3 Easy Ways to Find Sustainable Products
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While changing your whole life to be sustainable and environmentally friendly is one approach to combating climate change and taking action, there is another way. I like to call it mindful environmentalism. I think of this term as a way to express being mindful and conscious of the impact you are making on the planet.
It is not about going out and buying brand new things to replace everything in your home to be environmentally friendly. Rather it is using what you currently have and when you do make purchases being conscious of more environmental alternatives, ideally purchasing a more environmental alternative but also acknowledging sometimes that isn’t possible for whatever reason.
When purchasing something new here are 3 easy ways to spot sustainable and environmentally friendly products:
Minimal Packaging
One huge aspect to being mindfully environmental is realizing how much waste/trash comes with so many of our everyday purchases. Plastic produce bags at the grocery store, plastic fruit and berry containers, plastics around cheeses and meats, plastics in cereal box pouches, plastics everywhere.
When making a purchase, start to see how much plastic you end up buying to ultimately throw away. It’s surprising and frankly extremely hard to avoid.
Instead of setting a goal of not buying any more single use plastics I have found simply trying to buy less is a far better place to start and a goal that is less likely to be given up upon.
Buying less plastic means finding products that use minimal packaging. Products that use packaging such as cardboard can be recycled vs. plastic that has to be thrown out. Or switching out plastic bottled drinks for aluminum cans.
Minimal packaging also means products that do not use as much materials as others. For example, you’re looking for toilet paper. All the packages at the store are wrapped in plastic but some also have each individual roll wrapped too. Buying the toilet paper with less packaging, or that has minimal packaging, is the better choice.
2. Reusable Items
Many things we buy tend to have a single use or extremely limited life span. Buying reusable items means less waste and ideally are saving you money over time.
Reusable items can be seen in a wide range of things. From reusable muffin liners to paper towels.
Something else to note, many items that are single use or disposable can actually be used a few more times. Plastic cups, wash and reuse. Ziplock bags, wash and reuse many more times. To-go containers from restaurants, simple clean out and re-use to store your own food.
Take inventory of things you tend to throw away and see where you might be able to extend its life before ultimately throwing it in the trash. This will not only reduce waste but also save you money!
3. Recycled Items
When you make a purchase look for items that say they use recycled materials. This could be in the form of paper towels, cardboard packaging, and even some plastics.
Reward companies that make the effort to take post consumer waste and turn it into something new. This practice is more environmentally friendly than those companies that simply keep producing more and more new packaging materials.
Being eco-friendly isn’t easy. It takes conscious effort to think through and find more environmentally sustainable alternatives but finding and using environmentally friendly products makes a difference.
Why Eco Friendly Products Are Important
Eco Friendly products are important for a few reasons:
They draw attention to the ridiculous amount of waste many products generate
They attempt to reduce the waste and unsustainable practices commonly used today
They provide alternatives for us to buy
Before starting this journey I didn’t realize the extent to which companies disregard the negative environmental impacts they create. There is absolutely no accountability for the damages many large corporations have caused, often knowingly.
By taking the time to buy more sustainable alternatives it will not only help lower our environmental impact but reward companies making the effort over corporations that blatantly do not care about their negative impact.
Why Eco Friendly Packaging Is Important
Eco Friendly packaging is important because packaging is an aspect of everything we buy and consume. The amount of packaging we as individuals contribute to every year is shocking.
Most packaging of products tend to be plastics. These can be:
Plastic mailers,
Plastic cling wrap,
Plastic trays and containers,
Plastic tags, etc…
Finding products with eco-friendly packaging helps reduce the amount of plastics in our environment.
Plastics have been found to have numerous negative impacts on our environment (1). Plastics also have toxic effects on our environment and our own personal health (2). But plastic packaging isn’t the only issue.
When you begin the process of looking at everything you are buying, you will notice how much unnecessary packaging is included, which just adds to already overflowing landfills.
An example of this are stickers, which are also often used on packaging. The problem with stickers is they usually have a plastic coating and they use adhesives.
Packaging with adhesives, such as stickers and tape, are often not environmentally friendly.
Many common adhesives use petrochemicals, which are chemicals made from petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil. The use of fossil fuels has a well known negative impact on the environment (3).
It can all quickly become overwhelming as you dive deeper into the realities we live. However, as I stated in the beginning, and will again here, don’t try to be perfect. Go for being mindfully environmental!
Being mindful and conscious of the impact we are making on the planet can lead us to take steps towards a healthier planet. Rather than becoming paralyzed into acting.
As we continue our journey here at Copper Rabbit Crafts we will share things we learn, tips and tricks, and even helpful product guides so that finding these environmentally friendly products isn’t so difficult.
Together we will make a difference!
