World Wildlife Day: 5 Tips For Going Zero Waste

So for those of you that don't know World Wildlife Day was this month! In honour of it, I challenged my co-founders to go zero waste.

I've put together some tips that we learned to help others make the little changes that can have a big impact on the world.

I do often get into the debate of whether it is a corporate or personal responsibility to change the world. But until corporations are able to fully change, I think, why not make the little changes that we can make, take power of and control of in the meantime to make an impact, you'd be surprised.

So, key changes as follows...

1) The Keep Cup

Pre-Covid especially, grabbing your morning coffee was essential for many London commuters and commuters all over the world, and this little swap could make such a difference to the environment. 

A regular coffee cup is lined with specific lining, which means that the coffee will stay hot and not cause you any harm. However, it takes 20 years for ordinary coffee cups to decompose. So 16 billion cups worldwide get thrown away, each year.  

Whereas Keep Cups still have little plastic bit around the outside so your hand doesn't get hot (the big benefit), but they're actually reusable - hence the name!

It's a tiny swap that can make such a difference.

So number one for zero waste life - KEEP CUP.

2) Bamboo

So I only recently learned about the impact of plastic toothbrushes in the last year or so, but here are some facts on the impact of plastic toothbrushes.

264 million plastic toothbrushes, just in the UK are thrown away every year.

It takes 1000 years or one to decompose, whereas a bamboo toothbrush takes four months roughly to decompose - AND it can be done in your home compost. 

So again, in terms of trying to be more zero waste and eco-friendly this is a no-brainer, plus they are super cheap.

You can also get bamboo electric toothbrush heads now as well for your electric toothbrush.

In a similar theme, avoid one-use plastic, so plastic utensils that you are probably grabbing when you are out and about to stir your coffee or if you are getting a takeaway from a food truck. The more eco-friendly alternative that can be rolled up as well are bamboo utensils.

So, basically you've got your fork, your chopsticks, a knife, a little spoon. If you are going to get a coffee in your Keep Cup and you just need to mix your sugar, a straw, which you can use continuously.

Again, this tiny swap will prevent you from using single-use plastic.

I also recommend keeping a tupperware box (though not necessarily bamboo) with you when you're going out, then if you are getting a takeaway you can ask them to put it in your box.

3) Reusable Bags & Bottles

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Plastic bags aren't recyclable and are very bad for the environment; I'm sure we all know about plastic bags, now that there has been a  tax brought in on them. So the alternative is to use reusable, cotton bags - just as practical without the impact on the environment.

Or even better a big backpack. The average plastic bag takes 300 years to photodegrade.

So basically, that means that doesn't biodegrade and it breaks down into tiny little toxins. It's so bad for the environment and so bad for animals. So yeah, plastic bags are a BIG no no.

4) Jars

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Jars are tiny and you can, you can keep them in your pocket and they look aesthetically great in your home as well. So an absolute life saver is JARS.

But when you are buying them, avoid buying plastic; always try and buy glass or metal, because they are great materials for reusing and recycling.

But Jam Jars are a fave; for example if you get pickles, I'm obsessed with pickles, you wash it out when done, keep the jar and store things like tea bags in them, rice, etc. 

Essentially, whatever you are going to use in the future, store them in jars. 

That's another way of reusing your waste. A step closer to zero wasting your lifestyle.

5) Veganism

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm a Vegan. I heard a joke once: 'How do you know someone is a vegan?  Well, they will tell you.'

I get it. Yeah, I talk about being Vegan quite a lot. but it's something I'm really proud of.

Even if you don't want to go fully Vegan you could start small e.g. by going vegan twice a week.

I've got the stats: somebody who eats vegan diet for one day saves 4,164 litres of water, 18kg of grain, 3 metres of forest land, 2kg of CO2 and  one animal life A DAY.

So even if you're not ready to commit to a full vegan lifestyle, I recommend including one, or two days a week a into your diet. That alone could make such a difference.

I would definitely recommend Mindful Chef. They only create the amount of ingredient for food, that you need so that no food waste is going to landfill - plus the recipes are delicious!

Currently, an outstanding 400 million meals worth of edible food is wasted in the UK each year. That is just EDIBLE, not even waste by supermarkets and manufacturers.

So that's 400 million meals just in the UK. So to further explain, what Mindful Chef do is they create the exact amount of meals you need, they breakdown the ingredients and put them mostly into recyclable, compostable and biodegradable packaging.

So again, you are contributing to that zero waste lifestyle.

Obviously, some people will not be able to afford this. There's different ways to go about managing food waste, but going back to #3, reducing you use of single-use bags makes such a big difference.

So I've said in lots of my videos in the past that whenever you spend money, you're essentially voting on what you believe in. I'm a big believer So supporting businesses like Mindful Chef and Who Gives a Crap is an easy but practical way to make a difference on the world.

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