Sustainability practices the whole family can do

In the spirit of Plastic Free July it’s a great time to set some new goals towards a more sustainable life. Sustainability is something we can get the whole family involved with and set us up with habits that will last a lifetime. And you don’t need to be a tie die loving, chicken coop keeping human to do any of it!

There is so much that we cannot control, what we can do is direct our energy into doing what we can in our immediate environment and within our power to reduce waste and plastic use as our planet needs us more than ever!

The best part about it is every one person pitching in even a little bit has a collective positive impact, what’s the saying? "The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”, and we don’t need a handful of people to be perfect at it, we need millions of people doing something about it imperfectly.

Here are some of the easy peasy ways you can get started and do your bit:

• Educate yourself: One of the best places to start is with the easy-to-follow e-book called “The Waste Less Workbook”. This guide will help you achieve your sustainability goals and slim your waste at home. It’s an all-encompassing resource to help Australians learn more about sustainability focusing on best practices when it comes to recycling, zero waste recipes and an online assessment tool which helps identify areas for improvement in your home and suggestions on how to make sustainable changes room by room!
• Get yourself a keep cup and don’t forget to use it!
• Ditch the plastic toothbrush and switch to bamboo. Also seek out the business that have a recycling station for toothbrushes, razors and other disposable items like these.
• Forgo the balloons for the birthday party and use sustainable decorations.
• Shop at any of the awesome bulk wholefoods stores for your pantry staples
  • The Source https://thesourcebulkfoods.com.au/shopthesourceway/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwlMaGBhD3ARIsAPvWd6gmXjPERzMfDXnsBxq_5ewYvRQdIOBvGIH5Rkwilo3r4Qy-uoIirlcaAtS1EALw_wcB
  • Naked Whole Foods - https://nakedfoods.com.au/
  • Village Wholefoods - https://www.villagewholefoods.com.au/
  • Scoop - https://scoopwholefoods.com.au/
• Keep your reusable shopping bags in the car so you remember them next grocery shop.
• Take your soft plastics back to your local supermarket and pop them into the RedCycle bins.
• Pay close attention to the recycling labels on the packaging – sometimes the type of container or packaging is not 100% recyclable so you may need to remove the lid and dispose in the waste bin, or remove plastic tape from boxes before you breakdown for the kerbside bin for example.
• Make shopping lists, and only buy what you need.
• Close the loop by purchasing products made from recycled materials such as toilet roll, printer paper etc.
• Choose to support brands with conscious and sustainable practices (like Little Wildling Co!)
• Avoid single use products and over packaged items.
• Instead of heading out and replacing a broken item, try to repair, buy second hand or swap at an online a marketplace.
• Take your old electronics to eWaste drop off points so they don’t end up in landfill.
• Try reusable nappies, or if that’s just not your bag choose brands which focus on non-toxic, plant-based materials like TOMco. Tooshies who are also BCorp certified.
• Printer cartridges can be recycled at Cartridges 4 Planet Ark drop off locations.
• Keep food waste out of landfill – Try a home compost system and it doesn’t have to take up a lot of space, and plan out your weekly shop so you don’t over buy. Rotting organic material in landfill actually starts to produce greenhouse gas emissions!
• As a general rule of thumb, try to reduce and reuse first, THEN recycle.

 

For more ideas (there are LOADS), visit:

 https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/get-involved/what-you-can-do/

https://banish.com.au/blogs/how-to

https://planetark.org/programs

 

Some of things we do at frankie + jet and Little Wildling co to live up to our sustainable, ethical ethos are:

• We had a goal to become B Corp certified by 2022, and we smashed it! This means we are more accountable and ensures that we are meeting the highest possible standards of social and environmental standards, including who we choose to partner with all the way down the line.
• We go carbon neutral by using Sendle for all shipping https://try.sendle.com/en-au/carbon-neutral-delivery
• Our parcels and packaging are plastic free – We also upcycle boxes to send out deliveries.
• We use plastic free, water activated tape which can also be recycled.
• We use Geami Brown Kraft Paper to wrap our glass jars to prevent breakages whilst in transit https://www.signet.net.au/geami-brown-kraft-paper-500mm-250m-39076.html
• We have plant fibre based biodegradable inserts for our organic tea blends, which has the look and feel of plastic minus the damage to the environment
• Our loose-leaf teas are free from chemicals, organic and therefore compostable.
• Little Wildling Co tea bags are made from bio-degradable compostable solion mesh.
• Little Wildling co refill bags can be placed in RedCycle bins at your local Coles or Woollies. RedCycle is a recovery initiative for post-consumer soft plastics https://www.redcycle.net.au/
• We are partnered with i=change to align with our brand values give our consumers a choice to make a purposeful purchase. By supporting us as a business you can also make a conscious choice to support any of our 3 x chosen life-changing charities where we will donate $1 on your behalf with trackable impact: https://www.iequalchange.com/brand/little-wilding-co/

 

So with all that in the environmentally friendly arsenal, go forth and live your best sustainable life!