Posted on

Ditch and Switch

EWWR begins today. That stands for European Week for Waste Reduction. Waste Reduction is the preferred approach to waste management because waste that never gets created doesn’t have waste management costs. An example of waste reduction is reducing unnecessary packaging from manufactured products and produce. Unfortunately, since we are not able to control how all products are packaged, we can choose to refuse certain brands and opt for more eco-friendly options to at least reduce our waste at home.

One person doing this is already a good start, a hundred people doing this is wonderful but thousands refusing plastic packaging and reducing their overall waste is incredibly beneficial to the environment. Think of yourself as one of the many thousands. Your waste reduction WILL make a difference.

So here are a few of our ideas on what we should all ditch & switch. Some might seem obvious by now but a gentle reminder never hurt anybody.

-Ditch balloons and switch to eco-friendly decorations
-Ditch unrecyclable wrapping paper and switch to brown paper this Christmas
-Ditch the plastic toothbrush and switch to a bamboo toothbrush
-Ditch water plastic bottles and switch to a reusable bottle
-Ditch the disposable cutlery and switch to a set of reusable cutlery you can carry around
-Ditch the plastic straw and switch to reusable straws made from paper, bamboo or stainless steel
-Ditch the plastic bin liners and switch to bio-degradable bin liners
-Ditch the heavy plastic packaging and switch to glass or cardboard packaging
-Ditch the small plastic toiletries and switch to larger ones in order to bulk buy
-Ditch the single-use produce bags and switch to reusable produce bags when shopping
-Ditch the disposable lighter and switch to old-school matches
-Ditch the plastic razors and switch to a metal safety razor
-Ditch tea bags and switch to loose leaf tea
-Ditch plastic bags and switch to reusable shopping bags
-Ditch tampons & sanitary pads and switch to a reusable menstrual cup
-Ditch aerosol sprays and switch to essential oils 

There are so many products that we can ditch & switch and if everyone made the effort we could really reduce waste substantially, leaving us with less waste in our landfills and in our seas. Throughout the week we’re going to be ditching & switching and showing you all our efforts as part of our daily blog posts especially for EWWR.

What are you doing to contribute to European Week for Waste Reduction?

veco xxx