and smooth texture – great for a treat. Buy vegan truffles direct from Booja Booja here.
Pâté
Weird, but bear with me here – the best alternative I’ve found to pâté is Kinda Co’s Farmhouse Mature, which comes as a soft block or a spreadable paste in a jar. It has a lovely tangy umami flavour that’s great spread on toast, crackers or a baguette. Before Catherdral City dairy-free block came along and blew all the competition away, this product was my favourite cheddar alternative, and I will continue to buy it because I love it; I just won’t force it to pretend to be cheddar anymore.
Mayonnaise
Hellmann’s Vegan Mayonnaise tastes just like the “real thing” but has a more pleasant, less gloopy texture.
You can buy it in a glass jar from Sainsbury’s and Tesco. Other brands are available but I haven’t tried them yet because Hellmann’s is so good.
Ice cream
Just as dairy ice cream can be amazing or rubbish, so can vegan ice cream. You will probably not be surprised to learn that Ben and Jerry’s do the best vegan ice cream I’ve found, although, I will take one for the team and do some more taste tests of other brands next summer.
You can buy Ben and Jerry’s from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Ocado.
However, if you are in the United States, I am sure it is worth trying the vegan Haagen Dazs as well. Unfortunately, for some reason, it is not available outside the USA.
Household
Beeswax wraps instead of cling film (saran wrap) or sandwich bags
Beeswax wraps are washable, reusable, and absolutely brilliant for keeping food fresh.
Most beeswax wraps are made from cotton infused with a combination of beeswax, rosin (solid tree resin) and jojoba oil. The wax melts ever so lightly in the warmth of your hands, allowing the fabric to mould perfectly around whatever you are wrapping. This keeps the air out so your food stays fresh for longer.
Use beeswax wraps for:
- Homemade bread, which normally goes stale by the next day, but will last 3 days in a beeswax wrap
- Cheese (vegan or dairy), which lasts much longer in a beeswax wrap than it does in the packet. The wrap takes the shape of the cheese, keeping the air away from it, so the edges of the cheese don’t go hard. However, I recommend using greaseproof paper inside your beeswax wrap if you are wrapping Cathedral City plant-based cheese, because the wrap absorbs the very cheesy smell and doesn’t let go.
Beeswax wraps are very useful if some people in your household are vegan and some aren’t, because you take longer to get through your respective cheeses, so you need them to last longer - Sandwiches – the wrap keeps the air out, keeps the crumbs and the filling in, and also acts as a convenient cloth to keep the food off the table.
- Sliced apples – wrap a sliced apple in a beeswax wrap to keep the air away and stop it going brown by lunchtime
You shouldn’t use beeswax wraps to wrap meat – but hopefully, you are cutting back on that anyway.
Which type of beeswax wrap should I buy?
Wraps vary in quality. They should feel quite stiff, and not sticky, at room temperature. Some wraps are softer but feel a bit oily and (in my opinion) not nice to the touch. If you’re unsure, I recommend buying some from your local zero-waste shop so you can feel the texture first. You could also ask the owner which brands people come back and buy more of, as that gives you a good indication of which ones are worth buying.
My favourite beeswax wraps are made by Queen Bee Wraps. The texture is stiff, not oily, and they last a really long time. I’ve been using mine regularly for about two years, washing in cold water with no washing-up liquid, and they are as good as new. You can buy direct from Queen Bee Wraps or from your local zero-waste shop.
I recommend buying wraps with a coloured background or multi-coloured pattern, because they will inevitably get stained at some point, which looks a bit gross on a plain or pale-coloured wrap.
How do you take care of beeswax wraps?
Wax melts when it’s warm, so only wash your beeswax wraps in cold water. You should also avoid using washing-up liquid or soap, which is literally designed to remove oil and fat, leaving you with nothing more than a pretty square of cotton fabric.
Wash your wraps in cold water (with a natural scrubbing brush that you keep just for the wraps), then drape them over your drainer to air-dry.
Cleaning products
Many household cleaning products can be replaced with lemon juice, bicarbonate of soda or a 50:50 white vinegar/ water mix in a spray bottle.
These solutions are effective, cheaper, and kinder to the environment than commercial products. They also reduce plastic waste (if you top up at the zero-waste shop) and you don’t have to inhale a cocktail of chemicals as you clean.
Read more here: Clean with natural products
Warning: test on an inconspicuous area first, and definitely avoid using lemon juice, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar on marble and other porous stone surfaces.
Freezer bags
Save your jam jars, and use them to store extra portions of food in the fridge or freezer when you batch-cook. Then you can enjoy having your own supply of healthy plastic-free ready meals waiting for you on days when you just don’t want to cook.
Find out how to freeze extra portions with jam jars
Kitchen roll/paper towels
Cut up some old, tatty tea towels and squash them into a pretty container that you don’t mind seeing on your work surface. Grab one whenever you have a spill or need to wipe something down, and then put it to one side ready to be washed later.
There’s no need to waste time edging them, or sewing velcro or poppers on them like you see on Pinterest. They’ll work just fine as they are.
Rubbish bags/bin liners
Anything that can’t be avoided, reused or recycled will probably end up in the rubbish.
These compostable bags do the job well, but a word of warning; because they are compostable they will start to break down if they get wet. So unless your whole family is really careful about what goes in the bin, you’ll need to change the bag about twice a week (unless you enjoy getting your feet covered in rubbish when you take the bag out).
Alternatively, you could line your bin with newspaper, or put your rubbish straight in the unlined bin, then wash it out as necessary.
Personal care
Shampoo and conditioner
First, I’ll settle a myth about shampoo bars.
You do not need to suffer through a transition period!
Quite simply, if the shampoo bar you are using leaves your hair stuck together in clumps, you are using the wrong shampoo bar for your hair type and water hardness.
Your best bet is to go to your nearest zero-waste shop and ask them which is the best product to use in your area. They’ll know which bar people keep buying, and they’ll want to help you find the right product so you keep coming back!
You’ll need to keep your shampoo bar in a soap dish, outside the shower, to avoid it going mushy from too much moisture. I use an old glass ramekin (pot). If you allow your shampoo bar to dry out properly between uses, it should easily last you a couple of months – so despite the upfront cost they are very good value for money.
I wish I could recommend my personal favourite to you, but I can’t because tragically they have stopped trading. It’s a hard business to be in as the market is still quite small, and a lot of first-time users are discouraged when the first shampoo bar they try doesn’t work for them. “Tragically” sounds a bit melodramatic but honestly, that’s how you feel when you find “the one” and then it’s taken away from you.
Can you help us build a database of the best shampoo bars?
We’d love to make it easier for newbies to find the right bar for their hair type and water hardness. So if you have a favourite brand, please email us at info@biggreenideaslist.com and let us know:
- the name of your favourite product
- your hair type – give as much detail as you can, e.g. African, Asian, European, curly, frizzy, normal, dry, oily
- whether it’s natural, straightened, coloured, or treated in another way
- and what the water hardness is in your area (find out here with this water-hardness checking map).
Toothbrushes
Our household is split between electric toothbrush users and bamboo brush users.
For people who use electric toothbrushes, these Braun-compatible toothbrush heads from LiveCoco are a practical, recyclable alternative to regular electric toothbrush heads.
When they are worn out, you post them back to LiveCoco who recycle them into new brush heads in a closed-loop system. I have used these brushes since late 2019, and my dentist is happy with the condition of my teeth and gums.
LiveCoco brushes are available direct from the manufacturer, from Holland & Barrett, or your local zero-waste shop.
If you have good brushing technique, bamboo toothbrushes are a more environmentally friendly alternative that uses even less plastic. There are loads of toothbrush and interdental brush options at Holland and Barrett.
Toothpaste
Toothpaste has to tick a lot of boxes. It has to protect your teeth, make your breath smell nice and ideally make your teeth look a bit whiter too. But every toothpaste tube you’ve ever used still exists somewhere (or has been incinerated), so it’s important to find a recyclable alternative that still does the job.
What are sustainable alternatives to toothpaste?
Currently, the sustainable alternatives to toothpaste are:
- Tooth powder
To use tooth powder, you dip a small stick (like a lolly stick) into the powder, transfer it to your wet toothbrush, and then brush as normal - Tooth tablets
Tooth tablets are more convenient but may be more expensive. To use tooth tablets, you take one small tablet from the jar, chew it for 5 seconds, then brush as normal with a wet toothbrush
My personal favourite is PÄRLA tooth tablets, which contain fluoride (as recommended by the World Health Organisation and the vast majority of dentists).
PÄRLA tooth tablets have a lovely pepperminty taste, come in a recyclable glass jar, and you can get refills through the post which come in paper packaging (provided you tick the right box). Unlike other tooth tablets I’ve tried, the tablets stay crunchy right to the end of the jar. I have been using them since April 2021 and my dentist is happy with the condition of my teeth and gums.
You can buy PÄRLA tooth tablets direct from PÄRLA or from Sainsbury’s, Boots or Waitrose.
Periods and bladder weakness
Menstruation causes a huge amount of plastic waste. Estimates vary, but research indicates that the average woman/menstruating person uses over 11,000 disposable, one-time-use menstrual products over their lifetime.[1], and the plastic within those products can take 500 to 800 years to fully decompose. So what are the environmentally friendly, reusable alternatives that will also keep you feeling clean and confident?
Period pants
Period pants are a fantastic sustainable alternative to tampons, sanitary towels and pant liners. You can wear them throughout your whole period, but if you are nervous while you learn to trust them, you can still reduce your environmental impact by wearing them instead of pant liners at the start and end of your period.
You can also wear period pants for swimming while on your period, and if you suffer from wee leakage (urinary incontinence). (Hooray – now you can go on trampolines again and no longer fear coughs and sneezes!)
Depending on the brand and style, period pants can absorb up to 10 tampons worth of menstrual blood. After use, just rinse them out in cold water at the sink, and then either batch them and run them through a cold machine wash, or leave them to dry naturally if you’ve done a really thorough job.
Popular brands include Thinx (up to 5 tampons) and Modibodi (up to 10 tampons – the most absorbent on the market at the time of writing). You can even get vegan versions!
I love my Modibodi pants, and I wish they had been invented when I was much younger. As well as the environmental savings, I think they’re going to make a huge difference to the confidence of generations of women. If you follow this link to buy from Modibodi, we should both get a £15 Modibodi voucher.
Menstrual cups
Menstrual cups are reusable, flexible cups made from medical-grade silicone, rubber, latex, or elastomer. They are inserted into the vagina and sit just below the cervix, collecting menstrual blood. If you’ve inserted it correctly, you shouldn’t be able to feel it while in use.
Unlike tampons, menstrual cups don’t contain the chemicals that can cause Toxic Shock Syndrome, and they don’t strip your vagina of its healthy discharge.
Menstrual cups can hold up to 5 times as much blood as towels and tampons. After use, tip the blood down the loo, rinse the cup at the sink and then boil it later so it’s thoroughly clean for next time.
Popular brands include Organicup and Mooncup.
Washable pads
Washable sanitary pads are generally cheaper than period pants and less intrusive than menstrual cups, so they’re a good “starter option”. They are often made from absorbent bamboo or organic cotton, and act just like the plastic-based pads you may be used to, with wings to keep them in place. Rinse them out at the sink and then wash them later as a batch.
Popular brands include RED reusable day pads by Hey Girls, Wear ‘Em Out and Flo. Flo also sell plastic-free panty liners, period pants and condoms.
What have we missed?
Do you know about an excellent sustainable alternative to an everyday product that we’ve missed? Email us at info@biggreenideaslist.com and let us know!
[1] Winter, L., 2019. These are all the incredible ways period brands are reducing their impact on the oceans – and we salute them!. [online] Glamour UK. Available at: <https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/period-product-waste> [Accessed 31 July 2022]. (We acknowledge that this is a weak source, but the number quoted is consistent with anecdotal data and basic maths)