4 ways I'm making my life more sustainable

4 ways I'm making my life more sustainable

I've been thinking a lot more about the environment and sustainability recently. The whole sustainability chat does irritate me a bit to be perfectly honest, especially the phrase 'do your bit' which is often advice imparted by huge companies who have a lot more responsibility than just 'doing their bit'. I remember when I used to work at Topshop doing night shifts, 99% of the shops had their lights blaring all night long, which used to irritate me so much!

However, saying that I'm also not who thinks that 'one person won't make a difference' because in situations like voting, so many people say this and obviously if they all voted instead it would make a huge difference.

I'm giving both sides of the coin because I don't like to approach issues in a black and white way, and I don't want to come across as judgy or preachy.

Anyway, as I said I've been thinking a lot more about living sustainably for two main reasons. Firstly, I attended a healthy eating talk at work recently, part of a wellbeing programme for staff (I love this kind of thing) and had a one to one chat with the nutritional therapist afterwards. We got to talking about things like veganism, plastic packaging and stuff - she was saying how plastics can leak into foods etc. and although I've heard this before I've never really thought about it extensively. Another thing I've been doing is watching zero waste YouTubers (particularly Lavendaire and Oh Hello Face) and feeling inspired to make changes.

So with that all in mind, here are the few changes I've made/want to start making...

1. Veganuary

Some of my husband's friends mentioned they would be participating in Veganuary so I decided to join them. I like doing monthly challenges (I did Dechox last year and I'm currently doing Yoga with Adriene's 30 days of Yoga) and eating a plant based diet seemed very appealing after December's indulgence. I'm finding it mostly fine, I've been vegetarian most of my life anyway so it's not been a huge transition, but I do miss certain things - eggs, chocolate and cheese mainly. I don't think I'll be a bona fide vegan once the month is up, but I'll definitely cut down. I've discovered so many amazing recipes, which I'm going to share in a blog post once the month is up.

2. Glass water bottle

This one seems like such a no brainer - glass bottles are cheap, refillable and keep your liquids colder/hotter for longer! I got mine from Amazon and it's great.  

3. No more straws

I LOVE a straw. I used to take one with me when visiting friends or going on nights out because a. I'm cool and b. I LOVE a straw. However, as you can imagine, all that plastic is horrible for the environment, both to produce and get rid off. I've still got some plastic straws left so I'll use them up, then I'm going to purchase a stainless steel straw, which I can still take with me wherever I go. Winner. In a similar vein, I also want to get a bamboo toothbrush and some bamboo cotton buds.

4. Less fast fashion 

Seeing YouTube hauls with bags and bags of fast fashion every week is making me sad. Not only is it unsustainable but it's expensive and totally unattainable for most people. I'm not going to pretend I'll never be going in Primark or H&M again because I'm human and the pull of creating new outfits gets me sometimes - I see pretty things, think about them in OOTD posts and I can't resist. However, I'm going to stop buying tons of pointless crap I'll wear once then give to a charity shop. I've been working through The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees which I'm really enjoying (I love a project) and trying to only buy clothes I know I will wear loads, or that I don't have 3 cheap versions of already. 

Are there any sustainable things you do/want to do in 2018?