How to produce less waste? 6 foolproof eco-tips

Does your trash-can overflow with garbage and do you have to empty it too often? Learning how to manage the amount of waste means we generate less of it. Reducing waste and using sustainable products has never been easier. Here are our proven tips that will save not only the planet but also your wallet.

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#1 Using an eco-bag

Sorting waste is great, but even better is not to create it at all. The easiest way to produce less waste is to shop with eco-friendly bags that are sustainable – canvas and easy to fold bags that will easily fit into your purse and you can use them when needed. The good old net bags have become a fashionable trend in recent years. For example, you can buy beautiful colored net shopping bags in our BioOrganic store. We need to think about the lifespan of a plastic or paper shopping bag – usually, it lasts just the journey from the store to your home.

#2 Less packaging

Have you noticed that some foods are packaged in more than one layer of plastic? If this makes your head hurt, eco bags are the solution to this problem. They are ecological and more sustainable replacement for classic plastic bags. You can repeatedly use them for carrying fruits, vegetables, pastries, or anything else. The classical canvas shopping bags can be found, for example, in the Orion housewares. In stores, you can even find special bags for pastries or frozen products. Waste reduction has never been so easy.

#3 Coffee or water in your own cup

A lifespan of a disposable coffee cup or plastic bottle is about the same as the one of a plastic bag – literally just a few minutes. But in nature, it decomposes for tens or hundreds of years. A harmless takeaway coffee cup is a really big problem for our planet. Due to the mixture of materials, it cannot be recycled – it is made of paper on the outside and a thin coat of plastic on the inside. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a take-away coffee on the way to your work. However, if this is your daily routine, try to count how many disposable cups you throw away. It's the same with plastic bottles which we buy every day. It takes very little to change this habit. You can replace the disposable cup with a sustainable version (you can get one in our stores Orion or Albi). For which you can even get a discount when you buy takeaway coffee in a café. If you also buy your own eco-bottle (glass or stainless steel, for example), you can save a lot of money every year that would be otherwise spent on overpriced bottled water.

#4 Your own food containers

The school has begun and packing snacks for school children is a hot topic. Plastic bags, but also napkins can be easily replaced by a more sustainable version. However, the best thing to do is pack food for the children in reusable containers. And if you want your kids to look forward to their snack time, you can find some creative and playful in our Orion store – in the shape of animals or their favorite fairy tale characters and superheroes.

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#5 A second chance

Reducing your waste also means reducing the purchase of new things. It is best to avoid a hasty or impulsive shopping when we buy things that we don't even need. If you step into any store with the certainty that you really need the thing, feel free to buy it. But it is just as great to give things a second chance. Don't throw them away, rather turn them into something that will still be useful in your home. You will find a huge number of ideas on the Internet, for example – a T-shirt can be turned into a pillowcase, a paper bag into a decorative cover for a pot, a glass cup can serve as a vase, an old sock can be turned into a toy for a dog with the help of your children.

#6 Goodbye unnecessary gifts

To have absolutely no idea what to buy for someone’s birthday – it surely has happened to you too. You end up with a random gift so that you wouldn't come empty-handed. It is often a gift that the person will not find usefull, especially if we do not know the recipient very well and do not know their hobbies or needs. This also a way of producing an unnecessary waste. We have an easy solution for you – a VIVO! Bratislava gift card. The card is a bit more elegant solution than money in an envelope and it is guaranteed that the person will buy something they will actually like and use.

Which of the tips do you already practice? Which n would you pick as your starting point? Hopefully our tips have inspired you to behave more environmentally friendly, because these are the small things that can make a huge difference in the long run.