Eco swaps

As most of you will be aware this year I’ve made it my mission to make as many eco-swaps within our home to help do our little bit to save the planet. I hope it will educate and teach the boys to make better choices when they’re adults too. As I am learning now as the adult what works better and is more sustainable for the planet.

I thought I’d share with you my favourite eco-swaps so far. I know these won’t work for everybody but these are all really simple swaps and I hope it encourages you to try and make little changes within your household too. We all have to do a little bit to make sure the planets here for future generations.

1. Household cleaners - I didn’t really even think about how much single use plastic is in cleaning products I would just go and buy what I needed and throw it away each month. I found a really great shop Eco Vibehttps://www.ecovibe.co.ukEcoVibe and they have so many refillable cleaning products that are so easy to use. You can buy one of their glass bottles or reuse one of your plastic bottles, fill up with water,  drop in a sachet and shake. It’s that easy! I have tried a few brands and this one is by far the best for me of the standard of cleanliness. My favourites are the kitchen antibacterial spray, the bathroom spray and the glass cleaner. I also love this store for that sponges and cloths they’re all compostable so there’s no waste they can also be washed and reused until you need to compost them. I also love the toilet block cleaners which you drop into the bowl  of the toilet and they fizz away limescale.

2. Laundry products - for this I kind of struggled, I still haven’t found a suitable substitute for the comfort that is still plastic bottle. We have switch to the eco-egg. Ecoegghttps://www.ecoegg.comEcoegg Not only does it help save money on your washing it’s so much better for the environment and it cleans your clothes quite well.

3. Dental products - I have tried so many different products from paste in glass jars, toothpaste tablets and they just they weren’t right for me they didn’t taste nice they left a funny aftertaste and they didn’t clean very well. Then I found waken Waken Mouthcarehttps://wakencare.comWaken Mouthcare this is a brilliant brand for toothpaste. All the tube that aluminium so they are recyclable. The dental floss is made from recycled milk cartons and comes in a cardboard box so that’s all recyclable. The toothpaste itself is like a normal toothpaste it taste the same it cleans the same and it works the same.  We also swapped to bamboo toothbrushes instead of the the plastic ones.

4. Feminine hygiene - I have found two brands that work really well one is a deodorant brand and basically refill what is empty it’s all eco-friendly. Wild Deodoranthttps://www.wearewild.comWild Deodorant this is one of the easy swaps I made because it just works. Next are reusable period pants. This took a while for me to actually do because it’s very costly if it goes wrong. I tried a diva cup and that was just wasn’t for me. I went for this brand who have a great offer on for five pairs for £50 Reusable Period Pants UK really easy to use you change when you need to and wash them ready to use again and they actually work.

5. Baby weaning - i’ve always used bamboo weaning plates and cutlery so we just continued this. But again this is a really easy swap that anyone can make the plates and the spoons last a long time too, there are so many brands we’ve used eco-Rascals and bamboo bamboo. We also use flannels for mucky faces after dinner instead of wipes.

6. Cotton buds  - we swapped to reusable ones. We each have our own one, really easy to use and clean an a lot better than disposable ones.

7. Single use cleaning wipes I totally just stop buying them and using them and said are use cleaning cloth or sponges that can be washed and reused and are compostable.

8. Bath and shower - we swapped a single use plastic bottles for shampoo bars this brand is my favourite KinKindhttps://kinkind.co.ukKinKind they do shampoo bars, conditioner bars, shower gel bars, soap bars shading Baz even pet bars now.

9. Food - we tried re-fill station and I love the concept, it’s just very costly for a  family to feed at the moment but that’s something we will look into again down the line.

10. Hand soap - I recently discovered a band called splash and they have little sets of soap dispensers that you fill up with water, drop on a little tablet and once dissolved to get very foamy soap and it works really really well. https://splash-care.com

We still have a very long journey to go, this is just what we have tried over the last 12 months. We have however reduced our plastic by no longer buying single use drinks like water or pop. We also try to walk more often than using the car and I’ve recently started to use public transport.

I’d love to hear what eco swaps you have found work for you too so do drop us a comment.