Sustainable Swaps: Can you make a change?

Sadly, we are no longer shocked when we see photos of towers of plastic and waste in landfill. However, it is shocking just how little is being done about it, companies are still making plastic packaging and consumers are still buying it. So what sustainable swaps can we make to help protect the future of our planet!

MY WEEK

I'm writing this from my bedroom in isolation as I was near someone who has now got Covid. I am also wearing the most gorgeous dress ever that arrived today! I look totally mad and like I should be on a hot beach somewhere not in rainy Britain but you've got to make the most of it! I'm going to be honest with you and I have found this week pretty hard but I'm feeling so much more positive today with my new dress and the fact that I can come out on Tuesday! By the way the I got th I hope you guys have had a great week and enjoy this post. :)

Introducing the Sustainable Swaps Series...

Plastic is absolutely everywhere and is used in every single part of our lives. I use it too and I am absolutely not tying to pretend I'm perfect and a point an accusing finger at everybody else. It's all about looking at little changes that we can make rather than trying to do everything all at once and unsurprisingly not succeeding! It seems ridiculous to me how little the government and companies are doing to help but the choice does come down to us. If we don't choose an item covered in plastic or one made out of unsustainable materials companies will just have to stop selling them as they aren't making money from them. This is a really lovely thought as it puts the power in our hands to save the planet! But it can feel like a lot, trying to switch away from single-use plastic all at completely is unachievable unless you want to dedicate your life to it. So in this blog series every month I will challenge you and myself to change one thing. This doesn't mean throwing away what you already had without using it as that is obviously very unsustainable but when you come to buy that item again try to choose a bit more wisely.

What's the problem with plastic?

Plastic is versatile, can be coloured, shaped and is durable. It is in everything from clothing, food packaging and glitter. It is so useful but there is a huge downside; it's tricky to recycle so uses a lot of energy and it isn't biodegradable. This means it doesn't rot away like paper or food so it stays in the environment for hundreds of years Burning, dumping, making and recycling plastic all release carbon dioxide- which we know contributes to global warming. This is because around 99% of plastic is made up of fossil fuels, such as crude oil or natural gas so when they break down the fossil fuels are released as CO2. In 2015, approximately 1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 were emitted by plastic, this feels especially important when you know that CO2 contributes to two thirds of the world's energy imbalance. Plastic is also a problem when it ends up in our oceans, at least 8 million tonnes of plastic ands up in our oceans each year and it is predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. Animals can get caught in the bigger items like plastic bags and mistake it for food- 90% of seabirds have eaten plastic. The huge issue is the animals can't digest plastic meaning it is stuck in their stomachs meaning they can't eat actual food and die. Around 100,000 sea animals die every year due to plastic, it's obvious that a change is necessary to protect our marine life. This topic is so wide that I couldn't possibly talk about it in a single blog post or with my level of knowledge, so here are some great resources that you can have a look at:

- A plastic ocean, which you can watch on Netflix and Youtube.

- Ocean Generation

The challenge!

As I mentioned above every month we are all going to try and change one thing and this month the challenge is to start using a bamboo toothbrush! This is so super easy, when you need to buy a new toothbrush just buy a bamboo one. I must admit I've already taken this step so I've got an easy month but that does mean I can tell you that they are just as good as plastic toothbrushes. The really great thing about bamboo toothbrushes is that they are biodegradable so you can just pop it in the compost bin and in 6 months it will have fully rotted into the soil! Unfortunately, the bristles are made of plastic so can't be composted, this means that you just need to snap the head off to put on the bin. Although, this is annoying a few bristles in landfill is so much better than a whole toothbrush so is very sustainable change! We get our toothbrushes from Bambooi but Colgate also sells them if you are looking for something that you can buy in the supermarket. So that's your challenge, next time you buy a toothbrush go for bamboo, good luck!

If you are going to make a change let me know in the comments below!

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Have a fabulous week!

Megan x