How to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle

Transitioning to a more eco-friendly lifestyle might seem intimidating and expensive, but there are plenty of easy ways to keep it simple and cost-effective. So, here are a few ways that you can save money, improve your health, and help the environment:

1. Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies:

Commercial cleaning products are expensive, toxic, and leave nasty residues on surfaces. For less money, you can make your own products with basic items from the supermarket. One popular alternative to commercial cleaners is Castile soap. This vegetable soap is better for the environment, and it’s much easier on your skin. It’s also incredibly versatile—you can use different essential oils with it to clean everything from carpets, tiles, wood, laundry, and even cars. It’s a great (and cheap) eco-friendly product!

2. Cook Your Own Meals

The factory farms that produce commercial foods are huge polluters, and their products are often over-processed and unhealthy. Most restaurants, fast food places, and premade meals use food from these farms. But if you cook your own meals, you can choose ingredients from eco-friendly ones instead. This solves a lot of problems: you’ll improve your own health, support an eco-conscious farm, save money if you buy in bulk, and you won’t be paying commercials farm to pollute.

3. Phase Out Plastic Bag Usage

While you’re shopping for those eco-friendly ingredients, try to use canvas bags instead of plastic. This is easy to do—just pick up a few canvas bags each trip until you can stop using plastic altogether! Over your lifetime, this will keep thousands of plastic bags from being wasted. And let’s be real—they just rip anyways. Canvas bags are much sturdier, and if you keep them in the back of your vehicle, you’ll never have to worry about leaving them at home!

4. Stop Eating Meat (Or Start Cutting Back):

For a lot of people, the prospect of living a meatless life is intimidating. Though there’s a lot of value in refusing to eat meat entirely, cutting back on the amount that you eat is one of the most effective ways to live a more eco-friendly life. To say nothing of the horrible conditions that livestock must endure in most farms, a United Nations study found that the livestock sector accounts for 9% of human-related CO2 emissions and 65% of human-related nitrous oxide emissions. Funding livestock companies by consuming meat, you’re also funding their emissions. So, consider cutting back on meat or replacing it altogether.

5. Cut Down on Paper Use

As convenient as sticky notes, notebooks, binders, and to-do lists are, the amount of paper the average person wastes while using them is alarmingly high. There are great digital alternatives in the form of apps and software. Most of them have huge advantages too, allowing you to access them on any device, no matter where you are. By switching over to these digital list-makers and word processors, you could save a lot of paper and make your life a bit easier!

Complete break up with plastic is not possible, but we can try to reduce the usage of plastic to certain extent.

Recently, I decided to change my kitchen an eco-friendly place, without using plastic containers or utensils. So I avoided using plastic bags, plastic wrap and plastic storage containers. Instead I try to use bamboo and metal products and zero waste, reusable, washable, compostable food wraps that are great for the environment. Organic Beeswax and more bamboo products are coming soon!

1. Reusing old glass jam and pickle bottles for storing seasonings and pulses.

2. Replaced plastic storage containers with bamboo and stainless steel containers.

3. Replaced Tupperware bottles with metal ones and bamboo as well.

 Let's start using  less-plastic and cut down our personal plastic footprint at home!