Do you want to become more environmentally friendly, but don’t know where to start? We’ve come up with our top 5 products to help you cut down on those nasty single-use plastics. All of the following items can be purchased online at Biome or in one of their Brisbane stores. Biome has become one of our all-time favourite Brisbane-based stores. They provide toxin-free, ethical products, and are committed to educating the community about sustainable practices.
1. Keep Cup
Investing in a keep cup is a no brainer. After only 15 uses you’ll be saving more trees, water, and energy than you would have if you’d chosen to use takeaway disposable cups. Not only are they super cute and quirky, but a lot of cafes also offer a small discount on your coffee if you bring in a reusable cup. Sound pretty great? We’re not done. Keep cups keep your coffee hotter for longer and their cork bands insulate your hand from the heat!
Biome offers a wide range of keep cups, in all different colours, shapes, and sizes!
2. Reusable Straw
If you’ve kicked the habit of drinking with a straw completely, cheers to you! But, if you just can’t bear the thought of sipping your G&T without one, then a reusable straw is for you my friend. Australians use 10 million straw each day. Most of these are only used once and thrown away. So, you can see why they represent 7.5% of all plastic litter. Paper straws are better for the environment, but they are still disposable and still contribute to waste.
Stainless steel, copper, and bamboo straws can be purchased at Biome, and they’re honestly so much nicer to drink with. If you’re a regular straw user, it’s a great idea to keep one of these babies with you. We know, it sounds like a lot of effort, but it’s the kind of effort that will go to repairing our damaged ecosystems.
3. Reusable food wrap
Cling film is just another single-use plastic that we can eliminate from our kitchens. Soft plastics can’t be put with your everyday recycling. Cling film often ends up in landfill, where it takes hundreds of years to degrade and leaches chemicals into our groundwater. beeswax wraps have been generating a lot of buzz lately (see what I did there?), and for good reason, they’re plastic-free and fully compostable.
You can purchase these groovy, printed beeswax wraps at Biome. And for all the vegans out there, never fear, they also sell vegan reusable wraps, so no excuses!
4. Bamboo Toothbrush
Over 99% of the world’s toothbrushes are made of hard plastic. These plastics cannot be recycled and end up either in landfills or the ocean, and they never break down, which just isn’t very cool. Bamboo toothbrushes offer a solution to this. When your bamboo toothbrush has had its day in the sun, the bristles can be cut off and thrown in the garbage, and the bamboo handle can be buried in your backyard or composted.
They’re roughly the same price as a Colgate toothbrush but aren’t made with any of those nasty, toxic plastics. Biome sell soft and medium bristle toothbrushes, in adult and kids sizes!
5. Reusable Razor
We don’t know about you, but we find those flimsy, plastic razors that you can buy at Coles for next to nothing, a complete waste of time. Speaking of waste, they also happen to be a massive contributor to plastic pollution. They should only be used 6-9 times, so when you think about it, spending more on a sleek metal razor will save you $$$ in the long run. Reusable razors give you a closer shave so once you get a feel you won’t be able to stop rubbing your legs together beneath the sheets!
Men’s, women’s, and unisex safety razors can be purchased at Biome. They also sell blades for when you need a replacement and be sure to check out their natural shaving soaps while you’re at it.
Bandwagons aren’t normally our thing, but we’re digging the plastic-free one so much, we’ve jumped on it. It’s pretty sweet up here without all that pollution, you should hop on board!
