2 September 2019

Sustainable Living (My Journey So Far)

Sustainable Living (My Journey So Far)


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At the start of the year, I sat down to make my resolutions and had a long hard think about what I wanted to achieve in 2019. 

Amongst the usual things, there was one that I'd been thinking about for a long time - to live a more sustainable life. 

I come from a family who have been quite proactive about living sustainably for a long while: I was taught from a young age about recycling, make do and mend, and not wasting energy, but a few things that we hadn't even considered until recently was our use of plastic and buying into fast fashion. 

I think everyone was shocked by Blue Planet last year, and I love how the show resulted in a mass movement to reduce our plastic waste - I think we don't realise the scale of a problem until it's put right in front of us to see for ourselves. 



Sustainable Living (My Journey So Far)

Sustainable Living (My Journey So Far)


Even though we had been reusing plastic drinks bottles for years, we realised that this was not the best course of action long-term as inevitably, they become unusable and then end up getting put in the recycling. So we found ourselves investing in metal bottles and reusable plastic ones with filters (perfect for travel as you can fill them up anywhere) in an effort to not rely on those single-use plastic bottles. 

As 2018 drew to a close, I found myself looking up other ways to live more sustainably in an effort to do my bit to save our beautiful planet, because every little helps right?!

And so when the start of the year came around, I was ready to find my own version of living sustainably. 

I took a look at my wardrobe and realised that even though I do shop vintage and in charity shops, the majority of what was hanging up there was fast fashion. I had already learnt about the impact that fast fashion is having on the environment, and even though I didn't want to ban myself from the high street forever, I knew I wanted to make the shift to thrift shopping as a first port of call before heading to the high street. 

For when I do shop on the high street, I found a fantastic app called Good On You which has up-to-date info on a huge amount of brands and rates them on how well they're doing in becoming more ethical. The thing that surprised me is how some of the cheaper brands that you might think are cutting corners to bring the cost down are more ethical than you may think - currently, as I'm writing this, Primark has 3 out of 5 stars, whereas French Connection has 2 out of 5! 

 I've also found it really interesting looking at the beauty brands I use. You'll normally find that a lot of companies are now cruelty-free or vegan, but may not be very ethical. For this, I had to do a bit more digging as there currently isn't anything like Good On You for the beauty world. The closest thing I found to it was the Ethical Consumer site, but they don't update their information as regularly as Good on You so I tend to have a look for more recent blog posts and sites. I've started to put together a list of eco-friendly brands that I'll be supporting more, so if you want to see what my fave sustainable brands are at the moment then take a read of this blog post after this one

One thing I wanted to mention is reusable makeup pads as they have had a huge impact on my single use waste. Before picking these up, I was easily going through a pack of cotton pads in a few weeks to remove my makeup, but now I've transferred over to using washable bamboo ones, I only use my cotton ones for things like removing nail varnish. Also, the amount of money I'm saving is huge - I bought these for just under £9 at the start of the year, and I've definitely saved more than if I was buying cotton pads. 

In more general areas, I've found that the town I live in is really embracing a more sustainable way of living. As well as the markets that we have twice a week, I've also seen a few local businesses doing their bit. There is a stall at our market called The Refill Project which allows you to get refills of everything from haircare to cleaning products! Also, one shop has started a food refill station so you can pick up things such as nuts, seeds and pasta, use your own containers and pay much less than you would in the supermarket. 


Sustainable Living (My Journey So Far)

Sustainable Living (My Journey So Far)

Sustainable Living (My Journey So Far)


In reality, this is really only the start of my sustainable lifestyle journey, and I definitely know I've got more of a way to go. I'm hoping, though, to create a lifestyle that I'm happy with, rather than depriving myself of certain things. Hopefully, the little improvements that I make will join the other amazing people doing similar things, however big or small, in making a difference. 


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Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear your thought's on sustainable living! 


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4 comments

  1. This is great. Thank you for sharing and doing your part ❤️

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  2. Great changes you are making... the little things add up... and what lovely photos.

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    Replies
    1. Ah thank you for the support! Every little helps :)

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