By Erin’O Connor

Go into your kitchen, and open up your bin, what do you see? My guess is, you see trash. Rubbish. Waste. Whatever your word of choice is.  I mean, when I open my bin, that’s what I see too. That’s why we invented bins, right? To throw away anything and everything that is no longer useful to us, that no longer benefits us in any way. Up until recently, I barely gave what I put in my bin too much thought.

Yes, I made sure that I was separating out my recycling from regular waste, and yes I tried to avoid letting food go off to the point I had to put it in the bin. But if I’m completely honest with you, being waste-free wasn’t high on my priorities list.

Then COVID-19 lockdown came into full force, and like most people, I have begun to really reflect on how I live my life and how much of an impact, both positively and negatively, I am having on the world around me. This has consequently led me down. The reality is that we’re probably throwing away produce and ingredients that could be recycled, or up-cycled as it’s coined these days. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, upcycling is where you transform discarded objects, materials or ingredients to create a new product that is of higher quality or value. 

In theory, you can make so much from the things you typically throw in the bin. Creams, lotions, potions galore. Old glass bottles into vases, jars into tupperware. Heck, I’ve even turned an empty candle into a toothbrush holder for my bathroom. Suddenly going from trash king to waste-free isn’t going to happen overnight, particularly because that would involve throwing away any plastic products which is in itself, wasteful. 

I came back to it a few days later, looking forward to another exfoliation, only to find that my concoction had started growing life. Yep, it was mouldy. 

My current interest lies in what beauty and skincare products you can create from things you already have in your own home, so I’ve decided to make my bathroom the first place to go waste-free (as much as I possibly can, and afford). I really like the idea of using up any leftover spices, coffee grounds or oils to create homemade beauty products, but how easy is it really to do on your own? In an attempt to reduce my personal consumption and home waste, I tried making my own homemade coffee scrub, from the used coffee grinds I had in my cafetiére that morning. 

There’s me thinking it was as simple as adding coconut oil to coffee grinds, mixing it up in a jar and bob’s your uncle. In all fairness, that first scrub was really lovely and it felt good to be using something that I had made, rather than something I spent money on. However, I came back to it a few days later, looking forward to another exfoliation, only to find that my concoction had started growing life. Yep, it was mouldy. 

Not really sure where I went wrong in the process (considering it was literally just two ingredients), but I’m thinking perhaps you need to make your coffee scrub fresh each time? Or maybe keeping it in my bathroom where the temperature is constantly changing wasn’t the best idea? Either way, it felt like a bit of a waste having to throw the majority of it away. Ironic.  It’s all well and good making funky beauty and skincare products out of things that would have otherwise gone to waste (literally), but part of me questions how practical it is, if you can’t store them for that long. Not everyone has the space nor time to create their own skincare products every single day. 

That’s where brands like UpCircle really do a good service, as they kind of do the work for you. Instead of using up spare spices and coffee grounds from home though, they have made it their mission to collect these by-products from coffee shops across London. From these they have created a whole range of skincare products, from cleansers to balms to masks, and the packaging is almost 100% plastic free. 

I am such a big believer in creating long-lasting sustainable change in your life through incremental steps, and I think the same goes for creating a more environmentally friendly home lifestyle. It would be nice to think that I could click my fingers and have a completely waste-free home, equipped with all the necessary bits and bobs to help maintain it and be able to pootle down the road and get all of my weekly food from a farmer’s market with no plastic wrapping or packaging involved, but this isn’t practical for where I live, and not so friendly for my bank account. 

But I refuse to be disheartened by the cause, as there is always something you can do to make a positive change, even if it is really small. Rather than tackling everything head-on, pick one or two things you can switch up today. Make sure these things (e.g. switching up your toothbrush for a bamboo one or swapping out shower gel for bars of soap) are do-able for you and won’t impinge too much on your finances. Continue to implement these two things in your life for a month and see whether they’re as much of a struggle as you think it is. Chances are, they’re not. Then once you’ve managed to build those two new healthy habits into your life to a point where you don’t even think about them, pick another two small changes to bring in. 

Write them all down too, and notice your progress over time.  What will your first eco-friendly swap be? 

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