EN | £ Earth Day during Lockdown
You can still take action from the comfort of your home
This year marks 50 years of celebrating Earth Day, a day to raise awareness and encourage us all to make choices that will have a positive impact on our planet. It’s a little different this year as there will be no mass gatherings or environmental rallies to highlight the need to take action and make changes for the good of mother earth. Whether we celebrate and share ideas in person or online it doesn't matter, it's all good, what is important is that we are sharing ideas and encouraging others to make changes, no matter how simple or small: these changes combined do make a big difference. And it is working as attitudes are definitely changing.
It’s not about doing everything perfectly or running off to go live in a yurt either, and with many of us on furlough or working reduced hours, lockdown is proving to be the perfect time to start trying new things on the road to becoming an even more conscientious consumer. So, with that in mind, we’ve come up with a few environmentally friendly non nappy related things to keep you occupied while you’re at home, things that your little ones will enjoy getting involved in too. You’ll be teaching them the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling whilst doing your bit for a more sustainable future.
Planting your own veg
This is a great all rounder while things are the way they are and getting to the shops is that bit more hassle. Growing your own veg is a great activity for the kids to get involved in. They’ll love spending time with you planting something of their own and will no doubt feel proud watching their seedlings grow, and even prouder when you serve up their homegrown peas and carrots at dinner time.
It’s easy to do even if your fingers are not the greenest. Reuse old toilet roll holders, milk bottles or fruit packaging for potting seeds, and old cereal packets to give them a bit of a greenhouse effect. There are plenty of gardening tips you can teach those little sponge-like brains to build resilience and awareness of reusing things to combat waste reduction. Aoife from Zero Waste in the Vale has some fab little Instagram videos showing you how to get started. Go have a peek!
Planting wildflowers in the garden
If you don’t trust yourself with growing something you actually have to eat, then why not grow something to feed the bees instead? Bees are essential to our environment and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. We rely on them and other insects to pollinate most of our fruit and vegetables so without them life would be a little less lively (remember Bee Movie?!). They’re now under threat and a little wildflower section in your garden can make all the difference. They will brighten up the space and work wonders for maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
Meal Planning
As mentioned earlier, getting in your weekly shop during lockdown is a bit trickier than usual. It takes more time, is more stressful and is something you’d probably rather do less often than normal. Because you’re likely to be buying a weeks’ worth of shopping or two at a time, it’s best to plan out your meals and consider batch cooking as well as being inventive with leftovers to reduce the amount that you throw away. If it’s one thing that being stuck at home can encourage you to do, it’s be more conscious of the amount of food waste you produce. Shopping online at local suppliers for meat, fruit and veg can help and will support smaller businesses as well as ensuring you only buy what you need to keep your littlies fed and watered without the waste. Any food waste that you do have can be composted or popped into your garden recycling bin (if you have one).
Less reliance on disposable products
The last tip that we have, is to consider how much you rely on disposable products. Do you throw away a gazillion baby wipes each week? Could you swap out cotton wool pads for a reusable face cloth? Aside from the fact that single use products are not good for the environment, the pandemic may be around for a while longer and guaranteed access to throwaway products is unknown. Instead of stock-piling disposable products, look into reusable nappies and wipes. They are better for the environment, you’ll never be caught short as they never run out, plus they’ll save you a few pennies too.
If you'd like any advice or information on reusables give us a shout, our live chat function is still open as normal. Just visit www.totsbots.com and Hannah our customer service whizz will pop up and say “Hi!”