A guest post by Nigel Berman. Nigel Berman is the founder of Nigel’s Eco Store, a great place to shop for eco shopping bags, eco gifts and energy saving products.
We all need stuff. Stuff to eat, stuff to wear, sit on, be entertained by, the list goes on. But choosing the right stuff is important, and as a consumer of stuff, making the right choices is really important. Here are some of the choices I make as a shopper, which help me to reduce my impact, and keep the amount of stuff in my life to a sensible minimum.
Be fantastic, not plastic. Plastic bags are old news, and there’s never been a better range of eco shopping bags to choose from. But plastic is insidious and gets everywhere – look out for excess packaging and avoid it where you can. I tried living for a month without buying any plastic, and I found that the healthiest foods are the ones with the least packaging. By the end of the month, my wallet and my waistline were thanking me.
Be an awkward customer. Ask questions. Make a fuss. Retailers with good ethical credentials will be proud of them, and more than happy to talk to you about social and environmental issues. Being vocal about where items come from, how they are made, and their social and environmental impact sends a strong message to retailers that customers care about these issues, which means they should too. And if you’re not happy with the answer, walk away.
Thrift = less waste. Looking for second hand alternatives may be a bit more time consuming, but there are often great savings to be made, both financial and in terms of the earth’s resources. Freecycle, Ebay and Gumtree are great places to start, and many charity shops sell homewares, furniture and electrical goods for a fraction of what they would cost new.
Food miles are tricky. If in doubt, go local and in season. A bag of lettuce grown in a hot country and flown in might have a smaller carbon footprint than the same quantity of lettuce grown in a greenhouse in the UK. Why not try growing your own fruit and veg and freezing it to eat over the winter? And if you haven’t got a garden, check out your local box scheme, eating seasonal veg is great for your health, and encourages a fair bit of kitchen creativity!
Look for the logo. Stick to good wood and related products that carry the Forest Stewardship Council, and avoid any that don’t. Deforestation is a major problem around the world, and means loss of habitat, rising carbon emissions, and threatens the welfare of some of the world’s poorest people.
Saddle up. You can guess what’s coming next – get on your bike! Whether you’re doing your weekly food shop, or nipping out to a chic boutique, doing it on a bike makes it fun and healthy, with no stress about parking. And if you’ve got limited space in your panniers then impulse shopping is out; you’ll really have to stick to that list.
Stop. Think; do I really need this thing? Do I need to upgrade to the lastest model? Do I have to follow the latest micro-trends? Or is the stuff I have actually OK, and still meeting my needs just fine. And if not, can I fix it or customise it so it does?
I hope you’ve enjoyed my eco shopping tips. They should help you reduce your impact, and hopefully save you some pennies too! Got any more? Let me know in the comments.
I agree with all that! Also, I think it’s fair to say that if you want to shop eco, the internet is still your best bet. But Nigel’s point about nagging shop owners to stock eco is a good way to start pulling eco stuff onto our high streets. I do this even if I know for a fact the shop doesn’t stock them. “Are any of these fashion labels ethical labels, by any chance?” I say, and then look crestfallen when they say no. Go on, try it!
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Catherine