Easy Eco-Friendly Swaps
Growing up (like 1994 - 2006), we were the only people I knew who recycled at home. We had huge bins in the garage for paper, plastic, and aluminum, and I remember being slightly embarrassed every time a friend would go to throw away a soda can in the kitchen trash and I would stop them and say “we have a specific trash can for this in the garage.” This would always be met with quizzical looks. The Lowrie’s were weird back in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
My mom used to drive about 30 minutes away from our house to drop off the recycling at three different places because this was before you could just put it all in the same bin. She was truly ahead of her time, and I am forever grateful that she instilled a desire in me from an early age to do better for the planet.
I actively look for ways to make changes in my life to help decrease my carbon footprint. I’m not perfect and I won’t even pretend to be the most perfect eco-friendly, environmentalist. I’ll admit it, I’m not the best at bringing my own straw when I purchase a beverage. I have a transportable straw, but I haven’t made it a priority to work it into my routine. However, I do recognize it is important to do my part where I can and with what works for me and my family to help slow climate change.
Below is a list of the changes we’ve made around our house in the past few years. Read that last part again: last few years. This takes time, and I truly believe you should use what you have before switching anything.
This is one of the easiest switches to make. You put them in your dryer and forget about them. The set I have linked will last you 1,000 loads. I do about 4 - 5 loads of laundry a week, so 5*52= 260 loads a year. Then 1,000/260 = 3.8 years. I only use three at a time, so this set will last give or take 7 years. If I purchased a box of 120 dryer sheets, I would need to buy 16 boxes during that same 7-year time frame. And at about $5 a box, it would cost me about $80 dollars in dryer sheets.
I stumbled upon this hand soap right at the beginning of the pandemic. I was looking for a safer and cleaner alternative to what we were using, plus I really hated the idea of all the plastic we were using, even if it was being recycled, each time I replaced the soap dispenser or my soap refill was empty.
Blueland sends you a glass dispenser and a tablet that dissolves in warm water to create foaming hand soap. The packaging is completely recyclable or compostable. We’ve used it since the beginning of the pandemic and truly love it. The tablets to refill your soap are $2 or less.
I use these every morning and every night in my skincare routine. While cotton rounds are biodegradable, these are machine washable, so you can use them time and time again.
I will never quit q-tips (and I cannot stomach the thought of a reusable q-tip), so I was overjoyed when I found these bamboo and cotton alternatives. They are biodegradable. Meaning that over time, these q-tips will break down to their component parts. Bamboo and cotton take anywhere from 4- 6 months to completely biodegrade which is far better than the year and years it takes for plastic.
I can thank the pandemic for this one. When we moved, we couldn’t find paper towels ANYWHERE! My mom kindly told me about European dishcloths. These babies are amazing! They are like bigger sponges, but less gross. Plus, you can microwave them to disinfect or put them in the top rack of the dishwasher. I wash mine with my kitchen dish towels in the washing machine and then air dry. We love these so much that we don’t foresee us buying paper towels ever again.
We registered for a set for our wedding and now that we don’t buy paper towels these get a ton more use in our house. Our napkins are all white with cute edge details. I feel like white is best for fighting stains. I’m not proud of it, but if I can’t get a stain out I’ll use a little bleach on the napkins (see told you I am not a perfect eco-friendly person). However, we’re not loading up our compost with paper towels each week.
Again, thanks to the lack of paper towels, we needed something to clean with and dust with, so we purchased a handful of microfiber towels. These are great for cleaning baseboards, wiping down counters, etc. We purchased three packs, so we always had clean ones under the sink.
Compost
Okay, so I know this one sounds intimidating, but I promise it is not. It just takes a little getting used to and understanding what can and cannot be composted in your area. Most cities either have a program or a third party offering composting. We pay $39 for 6 months of composting with The Compost Exchange here in Columbus. We take it to a drop-off location once a week. There is a drastic difference in the amount of trash we make when we don’t compost vs. when we do compost. We keep our 5-gallon bucket in the garage just in case it ever gets smelly, and keep this little bucket on the counter in the kitchen for when we cook. We dump it in the big bucket each night.
What eco-friendly swaps have you made in your home? I’d love to know, so we can continue swapping things in our home.
xx,
Linds
