Plastic, packaging, obsolescence, repairs, food, supply chains, water, admin, cleaning your butt and even changing career…
Here’s our (very) Big Green Ideas List for preventing waste.
Plastic & packaging
Avoid single-use plastic
This mantra is at the heart of the eco-movement – the actions are easy, non-disruptive, and often the first step on a more sustainable journey. Individually, the suggestions seem too small to make a difference, but they all add up and more importantly, they demonstrate to companies and governments that people actually want change.
Don’t be fooled into thinking this is enough, but here are some simple suggestions:
- Avoid buying overpackaged things
- Use a reusable water bottle or reusable coffee cup
- Avoid single-use plastic cutlery and straws (unless you have a medical reason)
- Say no to plastic bags – take a reusable cloth bag instead
- Swap ready meals for home-cooked versions
- Buy ingredients from your zero-waste shop
- Check out online eco-superstores (like Ethical Superstore) to see just how many ethical alternatives are now available
Multiply your impact – can you persuade your employer to reduce or remove single-use plastic from their products or manufacturing process? This could have the same effect as hundreds of thousands of customers making the same choice on their own!
Lobby manufacturers to reduce packaging
Write, email or tweet at big brands asking them what they are doing to reduce packaging and introduce better alternatives.
If they respond, watch out for greenwash. Are you actually seeing changes in your local store? If yes, write and thank them – and ask them what their next plan is. If they say they’re doing something but you’re not seeing the evidence (after a reasonable period of time), ask them what’s going on, ideally publicly.
Make retailers and manufacturers responsible for waste
Lobby your political representative to make retailers jointly responsible with manufacturers for the packaging that comes with the goods they sell.
Stop microplastics from getting into the environment
The documentary “Blue Planet 2” opened our eyes to the problem of plastic pollution – birds feeding their chicks pieces of plastic, sea creatures killed by plastic waste in their stomachs, and plastic waste floating in the sea. Microplastics have been detected in salt, water and food consumed by humans. Even our clothes contribute to the problem – every time we wash man-made plastic-based fibres like polyester, nylon, acrylic and polyamide, they shed millions of plastic microfibres.
At home, you can prevent microplastics from entering the water system by:
- washing man-made fabrics in a guppy bag
- fitting a microplastic filter to your washing machine
- choosing clothes made from plant-based fabric instead of plastic-based fabric
However, legislation is needed to force manufacturers to fit microplastic filters to washing machines as standard. Write to your political representative and sign Friends of the Earth’s petition for a new law to end pointless plastic pollution.
See our Influence page for more ways to influence companies, politicians and people you know.
Lobby supermarkets to reduce packaging and use compostable plastics or cardboard
Write, email or tweet at your favourite supermarkets asking them what they are doing to reduce packaging and introduce better alternatives.
As with the manufacturers, watch out for greenwash. Are you actually seeing changes in your local store? If yes, write and thank them – and ask them what their next plan is. If they say they’re doing something but you’re not seeing the evidence (after a reasonable period of time), ask them what’s going on, ideally publicly.
Choose lower packaging alternatives
For example, take your own bag for fresh bread, use a reusable bag for loose fruit and veg, buy the biggest pack that makes sense for your needs (bigger packs have a better product-to-packaging ratio) or use a zero-waste store.
Encourage your favourite brands to go greener
Ask your favourite brands or suppliers of anything why they aren’t using paper-based or plant-based wrappers for their products yet, or why they are still using plastic when they don’t need to (like this campaign to encourage Boots to make all their menstrual products plastic-free).
Email, tweet, start or sign a petition, and get thousands of others behind you.
Twitter is a good place to bring pressure on companies because they don’t like negative publicity. But make sure you’ve got your facts straight first, and be polite. There’s a real person at the other end. Customer services and public relations staff may be your best allies in convincing management to make the change.
You can start a petition on Change.org, but first, ask yourself if you’re committed to following it through. The most powerful petitions are started by people who are really committed, and who have the time to meet the target of the petition in real life and work together for solutions. A half-hearted petition is a wasted effort.
Obsolescence, repairs and refurbishing
Lobby to stop manufacturers from artificially limiting the life of their products
Planned obsolescence (also known as built-in obsolescence) is the practice of deliberately designing a product, or failing to support a product, so that its life is artificially limited – meaning you have to buy a whole new product sooner than you need to.
This practice is believed to affect consumer goods like mobile phones, and household appliances such as washing machines. It wastes the planet’s resources and your money, all in the name of profit.
Find out whether your preferred brands are known to do this, then write to your political representative and the company’s board. We’d like to see manufacturers responsible for supplying spare parts for a minimum of 20 years, for the deliberate limiting of lifespans or hobbling performance to be made illegal, and for manufacturers to be made responsible for the end-of-life recycling of the products they make.
Teach or learn repair skills
If you know how to repair things – whether that’s clothes, furniture, tools, appliances, or household repairs – you have a skill that other people want to learn. In-person or online groups are a great way to share skills and meet like-minded people who also care about green issues. If you like meeting people you could set up a group at your village hall, library or local school, or if you’re more technologically inclined, you could start a YouTube or TikTok channel.
File your guarantees away so you can get things repaired
Whether you store them as paper or pdfs, filing your receipts and guarantees away ensures you can get spare parts and repairs for as long as possible.
Recycling
Reduce, reuse, recycle…?
That old mantra sounds a bit hollow now we’ve learned what some unethical companies and governments are doing with our carefully-separated recyclables.
Containers full of recyclable material are shipped overseas, but when they arrive there’s no guarantee that they will actually be recycled. Our plastic waste ends up on beaches, in rivers, in landfills, or could be incinerated. Burning plastic releases toxic gases which could harm the health of the people living nearby.
So while recycling is good in principle, we can’t just ship it abroad and forget about it.
We need to focus on “reducing” (not causing plastic to be used in the first place) rather than “recycling”.
Read more about reducing plastic use here.
Recycle with TerraCycle
TerraCycle is an international, innovative recycling company that develops ways to collect and recycle hard-to-recycle waste.
There’s no denying that, where possible, it’s better to avoid packaging altogether. Zero-waste is the goal. But that’s a process which takes time, and in the meantime, TerraCycle can help reduce the amount of waste that’s sent to landfill or incinerated.
TerraCycle’s free recycling programmes allow you to recycle an astounding number of things that you would otherwise send to landfill, including crisp packets, old pens, toothpaste tubes, chocolate wrappers, nitrile gloves, and some types of coffee pods, makeup and cheese wrappers.
Go to www.terracycle.com, choose your country, then click on “See all of our free and purchasable recycling solutions”.
Buy refurbished phones, computers and other technology
Save money and the environment by buying secondhand, refurbished phones, computers and other tech from reputable suppliers like Giff Gaff.
Find out if your school, church or a local charity collects steel and aluminium cans
They can be sorted, weighed and exchanged for cash at a cash-for-cans centre or the local scrapyard (check whether you need a permit to collect them in your area).
Learn which plastics are recyclable in your area and push the council to make the information easy to find
Ask your council to put a comprehensive list of things you can recycle on their website. Ask them to include details on common “confusion items” like tetra packs, yoghurt pots, supermarket-type bags, crisp packets and bread bags, and make sure it lists whether they take each of the seven plastic types (the recycling triangle) so people can check items themselves.
Their list should also tell you where you can dispose of the things they don’t collect.
In the meantime, larger branches of Sainsbury’s have posters that tell what you can recycle in your area, including things that can’t be recycled kerbside; and Tesco recycles soft plastics (like crisp packets, bread bags, and plastic film), batteries and printer cartridges in the lobby of larger stores.
Support companies that recover and recycle ocean plastics
Support companies that recover and recycle ocean plastics into new products, like backpacks and jackets (Econyl) and sunglasses (Waterhaul). There are more examples of companies that recycle ocean plastics here.
Look beyond the kerbside for ways to recycle
Some surprising things can be recycled, if you’re prepared to put a bit of effort in.
- TerraCycle collect and recycle crisp packets, toothpaste tubes, used pens, old rucksacks and chocolate bar wrappers plus many other things
- Batteries, bread bags, carrier bags, crisp packets, printer cartridges and water filter cartridges are collected at larger branches of Tesco and Sainsbury’s
- The Recycling Factory recycle used printer cartridges.
You can even donate the value of your used cartridges to one of over 100 charities - Computer Aid collects old IT equipment, but rather than recycling them, they refurbish them and use them to reduce technological inequality in the developing world. According to their website, they comply with WEEE, data protection (GDPR), hazardous waste and duty of care regulations.
Here are the links for individuals and companies - Fonebank recycles mobile phones on behalf of Oxfam. You can choose to donate 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of the value of your phone to Oxfam
Taking responsibility for our own emissions
Buy less, buy local
European countries claim to have reduced their carbon emissions in the last 30 years – but much of the reduction has only been achieved by shifting manufacturing offshore, and the carbon emission burden onto other countries.
Our leaders must be pressured into recognising carbon emissions at the point of demand, not just at the point of manufacture. Take action by writing to them about it.
As individuals, we are responsible for buying less stuff, and buying it locally – reducing transport emissions, supporting local businesses, and reducing demand for wasteful, unnecessary products and fast fashion.
Reducing food waste
Lobby your political representative & supermarkets about food waste
Every year, more than £1bn of food grown for UK supermarkets is thrown away or fed to animals instead. According to a 2019 report, 3.6 million tonnes of food is rejected by retailers every year due to not meeting quality standards, fluctuating demand or storage and packaging problems[5].
Write to your political representative to ask what they’re doing to make supermarkets take responsibility for the food they reject, and to help them pass on unwanted food to people who need it.
Write to the CEOs of major supermarkets asking what action they’re taking themselves.
Reduce your food waste at home
We’ve been trained by supermarkets, TV cooking shows and cautious parents to only eat food that looks “perfect”. Once you change your way of thinking, you’ll be amazed at how much edible food you used to waste.
Read how to reduce food waste at home.
Start or join a Community Fridge
Community fridges allow individuals and businesses to donate or receive surplus food. According to Hubbub, the environmental behaviour change charity, each fridge can save more than 2 tonnes of food every month.
At the time of writing, Hubbub has helped set up 300 Community Fridges in the UK, with more being started all the time. Find your nearest community fridge here. (The fridge icons are pale blue rectangles and very hard to see, but there is a list on the left-hand side where you can look up your town by name.)
Plan your meals
Planning your meals means you’ll only buy what you need, and can use up left-over food – preventing food waste and saving money.
Make your own lunch
Use last night’s leftovers to prevent food waste, and amaze your colleagues with the unending variety of your lunches.
Get some unusual lunch ideas here.
Use a reusable coffee cup and water bottle
There are plenty of really nice reusable coffee cups and water bottles on the market now, and many of them are plastic-free as well. Plus they’re priced nicely for birthdays, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, if you know a coffee drinker who needs a nudge.
Learn which bits of plants are edible
You’ll be surprised how much you’ve been throwing away. For example, you can eat broccoli stems, carrot tops, beetroot leaves, squash seeds, and the green bits of spring onions (which can be used in salads or like chives in omelettes). Even potato peelings can be baked into crisps (chips).
Compost your food waste
Any bits of fruit and vegetables you really can’t use can be composted. Your local council might collect this kerbside (ours collects in plastic caddies; a little one inside the house and a bigger one which goes out to the road).
We collect ours in a heavy-lidded casserole dish instead. The heavy lid seals it and keeps the smell inside, even in summer. Then we dump it on the compost heap and forget about it. One to two years later, you’ve got free compost in which to grow your vegetables.
Learn when food is safe to eat
A best-before date is different to a use-by date, and misunderstanding could be causing you to throw away perfectly good food too early.
“Use by” dates indicate the likely date by which the food will probably go bad, whereas “best before” simply means it might not taste quite as good after that date, but it should still be safe to eat. Learn more about best before and use-by dates.
Freeze food in portions
Cut up food like meat, pizza, and bread when you buy it, and freeze it in portion sizes. This means you only have to defrost what you need, which cuts down on food waste.
Join a food collective (e.g. Olio or Too Good To Go)
Olio connects people with each other and with local shops & cafes so surplus food and other items can be shared, not thrown away. You can also share non-food items. Learn more about Olio and sign up here.
Too Good To Go links you to restaurants and shops that have excess food, which you can buy at a fraction of the cost late in the day. Learn more about Too Good To Go and sign up here.
Get your milk and juice from a milk delivery company
Supermarkets say that consumer pressure is forcing them to change to glass bottles, which are heavier, and cause more emissions during transport.
Use a delivery service like Milk & More instead. They deliver using electric vehicles, and the glass bottles are returned, washed and reused or average 18 times before they are broken. They even have an organic range, so you don’t have to choose between organic or ethical packaging. And if you order by 9pm, it’ll be on your doorstep by 7am the next day. (Or go one better, and switch to plant milk.)
Buying sustainably
Buy from a zero-waste shop
Zero-waste shops sell everyday items, like groceries and cleaning products, without packaging, so you can avoid unnecessary waste.
You can bring your own containers, or buy reusable containers from them the first time you buy something.
They also act as green hubs for recycling and sharing tips, making them a great place to feel part of a local green tribe.
Learn more about zero-waste shops here.
Avoid fast fashion
According to EDGE fashion intelligence, the clothing and textile industry is the second largest polluter in the world. A horrifying 64% of the 32 billion garments produced each year end up in landfill [6].
The fashion industry clearly has a lot of work to do to get itself in order, but we can help by influencing the demand side and saying a firm NO to fast fashion.
Alternatives are:
- Buy second-hand, from charity shops or online marketplaces
- Look for good-quality new items that will last a long time
- Choose sustainable fabrics – linen, hemp, modal, Tencel or rayon have the lowest impact and are most easily recycled
- Go for style over fashion (i.e. choose clothes that suit your body type rather than clothes that are just this season’s fashion)
Choose bar soap instead of bottled shower gel and handwash
This is a really easy swap to make, because soap works just as well as liquid shower gel and handwash. Make sure the soap you choose is environmentally friendly though – personally, I like Faith in Nature which is cruelty-free, vegan, paraben-free, SLS-free, phthalate-free, uses sustainable palm oil, and comes in a cardboard packet.
You’ll need a soap dish of some kind to allow the air to circulate and dry your soap between uses so it doesn’t go nasty. I use a small glass pot that was lurking in the back of my cupboard. The soap doesn’t fit properly, which is actually an advantage because it sticks out at a funny angle, which lets the air circulate nicely.
Choose shampoo bars instead of liquid shampoo
Shampoo bars have all the environmental advantages of soap bars, but are a little harder to get the hang of because you need to find the right shampoo bar for your hair type and water hardness. (If you get the right one, there’s no “transition period” – it works first time, just as well as normal shampoo and conditioner.)
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!
Check out our personal favourites on our eco-friendly alternatives page.
Use sturdy reusable shopping bags
Many countries have banned single-use plastic bags – a welcome development intended to reduce plastic pollution. Unfortunately, many people just swapped to buying heavy-duty plastic “bags for life” every time they shop. A recent survey found that the average family now has around 57 “bag for life” type bags.[3] And because there’s significantly more plastic in a “bag for life” than a single-use bag, buying a new one every time you forget your bags is actually making the problem worse!
Use sturdy cotton reusable shopping bags instead. Their critics say you have to use them hundreds of times before they’ve covered the cost of the carbon used in their creation, but if you’re going to use them weekly for years, you’ve got that covered, no problem.
A good trick is to put your shopping list inside your reusable bag. It makes it much harder to go shopping but leave your bag in the car.
Reduce disposable plastic in the bathroom
With only around 10% of our recycled plastic actually being recycled, it makes sense to cut down on disposable plastics in the bathroom. Try:
- a bamboo toothbrush
- fluoridated toothpowder or tooth tablets
- a metal safety razor
- plastic-free earbuds
- plastic-free dental floss
- arrowroot powder instead of spray-on dry shampoo
Check out your local zero-waste shop, or try Peace With the Wild and Ethical Superstore which have so many alternatives to your usual bathroom products, you’ll be spoilt for choice.
Cut down on disposable plastic in the kitchen
The same goes for the kitchen. To cut down on disposable plastics in the kitchen, try:
- beeswax wraps for sandwiches, bread, cheese, apple slices, in fact anything solid except meat (but hopefully you’re cutting down on meat anyway)
- glass jars to store bits and bobs airtight in the fridge
- jam jars to store extra portions in the freezer (when freezing liquids, put the lid on loosely to allow for expansion, then tighten the lid when it’s frozen)
- “unpaper” towels (cut-up tea towels work just fine, they don’t have to be fancy)
- natural brushes
- sustainable dish scrubbers (coconut-based, or unsponges)
- stainless steel/tin lunch boxes and water bottles
- your existing Tupperware (if the government ever bans it, it’ll be an heirloom!)
- take your own containers for takeaways
Check out your local zero-waste shop, or try Peace With the Wild and Ethical Superstore.
Find your sustainability tribe
Find a community of people who share your green ideas on Facebook, Instagram, or sites dedicated to an aspect of sustainability, like Freegle or Depop.
Read more about re-use groups here.
Reduce wasted water
Write to your water company
A 2018 report by the National Infrastructure Commission found that water companies are allowing 2.9 billion litres of water per day to escape from old, leaky pipes[1]. That’s 20% of the water put into the public supply. The water companies have committed to reducing water loss by 50% by 2050[2], but we don’t think that’s fast enough. We want to see leak detection technology rolled out, and leaks fixed, much faster. Write, email or tweet at the CEO of your water company asking what they’re doing about it, and copy in your political representative.
Use less water when you flush
Put a cistern displacement device (e.g. a “hippo” or a sealed plastic bottle filled with water) in your toilet tank.
According to Waterwise, about 30% of the water used in households disappears down our toilets. Cistern displacement devices can save up to 5,000 litres (1,110 gallons) of water every year. This is particularly important in old-style toilets, which can use 13 litres (nearly 3 gallons) per flush. Modern dual-flush systems use 4 to 6 litres (0.9 to 1.3 gallons).
Most UK water companies will provide a “hippo” free of charge, but that just generates more plastic waste. You can do the same job with a plastic bottle filled with water and sealed tight.
For more water-saving ideas visit Waterwise.
Wear your clothes more times before washing them
Frequent washing adds significantly to the energy footprint of a piece of clothing, as well as releasing microfibres that pollute the oceans. Washing also causes clothing to fade or wear out sooner. Cut down on washes by airing your clothes outside to remove smells between wears.
Clothes that don’t touch your torso can be worn several times before they need to be washed. Depending on how sweaty you get, you can wear items like bras or tops a couple of times before washing. Jeans can be worn 5 or more times before washing, unless perhaps you are the cook in your household, or your work involves getting dirty, or you have a greasy-haired dog. Underwear should, of course, be washed after every use.
Stop using your hosepipe to water your plants
Use a watering can, an automatic watering system or a hydroponic watering system instead. You’re likely to use a lot less water, either because you’re carrying every single litre of it, or because the systems are designed to minimise water use.
Fit a water-butt
Water butts connect to your downpipe and collect rainwater that would otherwise soak into the ground or run into a drain. When it’s dry, they’re a handy source of water for watering plants. (Note, while this is common and logical in most places, this is actually illegal in some US states, so make sure you check if you think you might be in one of those places.)
Don’t water your lawn in a drought
The roots will get stronger as they search deeper for water, and your lawn will recover eventually.
Are your pipes leaking?
Check by turning off your stop cock (usually found in your garage or kitchen), then check if your water meter (at the edge of your property) is still ticking forwards. If so, you have a leak in your pipe. Get it fixed before it gets worse – this could save you thousands of pounds!
Take a shower or shallow bath instead of a deep bath
Waterwise say a short shower is best – it can use as little as 27 litres (6 gallons) of water. A bath uses about 80 litres (17.5 gallons), about three times as much as a short shower. You can save about 5 litres (1 gallon) by running your bath just an inch shorter than usual.
Power showers use much more water than a bath, so fit an aerating shower head and use a shower timer (or listen to the radio for exactly 2 songs, say) to limit the time you spend in there. Washing your hair less frequently will also save water, and remember, you don’t need to be standing under running water to shave your legs. (You don’t need to shave your legs at all, unless you want to, but that’s a different issue.)
Use cooking and washing-up water to water your plants
When you wash your vegetables or boil pasta, save the water and use it to water your plants. There will be lots of nutrients in it that the plants can use. (Let the water cool first!)
Stop running the tap the whole time you’re brushing your teeth
According to Waterwise, a running tap wastes about 6 litres of water per minute, so that’s 24 litres a day per person (2 minutes, twice a day).
Make your household admin sustainable
Go digital
Sign up for electronic bank statements, credit card statements, insurance documents and shareholder communications. Tag your emails or save the documents as pdfs in a logical system of folders so you can find them if you need them.
In the UK, you may find it helpful to keep one utility bill or credit card on paper to help you prove your identity/address when you open bank accounts, rent a property or start a new job. Your council tax bill is a good one to choose because that will be accepted as proof up to one year old, whereas most of the other documents must be less than three months old.
Reduce your paper usage, and make it work hard
First of all, challenge whether you need a hard copy at all. Saving documents as pdfs makes them easy to find and means you never have to sort through old boxes of papers looking for that one vitally important thing before you recycle the rest. If you must have a hard copy, print or write on both sides of the paper.
For notes and to-do lists, use old envelopes or the backs of used pieces of paper. Tear used paper in half as soon as you don’t need it, and clip all the pieces together with a bulldog clip to make a makeshift notepad.
Cancel junk mail
In the UK, there isn’t one single way you can cancel all your junk mail, but if you follow all the suggestions on the Citizens Advice page, that should cover it.
Get your magazines delivered digitally
Free your future self from piles of unwanted magazines! Digital magazines reduce paper waste, plastic wrappers, and the energy needed to manufacture and deliver them. And they’re available wherever you are on your electronic device. What’s not to like?
Change your print settings
Just because you’ve always printed something, doesn’t mean you need to.
- Set your default to pdf, and save your document instead of printing (make sure you set up a sensible system of folders so you can find them again).
- Set your default to double-sided.
- Change your ink setting defaults to draft/eco or reduce the intensity percentage to use less ink.
- Reduce the size so you can fit more on each printed page.
- Actively choose which pages you want to print – you may not need all the rubbish that’s going to print out on the last couple of pages.
Get clean without waste
Clean your butt sustainably
There are plenty of alternatives to regular toilet paper, which is typically single-use, from virgin sources, and wrapped in plastic.
- Buy toilet paper made from recycled materials.
- Buy it wrapped in paper, not plastic (e.g. Who Gives A Crap).
- Buy paper that’s made from bamboo.
- Use a bidet or water-spray bottle.
- Use a washable “wee pad” (also inexplicably known as a “family cloth” – the one thing you’d least want to share with your family, right?). Yes, it sounds gross – but try reading this honest article from a family that uses them and see if you change your mind: What is the family cloth and why you should use it – an explainer
Use cloth handkerchiefs instead of paper tissues
Cloth handkerchiefs work fine for daily use (and when you have a cold, so long as you have a lot of them or wash them frequently). Just pop them in a little bag when they get gross, and wash them in your weekly “hotter-wash-for-hygiene-reasons” wash.
Use sustainable/reusable period products, e.g. cups, washable pads, or period pants
The average woman/menstruating person uses over 11,000 disposable, one-time-use menstrual products over their lifetime. [4] Manufacturers should do better, and we can make better choices.
Cloth pads, period pants, tampons without plastic applicators, and menstrual cups are all going mainstream. Read the pros and cons, decide what might work for you, and give them a try.
Avoid wet wipes
Avoid wet wipes – they cause huge problems, both in our sewers (where they get stuck in fatbergs and block the system) and in the ocean, where they cause problems for marine life.
Instead, use a flannel (washcloth) for your face, to remove makeup, to clean yourself during your period, or to clean a baby (at either end).
Avoid greenwash terms like “flushable”, which means the item will flush, but it doesn’t mean it will break down. “Biodegradable” is also a greenwash term, because it simply means that it might break down, under the right conditions, over a really long time, into its constituent parts… which might well include plastic.
Use cloth nappies (diapers) instead of disposable nappies
According to diaperplanner.com, a baby will get through nearly 2,500 nappies in their first year, and 1,500 to 1,800 a year after that. So, by the time they’re fully potty trained at (say) 3.5 years, you could have sent over 6,000 disposable nappies to landfill.
Cloth nappies are widely available now, in either traditional “flat” or high-tech modern styles. Here’s an article from someone who’s used them.
There’s an upfront cost, but they’re cheaper overall, particularly if you reuse them for subsequent children, and you can get them second-hand too. Some parents report that they also reduce nappy rash and help children to potty-train earlier because they help the child recognise the “wet, unpleasant” feeling and want to avoid it. If you’re grossed out by washing them, laundry services are available.
Wash your hair less often
We’ve become accustomed to washing our hair every day or every other day, but it isn’t necessary once your hair adjusts. Dry shampoo is a useful product that can save water and reduce plastic waste by delaying washing by several days. To go one better, avoid the packaging and propellants altogether by using arrowroot powder instead (it’s a harmless white powder used in cooking, and works best on grey, white or blonde hair).
And finally… if you’re up for a big change
Start a zero-waste shop or recycling/reuse centre
If you haven’t already got one nearby, and you’re up for a challenge and a career change, why not set up your community’s first zero-waste shop or recycling and reuse centre?
Setting up a business is a big commitment but you might find a local business mentoring scheme to help you with start-up advice.
It’s a good idea to test the market by trading from a market stall first, but you might find that your local council offers rent rebates and rent-free periods to new retail businesses. They do it to make the High Street look healthy and busy, and it helps you test your idea without committing to thousands of extra costs, so it’s a win for everyone.
Don’t worry too much about getting a perfectly fitted-out shop right from the start. If anyone’s going to be relaxed about second-hand or thrown-together fixtures, it’s your zero-waste customers!
[1] National Infrastructure Commission, 2018. Preparing for a drier future. p.11.
[2] Ofwat. n.d. Leakage – Ofwat. [online] Available at: <https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/households/supply-and-standards/leakage/> [Accessed 31 July 2022].
[3] the Guardian. 2021. UK supermarkets not doing enough to cut plastic use, says report. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/26/uk-supermarkets-not-doing-enough-to-cut-plastic-use-says-report> [Accessed 31 July 2022].
[4] 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].
[5] The Guardian. 2019. More than £1bn of food wasted before reaching supermarkets – study. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/25/food-waste-farms-before-reaching-supermarkets-wrap-study> [Accessed 3 August 2022].
[6] E D G E. n.d. Fashion Industry Environmental, Waste, and Recycle Statistics. [online] Available at: <https://edgexpo.com/fashion-industry-waste-statistics/> [Accessed 7 August 2022].
[7] Greenpeace.org.uk. 2021. What really happens to your plastic recycling?. [online] Available at: <https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/plastic-recycling-export-incineration/> [Accessed 19 August 2022].
Image credits:
Rubbish on a tropical beach – photo by Dustan Woodhouse on Unsplash
Plastic bags and straps: photo by Meg on Unsplash
Fish and plastic in the sea: photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash
Sustainable packaging – Photo by Marcell Viragh on Unsplash
Discarded washing machines and appliances – photo by Janaya Dasiuk on Unsplash
Waste near shoreline: photo by Antoine GIRET on Unsplash
Mobile phone – photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash
Fishing nets on a beach – photo by Sai Abhinivesh Burla on Unsplash
Shipping containers – photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash
Pears – photo by The Matter of Food on Unsplash
Roasted tomatoes and onions – photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash
Compost – photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash
Pizza – photo by Ivan Torres on Unsplash
Gravity dispensers in a zero-waste shop – photo by Benjamin Brunner on Unsplash
Sustainable soaps – photo by Aurélia Dubois on Unsplash
Wooden toothbrush and tin of tooth tablets – photo by Nacho Fernández on Unsplash
Reservoir – photo by Anthony Da Cruz on Unsplash
Watering can – photo by David Ballew on Unsplash
Showerhead – Photo by Laura Marques on Unsplash
Usage statement – photo by Giorgio Tomassetti on Unsplash
Man reading a magazine on a tablet – photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash
Menstrual cup – photo by Oana Cristina on Unsplash
Baby wearing reusable nappy – photo by Laura Ohlman on Unsplash