Photo by Luke Ellis-Craven on Unsplash

Are you tired of creating huge environmental issues that you will pass on to future generations? Does the destruction of entire forests and animal species bother you? Do you wish that there was a better way?

What if I told you, that you could partake in fixing these issues today? With just a little effort and some time you could reduce your footprint and contribute in creating a better world for everyone.

Now that we are done with this infomercial intro, let’s get right to it.

Becoming an environmentalist does not require to spend too much of your time, or money, I personally often search for the ways how being ecological can also be economical, to reward myself with cutting down my footprint. In the previous article I wrote about the issues of changing from consuming plastics, to bioplastics, explaining that in the end we have to take the fault for the massive over-consumption for our convenience.

Soon after the article was published, the realization hit me, that most of what I did was ramble, instead of giving enough of good old concrete advice on how we can reduce consumption and waste.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

So here, without further ado are 35 clear solutions for reducing your footprint, in a regular day to day life:

Your day probably begins by going to the bathroom, to shower, brush your teeth and get yourself ready for the world. However, you could easily green it up in the bathroom with a few tips:

1. Use bar of soap instead of shower gel — boar of soap in general requires less energy to make, it uses less plastic, especially if it is wrapped in paper.

You can often find these soaps in any bigger grocery shop, Lush, soap shops or online.

2. Next time you’re shopping for a toothbrush, get yourself a bamboo toothbrush.

For the readers in Finland you can easily buy one at Ruohonjuuri or in your local equivalent. You can also order them online, but remember the extra packaging!

3. Use bar of soap for hands — probably the easiest one on the list! However, if you do insist on liquid hand soap, buy a reusable soap dispenser and purchase liquid soap in bulk.

4. Try using bar shampoo and bar conditioner — I am still personally looking for my favorite solid shampoo and conditioner, blessed with very complicated hair, however you can find solid hair products at Lush, at your local eco-shop or online from many indie producers. Further reading about solid hair products.

5. Dump the wipes for the face and the down bellow — For face choose the reusable cotton pads (you can buy them online or do it yourself), for the bottom simply stick with toilet paper with either water or a greener alternative such as Satu Gel Wipes.

6. In general, reduce consumption of beauty products — use less hair products, especially hairspray, less makeup products and use up the goods before you start using new one!