Eco-friendly habits to build on a budget: Consume less, create more
By Kat Rhoads | Featured image: Kat Rhoads
Living sustainably doesn’t have to mean spending more. In a new Eco-friendly habits to build on a budget series, aAh! editor Kat Rhoads shares how consumption choices can show your love for our earth, even on a budget.
Take a look in your wardrobe. How many of those clothes do you actually wear? Before buying another pair of jeans, consider whether you already own something similar. The same goes for other everyday purchases: could something you already have at home serve the same purpose? Living sustainably starts with making the most of what you already own and planning ahead. Here are three simple ways to get started.
1. Make it at home
Let’s start with your iced coffee habit. A cold, caffeinated beverage from Starbucks every other day is a nice treat, but even buying just two iced coffees a week adds up to 104 discarded plastic cups over the course of a year. That’s a lot of unnecessary waste.
Making your coffee at home can also save you a surprising amount of money. A kettle, a French press, a bag of ground coffee, and a bag of sugar costs you less than £50. By comparison, three Starbucks coffees per week for a month could cost you £75. That’s a potential saving of £25 in just one month! You can’t tell me that doesn’t sound like a good deal.
And why stop at coffee? You can also make plenty of your favourite drinks at home, including iced tea, matcha, chai and smoothies.
You can even get creative with household products. Instead of buying paper towels, cut up old t-shirts to make reusable cleaning rags. Turn own newspapers into decorative wrapping paper, transform small cardboard containers into storage boxes with old fabric, or try making your own simple face masks rather than buying single-use alternatives.
2. Reuse Containers
Have you ever come across a Pinterest-worthy kitchen with flour, sugar, granola, coffee beans, pasta, nuts and chocolate chips neatly arranged side by side in beautiful glass containers? They’re on to something.
Unfortunately, not everything we put in the recycling bin actually gets recycled. According to eco-lifestyle magazine Pebble, only around 17% of plastic waste is recycled, while the rest is exported, sent to landfill or incinerated.
Reusing containers is a simple way to reduce waste and make the most out of things you already have. Glass food containers are perfect for food storage. Wash out your peanut butter, mustard or jam jars, remove the labels and use them to store dry food, art supplies, or even flower arrangements.
You can use your empty yogurt container for your leftovers or smaller household items. Not everything has to be aesthetic. It’s about finding a second life for things you would otherwise throw away instead of buying new.
3. BYO: Bring your own
Bringing your own containers, cups and food when you’re out and about is another great way to avoid unnecessary waste.
Carry a small water bottle everywhere you go to avoid buying plastic bottled water. Pack a little extra food so you don’t end up hungry and resorting to that Tesco burrito wrapped in plastic. And why not carry a reusable coffee cup with you? Many cafés will happily make your drink in your own cup instead of a disposable one. Again, it doesn’t have to be aesthetic. It just has to be practical!
In fact, some cafés even reward students for bringing their own reusable cup. Manchester Met, in partnership with other Manchester universities, offers the Bee Cup Scheme. When ordering a hot drink from one of the participating cafés, download the Vytal app, ask the server for a Bee Cup, scan the QR code on the cup. Participating campus cafés include Brooks Café , Business School Costa, Lowry Art School café, and Dalton Starbucks.
There are also plenty of other incentives available. Coffee chains such as Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Caffé Nero, alongside M&S Café and Co-op, offer loyalty points or discounts of up to 50p when you bring a reusable cup. Waitrose even offers a free coffee with any purchase when you bring your own cup. Now, that’s a steal!
Do you have some tips to share? Write for aAh! and get involved with your student magazine
