Reduce. Reuse. Recycle!

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

George Bernard Shaw

Green Month is moving fast, and we’ve reached Week 3 of our top tips for going green. This week we’ve heard from Matt!

Matt recalls his younger days watching Saturday morning cartoons, and remembers a saying I think we’re all quite familiar with; “reduce, reuse, recycle.” Reducing your usage where you can, of things like water and electricity, reusing anything you own as often as possible, and if it does need to be disposed of, ensure this is being done correctly and recycled where possible.

And it isn’t just Matt who remembers this phrase. When we spoke to our Summiteers, a lot of them have replaced single use items for reusable ones that are much more environmentally friendly- and these are now some of their favourite, go-to products.

Jill loves Beauty Kitchen for her skincare, as not only do they have a “great range of products, made in the UK, and 100% natural ingredients,” but they also take part in the “‘return-refill-repeat’ scheme, meaning that you can send back the containers (or take them into Holland and Barrett) and they are washed and re-used!”

Wild Deodorant is another company that takes a usually disposed-of-without-a-second-thought product and gives us something different. Not only are they made of all-natural ingredients, but the case itself is made to be used time and time again. No more aerosols, no more dreaded plastic. (and Jill says they smell great too!)

Rebecca loves her “bamboo dish brushes, reusable makeup remover pads, and biodegradable wipes”, while Abbie says her “reusable water bottle goes everywhere with me.”

Clothing is something that we all reuse without a second thought, but do we reuse it enough?

“I’m really conscious about the clothes I buy, making sure they’re an investment purchase rather than a fast fashion item,” says Vicky. This is especially important, as currently 100 billion items of clothing are produced each year, and 3 out of 5 of those will end up in landfill within the same year, according to Clean Clothes. On top of that, once they’re in landfill, polyester clothes take over 200 years to decompose.

Beth loves Organic Basics, a sustainable clothing brand who describe themselves as making “conscious everyday essentials made from soft, natural and renewable fibres”. They are so eco-responsible that they even have a “low-impact” website that you can shop on.

Patagonia are a brand which Darren supports, who even have a section on their website where you can shop for ‘worn wear’ and buy used. Buying used not only extends a garment’s life by about two years, but this helps to cut its combined carbon, waste, and water footprint by 73%!

As Rebecca notes, it’s become a lot more ‘fashionable’ recently for brands to “be sustainable and environmentally conscious, which is a great example of customer demand influencing brands to become more ethical.” Here’s hoping a lot more follow in the footsteps of those before them, and fast fashion fades from normality.

Follow us on LinkedIn to see all our Green Month updates as they’re released, and check back in with us next week for our next top tip! If you’ve missed our Green Month activity, you can find week 1 with Beth here, and week 2 with Adam here!