Reusable Things To Help The Environment

Plastics utensils, packaging and more are practical, inexpensive and durable, but as a result of humans’ excessive use, plastic waste and pollution has overwhelmed our planet. According to studies, 40% of plastic produced is single-use packaging, is used just once then discarded which creates around 18 billion pounds of plastic waste flows into the oceans every year.

Have you ever thought of the environmental impact some of our actions and the products we buy and use can have on our planet? The World Wildlife Fund WWF shows:

• For a single piece of plastic hundreds of years will take to decompose.
• Around the world, only 9% of plastics are recycled.
• 80% of plastics enter our ocean through rivers and streams.

Here’s where eco-friendly sustainable products come to the rescue.

Many of the products we use on a daily basis can be harming to the environment and even to us, without us being aware! From clothes, accessories, lotions and skincare products, shopping habits, to transportation and energy consumption, each of the items we use and how we behave with them affect our carbon footprint and can impact the environment.

The great news is every action counts! Small changes can have a positive impact on the environment and help us make an immense difference for nature. It can benefit our planet in the long run because almost every item we use does have an eco-friendly alternative. Making these simple changes is easy, and even fun!

We gathered to so many sustainable products and ideas to give you greener alternatives to the items you wear and use every day!

Our first choice is part of the long list of eco-friendly hygiene products. The best replacement to a conventional plastic toothbrush is the Bamboo toothbrush. With the bamboo material, you're not only saving on the plastic used to make the product, but also the plastic packaging! This bamboo toothbrush comes in eco-friendly recycled packaging and the bristles are soft and BPA free.

Featured: Bamboo Toothbursh made by Ecofrenzy

Choosing eco-friendly eyewear is a great way to care for both your eyes and the environment. There are numerous sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic eyewear. You can find eco-friendly sunglasses crafted from materials like recycled acetate, reclaimed wood, bamboo, cork, and even coffee. These options are often lightweight, durable, and stylish.

At Kraywoods, our eco-friendly sunglasses and prescription glasses are made from sustainably sourced woods, metals, and bio-acetate. Each pair comes with a recycled cardboard case and a recycled linen pouch, ensuring your eyewear stays safe, even while you travel!

Featured: Eco-friendly glasses by Kraywoods

With more and more eco-friendly products brands created, it’s become easy to find eco-friendly alternatives for your beauty products. Everything from shampoo to skincare to makeup is now available in natural ingredients, eco-friendly packaging and without testing on animals. By using products made with organic ingredients, free of parabens, sulfate and fragrances, you are keeping your health, body and skin safe from any toxic ingredients. Not only are these products good for you, they will also make you feel good about making eco-conscious choices and supporting eco-friendly and ethical brands.

Featured: List of Organic Skincare Products & Brands By Cosmo

One thing people may not consider wasteful are body care and hygiene products. On the market of sustainable eco-friendly products, Ethique has a wide range of the best eco-friendly skincare products from shampoo to face cream. All products come in eco-friendly packaging and are made from 100% natural and organic ingredients. Every product is TSA, cruelty-free and compostable. One bar of Ethique can help save three plastics bottles from ending up in landfills.

Featured: A Collection of Hair Products (Hair Sampler) by Ethique

We often don't notice how often and how fast we go through a pack of disposal razor blades. This heavily contributes to single waste plastic. Go for this stainless steel razor which is the perfect solution to save on disposable plastic razors. It's solid, durable and comes with a pack of 20 blades. You can even get a much cleaner shave with these types of razors.

Featured: Stainless Steel Razors by Leaf Shave

Another one of the eco-friendly products to buy is an item you’ve probably never thought about: Floss! The floss we generally use is most often made of plastic, and coated with toxic chemicals. These chemicals (PFC’s) have been linked to dementia, cancer, thyroid disease. Silk floss, on the other hand, is biodegradable and does not contain these harmful chemicals, which will help you save on your plastic free waste. As an eco-friendly bonus, the Ohm silk floss also comes in a bamboo case dispenser, so not only are you reducing your waste on the floss, but also on the plastic case that it usually comes in!

Featured: Ohm Silk Floss by Ohm Earth Store

These eco-friendly makeup remover pads are made from organic bamboo fibers, they're biodegradable and can be washed to reuse over and over again. They come in a pack of 14 with a full set of cleansing gloves, make up remover cloth and a small laundry bag. The pads are made of organic bamboo fibers.

Featured: Reusable Organic Makeup Pads by Uppwell

For water and drinks, switching to reusable bottles and cups helps reduce the use of plastic bottles. When it comes to water bottles, we love the ones made from bamboo wood, they’re eco-friendly and help keep your water at a cool temperature. You can also find bottles and cups made from recycled plastic, and they’re available in various colors and styles. Many companies also offer programs for reusable cups, where you can get free refills for a certain number to reduce waste.

Featured: Reusable Stainless Steel Water Bottle by S'well

Moreover, there are water bottles made from toxic-free durable silicone. They're small, practical and airplane carry-on approved. These 100% BPA free and eco-friendly bottles can be used for all kinds of products you want to carry with you on the go!

Featured: Silicone Bottle by Go Toob

Another great addition would be a water filter bottle that is BPA free and extremely durable. Because of the filter inside, you can fill up your water anywhere. The filter lasts for 1000 litres and filters out 99.9999% waterborne bacteria and 99.9% waterborne protozoa. This eco-friendly product can provide one person with safe drinking water for a year. A reusable water bottle use has to be the easiest way to save on single-use plastic bottles.

Featured: Filter Water Bottle By Lifestraw Go

What are some eco-friendly products related to fashion? There are so many sustainable fashion brands that make clothes from recycled fibres instead of synthetic materials that negatively impact our environment. This does not only eliminate the waste of synthetic and plastic materials, it also helps diminish the use of harmful chemicals, dyes, and carbon footprint in the making process of the product.

Featured: Recycled Fibres by Repreve

One should ask himself before purchasing any product, How does sustainable fashion helps the environment? With the immense negative effects of the fast fashion industry has on the environment, you should always care about how your clothes are made and with what materials. Sustainable clothes can be made from many different materials such as recycled fibers or organic fabrics such as Bamboo, hemp and organic cotton.

Often you can find them with no added chemicals that are harmful to the environment and the price are reasonable. With sustainable fashion becoming more accessible, it’s become easy to find the perfect fashion brand that makes clothes that align with your ethical and environmental values.

Featured: Sportswear made from recycled fibers by Cerinic

Brands that make sustainable footwear are on the rise. It’s become easy to find fashionable and comfortable footwear made from vegan leather, cork or recycled materials such as cotton, plastic, fishing nets and rubber. Eco-friendly footwear comes in all kinds of fashion-forward designs and styles that you won’t have a hard time making the switch!

Featured: Sneakers Made From Recycled Plastic By Adidas

Wood watches are eco-friendly, lightweight, comfortable and extremely stylish! You can find watches that are made out of sustainably sourced wood and rechargeable via solar power. Often times, these brands also support eco-friendly causes and give back part of their proceeds for the planet.

Featured: Wood Watch By Tense Watch

Another item that can be added to your list of eco-friendly products for your home are these insulated tumblers. They are made from durable stainless steel and they keep your liquids cold and hot two times longer than traditional mugs. It also comes with a metal straw and recycled packaging. It's the perfect set to replace throwaway styrofoam and plastic cups for your coffee and drinks on the go. With this, you won’t ever need to use wasteful plastic cups or reusable straws!

Featured: Insulated Stainless Steel Tumbler by Healthy Human

Plastic straws are used once and then thrown into landfills to pollute our oceans and rivers. That’s where bamboo drinking straws come to the rescue. They are eco-friendly, reusable and BPA free, the perfect alternative to disposable plastic straws and use metal straws instead!

Featured: Bamboo Straws by Bali Boo

Another eco-friendly alternative to way plastic straws is straws made from silicone. If you don’t like the feeling of having a metal straw in your mouth, then that’s the perfect for your drinks. The silicone makes it comfortable for your teeth and super soft to sip on, you’ll want to carry this everywhere you go!

Featured: Silicone Straws by Senneny

Reusable straws are now the easiest eco-friendly product to find! With businesses and people becoming more and more eco-conscious, reusable straws are now available in most coffee shops and stores. We always keep our reusable straws at hand which helps us reduce our use of plastic on a daily basis.

Featured: Stainless-Steel Straws with Cleaning Brush By Net Zero Co.

For a more sustainable lifestyle, owning a set of reusable bamboo utensils is a must. This eco-friendly product is super practical and helps you cut back on disposable plastic utensils. It's made from top grade natural bamboo and 100% food safe, and it comes in a small travel pouch, making it practical to carry with you on your travels, camping trips and wherever else you go! Save the planet one meal at a time with your own natural bamboo travel utensil set.

Featured: Reusable Bamboo Utensil Set By Bamboo Essentials

These eco-friendly bento lunchbox containers are the perfect solution to eliminate plastic Tupperware from your life! They are made of safe biodegradable, non-toxic raw materials such as processed wheat fibres, straw, rice. Unlike plastic, they're 100% eco-friendly and completely decompose after disposal. They also come with a set of eco-friendly utensils, so this kit will even help you save on disposable utensils.

Featured: Eco-friendly Lunchbox By Bento Lunch

For a non-toxic solution and to reduce the use of plastic, avoid the use of plastic bags and containers. For food and snacks, re-useable containers with moveable or removable dividers are so practical! When packing your lunch and snacks, make sure to use reusable containers to avoid single use plastic items, this not only helps reduce your carbon footprint and use of plastic, but also helps keep your food fresh and at an ideal temperature.

Featured: Reusable Stainless Steel Lunchbox by Plantbox

Nowadays, supermarkets and stores are trying to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags by replacing them with paper bags or giving you the option to purchase a reusable bags. You can’t go green without eco-friendly reusable bags for your shopping and groceries. Plastic bags are the first thing to eliminate from your life to significantly cut down on plastic wrap and plastic pollution.

You can find different types of eco-friendly reusbale bags for grocery shopping such as string bags or tote bags made from organic cotton and organic mesh. Always make sure to be prepared when going shopping by carrying your own reusable bag. It reduces the number of plastic and paper bags and makes carrying your grocery or shopping much easier and eco-friendly!

Featured: Eco-friendly String Bags by Eco Bags

You can find toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper fibres, bamboo or sugarcane. This eco-friendly product helps reduce carbon emissions and save trees and water. Most of the brands that make these eco-friendly toilet papers also contribute part of their profits to environmental causes. It’s always rewarding to know that while buying an eco-friendly product, you’re also supporting a great cause.

Featured: Recycled Toilet Paper by Peace With The Wild

Super light, easy to carry around and read in any place at anytime. It's a total must eco-friendly product for home. Downloading books to an E-reader rather than buying them helps significantly reduce the use of paper and transportation. It’s practical, easy to carry and allows enjoy your reading while passing the time in any kind of transportation.

Featured: E-Reader by Kindle

We all know that chemical batteries are a big cause of soil and water pollution. It’s not a wise thing to throw them into landfills once they can’t be used anymore. The easiest way to solve this issue is by using rechargeable batteries, which will help you save money and energy and reduce pollution!

Featured: Rechargeable Batteries By Energizer

One way to incorporate sustainable steps in your routine is by tracking the amount of time you spend in the shower to estimate how much water you are wasting. This is why you should go shower timers. It helps you to keep an eye on how long you spend under hot water which can also help you save on water and reduce your energy consumption. You can even find water-resistant timers that you can bring into the shower with you!

Featured: Water-proof Shower Timer By Dretec

Here is an alternative list for reusable items that need recycling:

1- reusable grocery bags

2- reusable produce bags

3- reusable wool dryer balls

4- reusable cotton rounds

5- reusable water bottles

6- reusable kitchen towel

7- reusable wraps

8- reusable products

9- reusable silicone

10- paper towels

11- mesh produce bags

12- single use plastics

As the world’s population continues to grow, so does the amount of unnecessary plastic and pollution harming our environment. The toxic pollutants caused by plastic wrap waste negatively affects our environment, plants, wildlife and even humans themselves. There are so many ways to help make a positive environmental impact with our day to day actions.

Every action counts and every small changes makes a difference and can have an immensely positive impact on the environment and the planet. Believe it or not, small changes go a long way and to new habits can be formed in as little as 3 weeks time

By being more eco-conscious in our daily habits and consumption, we can help preserve our beautiful planet earth and make this world a greener place one person at a time! This is a mission that can happen by simply looking out for the products we purchase and use in our day to day. We can reduce the amount of plastic waste we produce and help save our one and only planet and it’s biodiversity from plastic pollution for generations to come.