If you want to make your life more sustainable and don't quite know where to start, then we have some useful products and simple tips for you here. Because even small changes in your everyday life and in the household can have a huge impact on the environment.
1. Avoid plastic bags when shopping
Not a new tip, huh? But there is still some interesting information about this that is still unknown to many people:
As sustainable as a fabric bag may sound at first, most people don't realize that, in contrast to shopping bags made of paper or plastic, many fabric bags use almost the most resources in their production and have a high environmental impact. The trick is using it correctly! If you use a fabric bag over the long term, it will perform significantly better in terms of its environmental impact and is then again the most sustainable of all options.
2. Use sustainable products in the kitchen
Whether the sponge, the dishwashing brush, the dishwashing liquid or even the wooden spoon – there are many things made of plastic, especially in the kitchen. Many of these common products can easily be replaced with sustainable materials such as wood or bamboo. You can start, for example, with the dishwashing brush or the wooden spoons , which can be replaced with more sustainable versions made of wood. But there are also vegan and sustainable versions of the dishwashing sponge , dishcloth or dishwashing liquid .
For example, this “Zerowaste Kitchen Starter Set” from Ultra Green is perfect for beginners who want to replace several products in one fell swoop. It comes with a sustainable wooden dishwashing brush, an ecological dishcloth and sponge, and vegan dishwashing soap.
3. Turn off the laptop instead of leaving it in standby mode
Who does not know it? Since the screen usually turns off on its own over time and then turns on again later when you use it again, it is of course most relaxing to simply leave the computer or laptop running in standby mode. But that's not exactly sustainable because the computer uses more electricity than you think. To do something good for your environment, our tip for next time would be to turn off the computer properly.
4. Use alternative and sustainable cleaning products
The smell of some cleaning products already suggests that the ingredients used are not really sustainable and good for the environment. Our tip: eco tabs. Not only do you get a more sustainable and, in the long term, less plastic version of conventional cleaning products, as you can use the same (spray) bottle over and over again, they also clean just as well as conventional cleaning products.
The Ökotabs come in several versions, such as glass cleaner , all-purpose cleaner , kitchen cleaner and floor cleaner . If you put the respective biodegradable tablet together with water in a (spray) bottle, the sustainable cleaning product is already ready and can be used straight away.
5. Zero waste in the bathroom: Our tips for sustainable products
You can also find some sustainable products for the bathroom that can help you avoid a lot of plastic in the long run. For example, you can get a toothbrush made of wood or bamboo, replace your shower gel, hand soap and shampoo with solid soaps without plastic packaging and instead of plastic cotton buds, there are sustainable alternatives, such as cotton buds made of bamboo and cotton .
There is also a perfect set from Ultra Green for the bathroom, which combines all of these products in one fell swoop: the “Zero Waste Set for Everyone” . It comes with a bamboo toothbrush with petroleum-free bristles made from renewable raw materials, a vegan and palm oil-free soap, a sustainable hair soap and cotton swabs made from bamboo and cotton from certified organic farming.
6. Use reusable drinking bottles in everyday life
Glass drinking bottles not only look cooler than conventional plastic or glass bottles from the supermarket, but are also significantly better for the environment. The resources and energy that are usually used to recycle all the countless bottles are quickly made up for by reusing the bottle.
The company soulbottles, for example, offers sustainable glass drinking bottles in many designs that are 100% Made in Germany, 100% plastic-free and 100% climate neutral. And on top of that, €1 per soulbottle sold goes to the WASH project in Nepal, which was launched by Viva con Agua de St. Pauli eV, which gives people access to clean drinking water.
7. Instead of coffee-to-go cups = sustainable bamboo coffee cups
There are already countless alternatives to coffee to stop the daily flood of plastic. A reusable bamboo coffee cup , for example, is a good start to doing something about our throwaway society. Because even though most coffee-to-go cups are now made of cardboard and therefore look (somewhat) sustainable, they are not at all good for the environment. A sustainable coffee cup is therefore the ideal sustainable companion for work, school, university... and of course the coffee tastes much better from a real cup than from a paper cup.
