Decreasing Your Environmental Footprint at Home

Decreasing Your Environmental Footprint at Home

TLDR

Our environmental footprint reached a tipping point in the 1960s when a Swedish company, Celloplast, acquired a U.S. patent for the "T-shirt plastic bag" – what we now call the grocery bag. Here are five plastic swaps you can make right now to decrease your environmental footprint.

Our environmental footprint reached a tipping point in the 1960s when Swedish company, Celloplast, acquired a U.S. patent for the "T-shirt plastic bag" – what we now call the grocery bag. Since then, our use of plastic has extended beyond a simple bag to containers, toys, and household items.

Today, landfills around the world are overflowing with waste and filling our oceans with island-sized masses of plastic products.

Reel Paper Decreasing Your Environmental Footprint at Home

Plastic is hurting the environment, killing wildlife, and drastically increasing our environmental footprint. So the question is, to heal Earth, can we live without plastic? Can we reverse the impact of the last several hundred years and improve our environmental footprint for the future?

The answer is yes, we absolutely can improve the health of our planet. And replacing our plastics with sustainable, earth-friendly items is one of the easiest places to start.

Here are five plastic swaps you can make right now to decrease your environmental footprint.

Stainless Steel Straws

The average American uses 38,000 plastic straws during their lifetime. Klean Kanteen aims to reduce that number to just one with their stainless steel straws.

Klean Kanteen uses high-quality stainless steel and food-grade, removable silicone flex tips (in really fun colors!). This family-owned company carries other simple household swaps, too: reusable water bottles, food canisters, and even baby bottles.

Beeswax Food Wraps

Beeswax food wraps have taken the stage as a sustainable alternative to plastic food containers and cellophane.

Vermont-based Bee's Wrap makes their wraps by pouring a mixture of beeswax, jojoba oil, and tree resin over a sheet of organic cotton and letting it harden. Not only are beeswax wraps simple to clean (just rinse and air dry), but they're also easy to dispose of: You can either compost your wraps or use them as fire-starters.

Whether you're keeping veggies fresh or wrapping up treats for your kids, beeswax wraps help reduce your environmental footprint!

Reusable Food Storage Bags

Silicone bags are a wonderful solution to the thousands of plastic bags we go through for food storage. Stasher Bags are durable and dishwasher and freezer safe. Plus, they come in various colors and sizes to suit your needs.

Reel Paper Decreasing Your Environmental Footprint at Home
Image courtesy of Stasher Bags

Silicone, made from silica, is a non-toxic, odorless, BPA-free natural resource. So you can pack your or your kids' lunches knowing Stasher Bags are a safer, longer-lasting alternative to plastic bags.

Rocketbook Everlast Notebook

Constant notetakers can rejoice at Rocketbook's eco-friendly alternative to the traditional paper notebook. Shark Tank may have rejected the $30 smart notebook, but anyone looking to reduce their environmental footprint will swear by it.

The Everlast Notebook works with a FriXion pen that allows you to scan notes into PDF or JPEG and save files to email, iCloud, or your phone via the Rocketbook app. When you're done, wipe down your pages with a damp cloth to start fresh. You have 36 pages to work with, but most users find they don't need more than five.

If you're concerned about lowering your paper waste and decreasing your environmental footprint, we encourage you to give Rocketbook a try.

Reel Paper

Instead of rushing to the store every time you need to restock on bathroom supplies, consider subscribing to Reel Paper. You can rest assured that you're lowering your environmental footprint because our toilet paper is 100% bamboo.

What makes bamboo so special? Bamboo grows about three feet every 24 hours and uses 30% less water than traditional hardwood trees. Plus, Reel Paper is three-ply and just as soft and durable as your average toilet paper – without the plastic packaging.

For every roll you buy, we also donate to SOIL, an organization working to clean up waste in Haiti and support locals with a revolutionary, Earth-friendly business model. You can feel good knowing with every Reel Paper purchase, you're helping those in need while doing good for the planet.

We hope these five sustainable swaps motivate you to continue finding new ways to decrease your environmental footprint.

For more great tips on lowering your footprint, sign up for our newsletter!

3 comments

  • Thanks for the Rocketbook info. Just placed order for a Mini…looking forward to trying it out!

    Ruth Maruschak on

  • It would be great to have kleenex made from bamboo.

    Cube style, long box and even travel packs.

    Stella Flores on

  • All good except for the beeswax wraps. No need to bring bees into this.

    Laura on

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