Since my journey with ethical consumerism began there are some things I have found more challenging than others. While some areas of life are easy to make changes in there are others where I still four years later, struggle.
When I started thinking about reducing my environmental impact in 2017, I started off going cruelty free as this was something I felt strongly about. A few months later I started to consider other aspects of my life where I wanted to make a change.
A large part of this move to initially reduce my waste came from changing my shopping habits and deciding to drastically reduce my consumption of fashion and beauty products. This was the area where I struggled most as a large proportion of the waste I produced came from the packaging of the new products I was buying. Reducing consumption was therefore key to tackling the amount of waste I produced day to day.
Shopping from more ethical brands also helps with the packaging issue as most of them ship their products in recyclable packaging. This is also something I started to check for in the supermarket, looking on the back to see if the product I am buying can even be put in the recycling.
Four years later and I have tried a number of new zero waste products aimed at reducing, in particular, my plastic waste. Some changes have stuck and some have not; some zero waste items I have bought are brilliant and I would recommend them to everyone .... others have fallen flat. I am not too sure if there are that many items that have actually made a large difference to the waste I produce each month but there are some I would recommend. In particular Clean Living Cleaning Products, metal razors and many of the items from World of Bamboo.
There are many products however where I have tried them and it has just not worked for me. The main zero waste items I have struggled with are shampoo and conditioner bars as I don't think they work that well, reusable coffee mugs and water bottles (I now own millions) and moon cups...sorry! I know these have worked for others but I still struggle.
I also still struggle to reduce my waste in the kitchen in the form of food packaging. I do regularly visit the zero waste shop to fill my containers but I still struggle with food waste and a large amount of food packaging from food products that I may be able to recycle but I still struggle to make changes in this area. (Suggestions welcome)
I have a couple of ideas in the pipeline to help me improve this area that I will share on social media in the coming months. I am hoping that the new body shop refillable stations will come to my town and I am considering subscribing to a veg box again. My zero waste journey however still feels painfully slow and I know there are still many changes I could make. One of my favorite things about the changes I have made over the past few years is the money I have saved overall from reducing my consumption. Although part of my journey with ethical consumerism has been for the planet, it has also been for myself so I could save money and make more mindful decisions.
It is my opinion that his is the main reason e should all change our purchasing habits, not only for the planet but for ourselves.
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