5 Simple Sustainable Swaps from Nourish.
With 5 simple sustainable swaps from the Nourish team we hope we can inspire you to try out some more eco-friendly ideas and products.
Sustainability – avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance. “the pursuit of global environmental sustainability”.
The saying ‘leave no trace’, rewritten in different ways throughout the world’s beauty spots has become a watch phrase for those seeking to lead a more sustainable life. Waste and its disposal is under the microscope worldwide. Finding simple solutions that people can action easily in their day to day lives is of vital importance to many of us. Simple swaps range from, reusable coffee cups and water bottles, to buying conscious cosmetics from brands who can provide refills.
Here is our 5 simple sustainable swaps from Nourish.
Invest and buy less
Buying less is a big part of living more sustainably. Endless fast fashion purchases and frequent replacement of cheaply produced furniture are some of the easiest things we found to address. Like our parents and grandparents before them we’ve returned to the concept of saving up for something. Rather than just buying something cheap because we want it now and won’t wait. Fast fashion and furniture are often manufactured in ways that put local workforces under undue pressure to accept low wages and poor working conditions. We have been looking at a few fashion and homewares brands with swoon worthy products that we’re happy to save up for.
Fashion – Outland Denim, Vildnis, People Tree, Ninety Percent
Home – Gold finger Factory, Naked Flooring, Nkuku
Home Composting
Did you know that we dispose of over *7 million tons of food waste in UK households per year? That little green bin that languishes outside your backdoor, are you using it regularly and do you know what happens to it when it gets emptied? In some counties it is made in nutrient rich compost, which you can then buy for a small fee (some counties give this for FREE too) and in others it’s converted into energy as Biogas. Pretty clever huh? If you have space, then buying your own composter, or making one yourself is a great idea and makes for super powered plants in your garden. We’ve embraced home compostable packaging at Nourish and our Coconut Bites and shortly our Macaroons are all packaged in material suitable for home composting. We give away nasturtiums seeds and a nasturtium salad recipe card with each purchase of our Coconut Bites so that you can reuse your packets before your compost them!There are many other brands selling everything from coffee to cereal in compostable packaging.
Food waste
The less you waste the less you spend. Those leftovers are a valuable commodity! Food waste in the UK totals a whopping £13 million a year*. That meant the average UK household wasted £470 worth of food, which went in the bin when it could have been eaten. So, let’s talk leftovers. Obviously, a big part of the picture here is buying only what you need. That’s not always so simple though with busy households so what to do if you’re left with lots of food waste? We love to scoop up any leftovers for a variety of recipes from soup to cakes. Any leftover veggies can become topping for salad or a pile of sauce like our Harvest Tomato Sauce or Carrot Salad. Or maybe a cake like our Apple Cake or Banana Picnic Loaf. If you do eat meat or fish and it’s getting close to it date you can always have a cook up and create a meal that can be frozen and used later.
Buy conscious products
What do we mean by conscious products? We mean producers that have thought about not just the environmental impact of their product and its packaging but who also use natural, sustainable ingredients. These types of product can be anything from toothbrushes and toothpaste to kitchen cupboards. We love brands like Sustainable Kitchens because they have committed to using local materials and suppliers and build a product that is built to last generations. For toothpaste and brushes we head to Georganics, a UK based company who are shaking up our views on toothpaste using charcoal, brushes using beech from sustainable sources and all packed into recyclable packaging.
Go digital
Lovely as it is to receive a ticket in the post for a favourite gig it’s no longer necessary. Consumption of disposable paper products is on the decrease but there is more that can be done. Grabbing a Metro or purchasing a ticket at the station, both could just end up in landfill depending on how you dispose of them. Try to go paper free with billing too. Most banks now have ways for you to save statements online and all councils, energy companies etc will be happy to offer paper free billing. At home we’ve now got a sign above our printer reminding the whole family to print mindfully, if it’s not important enough then don’t just print it for the sake of it. We’ve managed to keep one ream of paper going for months so far since the sign went up, we used to be on a pack a month!
So little by little there are easy ways to embrace a more sustainable life. Over the course of this month we’ll be looking at more and more ideas and meeting some brands and individuals with inspiring ideas for a more #nourishedlife. We hope you enjoyed our 5 simple sustainable swaps from Nourish, drop us a comment below if you did!
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