#4
Sustainable Toiletries.
By Isabella Brunt
Easy, and affordable, swaps you can do that benefit you AND the planet.
Our waste doesn’t just disappear into thin air, it goes somewhere, affecting the people, animals, and plant life that live around it. Making small choices can go a long way.
The bathroom is the first place I’d recommend looking at. A lot of the plastics that exist there can be easily swapped out for less polluting options.
For example
Use a bamboo toothbrush – Foreo estimate that 1 billion toothbrushes are thrown away each year in the United States alone! That’s enough to stretch around the earth four times…
A shampoo bar – shampoo, body wash and hand soap all have a high water content, so not only are you paying for a product that’s ~80% water, but it takes a lot of energy to produce and ship around the globe. Be patient with this, not all shampoos work with everyone’s hair, the same goes for shampoo bars.
Use solid soap rather than in liquid form.
Switch to a metal razor.
Use wooden cotton buds.
Avoid products that contain microbeads, these are often plastic. You can find natural alternatives that use things like coffee grounds or bamboo.
Illustrations by Emily Wolfe. Instagram: @wemolt
Let’s talk about periods
Individuals use on average 11,000 disposable tampons and pads in their lifetime, which are themselves about 90% plastic! Cotton is water intensive to grow and is sprayed with pesticides before it makes it to your underwear to be used, not to mention what they use to make the products so white. ‘In 2010, a UK beach clean found an average of 23 sanitary pads and 9 tampon applicators per kilometre of British coastline.’
200,000 tonnes of waste are generated by single use pads, tampons, and their plastic wrappers per year. If harmful chemicals used on products for your intimate areas isn’t enough to make you want to switch to something else, then I hope the environmental impact is enough to inspire you to make a more sustainable choice.
Sustainable options:
£££ -- Period Pants – lots of options on the scene these days, try to buy from a brand that makes them in the country you live in.
£££ -- Menstrual Cups - most people have to try a few to find their perfect fit, while this is expensive at first, it will save you money in the long run.
££ -- Reusable pads / Tampon Applicators – again, expensive at first, but last a long time.
£ -- Menstrual Sponges – all natural, last up to 6 months.
All stats in this paragraph from https://www.organicup.com/environmental-reasons-to-switch/
If you want to know a little more about the plastic problem, check out National Geographic’s page https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/planet-or-plastic
