ways to be more sustainable during a pandemic | tinted green

Plastic Free July is here and this year, things are a little different. Those of us in the US are still dealing with the pandemic and all the precautions that come along with it, which makes the usual advice of shop the bulk bins! and bring your own cup! kind of hard to do.

Coming into Plastic Free July, I was feeling discouraged. I was on the verge of throwing my hands up and giving up on the idea of reducing my plastic waste this year, when I remembered that there is always something we can do.

This blog started out of a desire to share the tiny, almost ridiculous steps we could take to make our footprints a little lighter on the planet. While life with young kids has put some of my goals out of reach (for now), there is always something we can do to inch closer to the lifestyle we want!

With that pep talk in mind, I jotted down a quick list of ways we can all be more sustainable this Plastic Free July while dealing with these unprecedented times (are you sick of hearing that phrase as much as I am? 😆)

1. GO ON A SHOPPING FREEZE

I know, I know, how dare I suggest you shop less when online shopping seems to be the only normal-ish, fun thing we still have access to? Hear me out: consumption habits are probably the most important shift we can make if we want to live more sustainable lives. Even the most ethically, sustainably, transparently produced products require resources. A lot of us can only dream of affording those kinds of products, anyway because the prices are so high (I have a convoluted rant about capitalism, ethical products, and access, but we’ll save that for some other time). Regardless of our budgets, we cannot buy our way to a sustainable lifestyle.

I’ll say that again: you cant’t buy your way to a sustainable lifestyle.

Are there products that will help you reduce your environmental impact? Absolutely! But lowering how much you buy will always matter more than shifting what you buy, at least in my opinion.

2. RETHINK BULK

If we’ve been around the zero waste/low waste online community, it’s highly likely we’ve all heard the advice to find a grocery store that offers bulk bin options. Pre-pandemic, I bought rice, beans, granola, coffee, and sugar exclusively from bulk bins. It’s an excellent way to cut down on my household’s waste, however, in the age of COVID, items sold in the bulk section have turned into pre-packaged products for obvious safety reasons.

The next best thing we can do is buy the largest packaged amount of a product that we can. Need more dish soap? Buy the biggest container of it you can and decant it into the smaller bottle you just finished at home. Eat rice with nearly every meal? Buy the biggest bag of it your store sells so you don’t have to buy it weekly.

It’s a habit that we can form during the pandemic and carry on once we can go back to shopping without masks on.

3. REFUSE THE DISPOSABLES YOU CAN

I think it goes without saying, but we’re probably all ordering a lot more takeout than usual. In the push to support our local restaurants, I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves producing a lot more trash than we’re used to. Even though restaurants in my area are offering for-here options with patio seating, I personally don’t feel comfortable sitting around that many strangers (especially while pregnant), so we’ll be sticking to takeout for the time being.

While we can’t necessarily avoid the takeout packaging or a plastic bag, we can refuse plastic cutlery, paper napkins, or even sauce packets if it’s something we have at home, like soy sauce or ketchup. Doing this might even help save our local restaurants some money!

4. EAT YOUR LEFTOVERS

I know, I know, this seems too simple. But here’s the thing: food waste is a huge problem but it’s something we can totally start to tackle while we shelter in place! Eating your leftovers for lunch saves you from cooking yet another meal or running out and exposing yourself to the public just for one meal.

Going a step further and meal prepping is also a great idea. It streamlines our shopping lists, saving us money, and it makes the question, “what’s for dinner tonight?” really easy to answer!

5. TRADE PAPER FOR CLOTH

Being at home more probably means we’re eating at home more. And if we’re refusing as many disposables as we can when we order takeout/cooking at home, we’re also probably finding ourselves in need of some napkins. Cloth napkins are an excellent and accessible swap we can make anytime! Pick them in your favorite colors and patterns and keep them in a drawer ready to be used at mealtime. Call me silly, but I personally feel like cloth napkins make mealtime feel a little extra special, even if it’s not a special occasion.

Another way we’ve somewhat swapped paper for cloth in our home is by using flour sack towels and cleaning rags. Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely still use paper towels in our home, especially during a pandemic, but the amount of paper towels we go through is drastically reduced by reaching for flour sack towel to wipe up a spill before reaching for a paper towel.

BONUS: WEAR A REUSABLE MASK

At this point, masks deserve a spot on our out-the-door checklist. Phone, keys, wallet, hand sanitizer, mask. We were never able to get our hands on the disposable masks anyway, so our family has been rocking cloth masks and bandanas for months. The fact that cloth masks are thicker than disposable ones brings me some comfort, although I do see how something like that might be more difficult to wear if you have difficulty breathing. If you are able to wear a cloth mask, a unique way to reduce waste in this time is to skip the disposable one and wear one that can be reused!

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It’s been a while since I’ve chatted about sustainability here on the blog. I’ve been wrestling with the best way to talk about it in a way that doesn’t promote the instagram aesthetic version so many of us have come to think of when we think of eco-living. So much of that look is only accessible through financial privilege and once I realized that, I had to reframe what a sustainable life would look like for me and my family given our resources and limits.

I hope this is a helpful starting point for you if you’re wondering where to start! Please leave a comment below with more ways you’ve been striving for better sustainability in your life during this time! I’d love to hear your experience!

Peace, Alex