Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have noticed that plastic waste and the effect it is having on our environment and marine life is pretty catastrophic. We all saw that episode of Blue Planet II right? If you didn’t, I urge you to watch it. Now, I am not by any stretch going to lecture you about living a zero waste lifestyle from the minute you hit the X after reading this post. I can’t, and that’s mainly because right now I can’t put my hand up and say that I live a zero waste existence. It is flipping difficult, undoubtedly because society right now is saturated with plastic products. I mean take this statistic that I pulled it from my little ‘How to Give up Plastic‘ book (grab yourself a copy here, if you don’t have one) ‘Around 500 billion plastic bottles are sold every year, and growing – that’s 20,000 a second. If placed end to end, they would reach half way to the sun’. If that doesn’t leave you as shocked as it did me, then this post probably isn’t for you… Again if you’re the type of person to turn round and say, ‘why sort recycling, it all goes in the same bin anyway’, whilst sat next to four neatly labelled very self explanatory recycling bins, then again, give this one a miss. If you do stick this one out though there is a cheeky little discount code at the end.
I am as guilty as the next person when opting for convenience over consideration, picking up vegetables in those pesky plastic bags for example and grabbing a drink in a plastic bottle on the way to work. In recent months reducing the plastic I buy and subsequently waste, has been a big focus of mine. A focus that I also want to retain whilst travelling. So I have teamed up with Wearth London, who if you haven’t already heard of are a terrific company that started in 2017, with a mission to provide contemporary and well-designed products. All of which are made by independent UK brands in an eco-friendly and ethical way. They stock everything from zero waste skincare, jewellery made from recycled silver, reusable lunch boxes, coffee cups and water bottles, to home ware bits made from reclaimed furniture handcrafted in the UK.
‘Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints’, a quote that I couldn’t have not included in this little eco-warrior ramble. Whether you want to reduce your plastic waste or completely eliminate plastic from your travels (and everyday life) I think the following products are a great place to start! From water bottles to skin and dental care, so without further ado take a look at the products I have been using from Wearth.
ATLAS & ORTUS STAINLESS STEEL WATER BOTTLE (500ML)
Such an easy one. Whether at home, in the office, or travelling around the world, opting for a refillable water bottle is such an easy swap. I opted for the matte black 500ml bottle by Atlas & Ortus. The bottle has a super simple and sleek design, it is double walled and vacuum insulated, meaning it will keep your drink hot/cold for up to 12 hours!
INDIGENOUS BEAUTY NATURAL DEODORANT CREAM
If you read this post you will know that I have been trying out natural deodorant balms. Along with all the warnings about parabens and aluminium etc. switching to a deodorant balm is a crazy simple way to reduce waste. Wearth stock Indigenous Beauty deodorant which comes in recyclable glass jars, is vegan friendly and aluminium free. I went for the ‘Soothing’ balm which PSA is scented with lavender and vanilla and smells DIVINE!
THE WHITE TEETH BOX ‘LIFE’ BAMBOO TOOTHBRUSH
I am about to chuck a couple more statistics at you. But, if that makes even one of you consider switching your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo one, then it was worth banging on about. Shockingly, 99% of the toothbrushes in the world are made of plastic! The majority of which are not biodegradable and will stick around for many years after we’ve all long gone. Take the United States for instance, it is estimated that over 850 million toothbrushes are discarded and end up in landfill every single year! However, through Wearth I discovered the Life Brush, a non plastic alternative that is made from 100% FSC certified, antibacterial Moso Bamboo. Oh and just for those not bored of the facts, bamboo plants grow in close proximity to one another at the incredible rate of 35 inches in a few days making it oober sustainable.
SOAP DAZE COTTON FACE CLOTH
Until recently, I naively did not even think about how my ‘beauty’ regime, by that I mean make up wipes and cotton pads, was impacting on the environment. Make up wipes contain plastic?! I was just completely unaware. So in an attempt to put an end to my face wipe use, I have opted for a reusable face cloth. Handcrafted from recycled cotton yarn they are super soft and gentle on the skin. I went for the ‘charcoal’ colour, so that the dregs of mascara that are inevitably left behind don’t leave horrid black stains. Oh and mine also came with a little ‘oat mylk’ natural soap bar, just another little way to avoid those pesky plastic hand wash/shower gel bottles.
A quick hats off to Wearth, as their site is incredibly easy to navigate and find products which align with your values. All of the products listed have visual tags detailing characteristics of that item, whether that be ‘plastic free’, ‘vegan’ or ‘handcrafted’. There is also a super helpful ‘shop by values’ page, meaning you can select to shop completely plastic free including your postage and packaging. Which brings me to my final point, we have all shopped online with clothes retailers, where all of our items come individually wrapped in entirely unnecessary plastic bags, inside one large plastic bag. Well you won’t have any of that with Wearth. They are committed to using minimal environmentally friendly packaging. Tried and tested over here, everything came wrapped in the minimal amount of card/paper and all of the packages can now be recycled.
So, as I said in the beginning this post is in collaboration with Wearth London, they kindly sent me two of the products mentioned, but all love and eco warrior-ess rambling is my own (consolidated with facts from the experts on these things). Oh and if you too want to join the mission to reduce plastic usage and waste then I have a DISCOUNT CODE. Yes me. Wearth gave little me a discount code *happy dance* for all you lovely readers to use if you wish. So head over to their website and enter ABBIEJADE upon check out to receive a 10% discount!
Thankyou for reading, comment, share, subscribe whatever you fancy. As always I am ever grateful for your support x
Trying to post more reminders in insta stories at the moment. Really good, important post.