Today is Sustainability Day, and when talking about sustainability or the environment, most people know by now how bad plastic is for the environment. We bring our reusable coffee cups to our favorite cafes and travel with our eco-friendly bottles to work and to the gym, but often our bathroom products are not the first thing we think of when trying to make more sustainable choices. That's why we have lined up some easy tips in this blog today, maybe you were not aware of the damaging products you currently have in your bathroom, or maybe you did not know about some great eco-friendly alternatives! All little things help!

1. Toilet Paper Alternatives

First things first. Toilet paper is one of the most wasteful products in your bathroom, starting with the tree cutting, water resources and not to forget bleach that is used in the production process. Furthermore, the plastic wrap holding the rolls together often cannot be recycled either.. Luckily there are plenty of eco-friendly alternatives, from die-hard changes such as a reusable wiping cloth to bidets, as well as slightly less impacting alternatives such as toilet paper made of eco-friendly materials such as bamboo, or recycled toilet paper.

2. Ditch the Packaging

We know by now to avoid plastic drinking bottles where we can, but for some reason we are not so aware about the plastic shampoo, conditioner and shower gel bottles.. According to the Sustainable Jungle, all the shampoo bottles that get thrown away every year could cover 1,164 football fields.. Clearly something we need to try and change! Luckily there are now plenty of companies offering bottle refill or return programs, allowing to bring your own bottle to refill stations or to swap empty bottles for filled ones. If you are aiming to go completely zero-waste, have a look at shampoo and conditioner bars. These are similar to your old fashion soap bars, but often vegan and eco-friendly and absolutely zero waste. In fact- many eco bloggers share their own soap recipes that are very easy to follow and often made of easily accessible ingredients, just have a little Google and get soap bar baking!

3. Reusing is Key

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle is a slogan often used to promote a sustainable lifestyle. In the bathroom we often use products that can only be used once and then we throw them out, such as make up wipes for example. If we swapped our make up wipes (that also come in plastic packaging btw) for a reusable cloth and zero-waste make up remover soap bar, it would have a massive positive impact on the waste problems.

4. A Sustainable Smile ;)

Toothbrushes are also made of plastic and therefore unfortunately a big part of the plastic waste problem, as it is estimated that around 90 billion toothbrushes are being thrown away each year. A stylish and eco-friendly alternative is a bamboo toothbrush, which is biodegradable once you remove the bristles as it composts within a few years. Another bathroom problem is toothpaste, again coming into plastic packaging. Similar to the soap bars, there are now plenty of sustainable alternatives available, such as toothpaste tabs, zero waste toothpaste bars or DIY recipes. If you take it to the next level, there also exists such a thing as zero waste floss, or floss from corn fibers, super eco-friendly!

5. The Easy Swaps

Another plastic problem from the bathroom are razor blades, but these can really easy be swapped for zero waste alternatives such as metal razors, safety razors and bamboo razors. They often come in stylish designs as well! Moving on to another easy swap: cotton buds or swabs. Cotton buds with plastic stems are problematic because they are plastic but also because they are small and often cannot be recycled, meaning it often ends up as landfill waste or in the oceans unfortunately. However, again its super easy to make a sustainable swap here as there are many brands offering bamboo cotton buds or cotton buds with cardboard stems. In addition, hair brushes are almost always plastic as well, but now we see a lot more sustainable brushes coming on the market, also often made of bamboo.Lastly, swapping a regular bin for a compostable bin would mean that you can already compost waste yourself, easily from your own home.

Let us know in the comments if you have any other tips, or which ones you will use from now on!

Love,

JUA Journal x