Planet-friendly pledges

Following one inspiring evening in a yurt in 2018, everything changed. The clingfilm was out, replaced by Beeswax Wraps from Nailsworth. We ended up on BBC Radio Gloucestershire discussing plastic-wrapped cucumbers after a failed shop in Aldi. We started getting our milk delivered in glass bottles from Cotteswold Dairy, like in the olden days.

We have been making moves to live more sustainably for the past six months and we are ramping it up in 2019!

Plastic-free alternatives

 

Wherever you are right now, look around.

How many plastic things can you see?

Now, how many of those plastic items are single-use? Things like straws, take-away coffee cups, yogurt pots…

Our plan for 2019 is to work our way around the house, listing all the items that are sold or stored in plastic and working out ways to replace them with a more sustainable option. We have tackled some items already, but the list is long and overwhelming. So, we are going to slowly work our way through, one item at a time. As we finish our current tube of Colgate, we’ll be replacing it with truthpaste zero-waste, natural mineral toothpaste. When the bottle of Fairy finally runs out, we’ll be ordering Splosh refillable washing-up liquid which reduces plastic waste by 97.5%

As we find and try plastic alternatives we’ll be adding them here so you can easily find links to products you can try.

For now, here are a few of the swaps we’ve made so far.

recycled toilet roll
Clingfilm alternative
Reusable baby wipes
Diy cleaning spray
Bamboo toothbrush
Reusable drinks bottle
reusable coffee cup
cotton make-up wipes
Bar soap
Milk in glass bottles
Plastic-free fruit and veg
Bamboo children’s dinnerware

Cutting down

Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy, and water.

Climate Change

Globally, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transportation systems combined. According to the UN, a global shift toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.

Water Use

It takes an enormous amount of water to grow crops for animals to eat, clean filthy factory farms, and give animals water to drink. A single cow used for milk can drink up to 50 gallons of water per day—or twice that amount in hot weather—and it takes 683 gallons of water to produce just 1 gallon of milk. It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef.

So, we are going to be dramatically cutting down the amount of meat that we eat and focussing on finding new and exciting vegetarian recipes.

If you have any recipes that you love, please let us know!