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Eco-Friendly Shopping Tips
Problem
Eco Friendly Shopping
If you love shopping the idea of going green is one close to your heart then the following eco-friendly shopping tips will help you to contribute to a better environment. With a bit of thought, willingness and creativity we can all do a little bit to sustain our natural resources and make them last way beyond the lifespan of our children. The best time to start living green is yesterday!
Solution
10 eco-friendly shopping tips to go green:
- Use reuseable shopping bags instead of plastic bags: Plastic bags take a minimum of 400 years to degrade naturally and by using canvas bags and boxes to carry your shopping home you are doing your bit for the planet. Eco-friendly shopping mustn't be made without snazzy looking bags and totes.
- When planning your meals, try to incorporate local and seasonal products: You will help to reduce the carbon footprint of excess transportation. Buy considering seasonal produce you also minimise storage while keeping the cost down for your household budget.
- Only buy goods packaged with recycled materials if possible: Recycling reduces the pressure on the environment and today many retailers are keen to contribute their own recycled packaging. This is one of the central factors of eco-friendly shopping.
- Storage anyone: Once the containers are empty, keep them for refills, arts and crafts projects, or office storage. The more of these your can re-purpose and recycle at home, the less your contribute to landfill.
- If you have babies consider buying washable, reusable nappies: Like plastic bags, nappies take a long time to disintegrate back into the earth. Some say it takes about 300 years! Now if we take into account that the average baby goes through around 5000 disposable nappies before it is old enough to go without this is one heck of a figure to strain the environment. Do you REALLY want to do this? I don't think you do. Eco-friendly shopping starts with baby's needs.
- Coffee brews: Eco-friendly shopping for coffee is the act of buying coffee that has been produced under the fair trade act. Whether it is coffee you buy or other food items, check if they have been recycled, are ethically sourced, biodegradable.
- Avoid fast food packaging: Unfortunately we do live in an age where fast food rules most of our lives'. We lead hectic lifestyles and often place nutrition at the bottom of our priority list. Therefore we fail to do eco-friendly shopping when we buy fast foods. Excess packaging is the worst culprit of these foods, not to mention the plastic used all to often.
- Stay away from pre-washed foods in the supermarket: You can't be that busy not to have five minutes a day to wash your own salad? Just imagine all the plastic that is being used to shrink-wrap peeled vegetables, fruit, salads and more. Reclaim your space in the kitchen and implement a more natural approach to cooking. You can save time by using fast recipes instead. Plus you'll be saving money in the process.
- Say no to impulse buying! Impulse buying is another big culprit of human waste. How many times have you bought something but then never used it? Chances are the item probably landed in the bin - new and never opened. Impulse buying is against eco-friendly shopping because it won't make you feel better. If you have a sincere wish to buy something, make sure you will and can actually use it.
- Stop wasting fuel: Many consumers think nothing to hop into their car to drive down the road and buy a loaf of bread and then return home. What a waste! If you want to shop economically, both for the planet and your hip pocket consider doing a weekly shopping run instead opposed to daily bits and pieces.
There you have it, 10 eco-friendly shopping tips to go green, save money and become economically responsible.
Effectiveness / Result
Submitted by Eco Warrior on Sep 16, 2009
