4 Eco Friendly items you don't really need to buy and what to use instead
Often when we start our journey into a sustainable life, we start by focusing on buying new eco-friendly items, eco-substitutions, eco-swaps, bamboo-made items, etc.
More often than not, by doing this we end up paying lots more.
For the sake of buying green products, eco-friendly products, tailored branded alternative, sometimes we even buy thing when we really don't need to.
This happens even to long-term sustainability champions.
However, by doing this we forget what sustainability really means.
Here at Southstainable we want to invite you to rethink what having a sustainable lifestyle really means.
For us, a sustainable life means a different way of sustaining your community, a way that starts from yourself, to your sustainance, so that we can be able to sustain something bigger without feeling it as a burden or something unachievable for everyone.
When it comes to making our lives more sustainable, this means ditching the expensive eco-friendly branded alternatives, which too often are not wallet friendly and not inclusive.
We can achieve this by just learning how to use what we have.
So here is for you 5 Eco-friendly but not budget-friendly objects that we really don't need to buy and what to use instead as sustainable, low cost and easy to implement alternatives.
1# Expensive reusable water bottles
If you are still buying water in plastic, please stop. Really
Why would you do that?
And the main reason for that is not what you think.
Yes, plastic bottles represent one of the major pollutant on the planet, threatening not only biodiversity but also entire countries, communities and urban landscapes. That should be enough to stop.
But if it isn't, let's think about that.
Let's think about it. Water. The basic the primordial needs of all biological beings.
Water is free.
No one is making water for us, it is naturally already there.
So why should be paying someone that to provide us something that already exist for free?
Madness.
And then, in the name of saving ocean from plastic, another madness appeared.
I am talking about "eco-friendly" refillable bottle that cost 20/30 pounds (and sometimes even more)
I am talking about those branded bottle that promise you to keep the water cool for 48 hours or so.
20 pounds for a piece of metal that contain some water.
Our ancestor are probably laughing now.
What we are buying is essentially a trendy fashion item, masqueraded as sustainable (for who? Not for us, certainly)
A way more sustainable solution for your pocket and the planet is to buy a normal bottle made of metal or glass.
And by normal I mean one that doesn't cost a fortune.
Or even keep reusing a plastic bottle, which is one of the essential points of sustainability!
I've seen people use the same 1 pound bottle of coke for a year (it is sturdy and has a nice design).
So in the name of sustainability, when you think about buying a reusable bottle of water, think about what you are actually buying and what it's for
Remember, water is free and the most natural thing to do is to keep it free and accessible for all, container included
#2 Fancy lunch box.
I love lunch boxes.
We have many lunch boxes of different shapes and materials, and we use them for various functions: storage, baking trays, plant beds and of course picnic lunch boxes.
However, none of them were originally a lunch box.
Again, why should I spend money (and often lots of) on something that I have already obtained and paid for?
You can obtain a free lunchbox from everywhere!
An example? Those take away plastic boxes that we obtain when we get our absolutely fantastic Jerk Chicken from our local Caribbean.
And we keep them.
And we bring them back to the shop and load them again with delicious jerk chicken.
Other example?
Glass oven trays, yogurt pots, jam or pickled jar.
Yes but they are not really for carrying lunch around, right?
Well, you will be surprise to know that they work even better!
Especially glass jars are amazing at avoid leakages. They are built for it!
Big olives or beetroot or pickled jar are the optimal solution if you want to carry your lunch with you and be absolutely sure that there will be no leakage.
They have a large capacity, are easy to clean after and cost almost nothing (you pay for what is inside, really!)
Go glass, sustain your pockets while sustaining the environment.
#3 Expensive "eco-friendly" cutleries
This is something I have been doing since the beginning and I really don't understand why its not the universal solution.
Why should we buy fancy and expensive cutleries for your lunch box, sometimes even in plastic, when you can use your own home aluminium cutleries?
Ok, bamboo and reusable plastic is better than single use plastic.
I always carry my normal, home-looking but still very functional aluminium fork and spoon with me in my bag.
They are easily cleanable and guess what? They cost zero!
#4 Reusable coffee cups.
That's another example of something that doesn't need to be fancy and doesn't need to be hyper expensive.
I believe the old purpose of reusable takeaway coffee cup is not only to reuse them and not send single use container to either landfill or to recycling, but also to enjoy a coffee on the go in a happy and uplifting way.
So, really, if I have to pay 15, 20 pounds for our usable coffee cup, plus coffee on top, I think it becomes quite unsustainable.
And that is, again, down to branding. Brands cost a lot with no purpose.
I do have a coffee cup, but despite being not branded, and with the sign of time (I have break it a few times and repaired as best as I can with glue), it is big enough and does the job of containing coffee.
And it costed 5 pounds.
Even better? Find a friend, order two coffee in ceramic cups, sit down, slow down, have a chat and enjoy the moment.
That is truly sustainable.
