Can we still be eco-friendly during the pandemic?
Here at Preparture, we’re big on staying as eco-friendly as possible, even during tough times like these. Our question today is simply: can we still be eco-friendly during the pandemic?
With restaurants shutting and offering take-out options to appease those of us trapped inside, we’ve noticed that the use of single-use plastics and even styrofoam are still being used, making it harder to stay on top of our game when it comes to sustainable living. What’s more, our groceries are being delivered in plastic bags, rather than biodegradable paper bags that don’t take hundreds of years to be recycled.
It’s tough right now, that’s for sure, but we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves that’ll help you keep your fingers green and your plastic usage down, and we’re ready to share our thoughts with you.
Create your own sanitation products
The rise of hand-sanitizer, and the constant reminders to keep our hands clean has finally taken root, thankfully. With it, we’ve been doing our bit to keep our homes clean and free from bacteria too. Whilst this is obviously great, all of these products we’re buying to keep ourselves clean and healthy are only adding to the single-use plastic waste pile. That’s not all though, because some of the chemicals we’re using in our own home can actually be harmful to our environment too, and we could actually be causing more harm than good with some of our choices.
You can keep your eco-friendly badge when you try your hand at home-made cleaning remedies that are not only softer on your skin, but lack those vicious chemicals that can cause health and environmental problems down the line. It’s not as hard as you might imagine either.
As easy as 1, 2, 3
Household items such as vinegar and baking soda are actually cheap alternatives to chemically created -oxides that you’ll find stuffed into your bottles of cleaning solutions, so the next time you run out of your big name cleaner, keep the bottle and wash it out thoroughly to reuse. Want to rid yourself of all plastics and invest in some glass bottles? Even better. They’ll last longer and are much easier to recycle at the end of their life.
One of the best bits about creating your own household cleaner, is that you get to use the freshest ingredients to add a bit of scent to your creations. Fruit extracts such as lemon and orange, as well as herbs like rosmary or thyme, can be added to your home-made cleaning products to give them that beautiful, fresh scent that we all love (and it won’t leave a chemically smell either, which is a bonus).
Creating your own cleaning products can be as simple as adding vinegar, water, and a scent of your choice to a bottle, and leaving it in a cool dry area so it keeps for longer (your products won’t have any nasty added chemicals to extend the life of the product, so you need to do all you can to keep it fresh).
Our one warning? Never mix products that contain bleach with any ammonia based products. This can be deadly thanks to the fumes they can give off, so steer clear.
Ditch Disposables
Bottles… plastics… we’re well in tune with the fact that we use a lot of disposable products in 2020, and that most of these products have a lifespan of a few hundred years before they’ll be completely gone. This year there’s an additional extra that we’re all probably guilty of using: the disposable face mask.
Whilst they’re nowhere near as damaging for the environment as other non-recyclables, we’ve walked past plenty of disposable face masks on the streets, where people have used them and simply discarded of them in public spaces or sometimes, thankfully, in bins.
We can still be eco-friendly during this pandemic if we simply ditch the disposables and buy ourselves reusable masks rather than those blue ones that are churned out of factories by the thousands each hour.
Think about it. Indulging in a few machine washable masks not only give you a more stylish edge, as you’ll be able to buy colorful or patterned versions, but you’ll only have to buy and replace the extra filters that you use, and these can be bought in multipacks, making the cost a little lighter on the purse strings. And, even better, you can buy biodegradable filters that can easily be recycled, so you can wear your mask with pride, and swap out your old dirty filters without feeling like a threat to the environment.
Get some fresh air
Now more than ever, we need to be moving, staying healthy and hydrated, and seeking out plenty of fresh air to keep our minds at peace. Looking after number One is more important than ever now that we live in a world of face masks, mandated lockdowns, and the worry that surrounds us in these uncertain times.
If you can leave the house, you should do it, as long as you’re not looking up crowds, and staying socially distanced, that is. Take your workouts outside, even if it’s just into your own garden. It’ll help your mental and physical health more than you know.
There’s more to this point though. We can still be eco-friendly during the pandemic when we choose to move naturally rather than hopping on our scooters or into our cars to make short journeys. Use your legs and save the planet, especially when you don’t have so far to go. Reducing carbon emissions from using our vehicles less will not only help the planet, but it’ll help our lungs too, which is one of the most important things we could be thinking about during the pandemic.
Got to travel a little bit further than your legs can take or your time management allows? Why not hop on your bike, and get your journey done a little quicker?
Clearly, we can still be eco-friendly, even during these tougher times. All it takes is a little bit of initiative, and a few simple changes to our lifestyle to help save our planet, and each other. Which pieces of advice will you be taking on? We’ve already invested in our reusable face masks, and are ready to say goodbye to those plastic blue ones for good.
