Photo: Bernard Hermant / unsplash.com

Shopping sustainably is often synonymous with taking your own jars to refill shops and eating vegan, both perfectly reasonable things. This is not however where it stops. Shopping sustainably is a lot more accessible that it would seem.

I try my best to consider the planet when I am shopping, I have a reusable bag for my potatoes that I take with me to stop me using and then throwing the paper ones they provide. I love it and in the hopes that I remember to bring it with me always makes me feel like I am doing my bit.

I am also lucky enough to live down the road from one of London’s most famous refill shops. Kilo, started by Jordan Perata, is a business run on a ‘zero waste’ philosophy. The inside of the shop consists of industrial containers in which you pick from what you need and put in containers you bring from home. The first time I went, it took a bit of getting used to.

Everything is done via app, although there is a staff member in the store in case you get stuck. It is still intimidating however, I went in once to get some sugar and in getting it from the shop container to my own spilt quite a bit on the floor, leaving me with an overwhelming feeling of guilt for whoever would have to be the one to clean it up.

It is nice being able to get home, though, and not unpack my shopping in the traditional sense. My sugar is already in its container, and rather than trying to use one of those bags of handwash to refill my own, it’s ready to go straight out of the bag, like I’ve bought a brand new one.

There are so many ways to shop sustainably that you should not feel limited by the fact that you don’t live anywhere near a refill shop or you don’t have a reusable veg bag.

For example, buying local, from British Farmers, or ensuring that what you’re buying is sourced from Fairtrade farms. Picking the milk on the shelf that gives money back to British farmers or checking the location of your strawberries to see if they were grown in the UK is a major step.

The less the food travels to get to the supermarket, the better for the environment, i.e. less airmiles. Giving back to British Farmers, meaning that they can continue producing products, is also part of that. Although this gets a little more complicated with British weather, in the winter, if your blueberries come from Spain, you shouldn’t feel bad. It’s about doing what you can, when you can.

Sustainable shopping doesn’t begin and end with food either, it is possible to shop for your clothes sustainably too. Organic cotton, denim made with less water, and that’s if you’re buying new. Charity shops and thrifting are a great way of shopping sustainably, to both save clothes from landfill and donating to charities while getting something back. I enjoy a good charity shop scour too, I once found a Dorothy Perkins coat for £20, now I can finally live out my dreams of joining the long cooperate coat club.

I think what I am trying to say is, there is no right way to shop sustainably, it is up to you how far you take it, and you can make it your own. In 2024, with the state of the climate, it is important to try however, we all need to be doing our bit.