By Tiffany Kelly, Beyond Bamboo
At home you likely do your bit for the environment by turning off the tap when brushing your teeth and/or having a shower rather than a bath. You may even have purchased a dual flush toilet, which will use about half the amount of a traditional toilet (around 30% of the total amount of water used in a household comes from flushing the loo). But apart from installing the same porcelain kit at work, is there much of a contribution that businesses can make to reducing our environmental impact through the medium of the bathroom?
Actually, yes.
With some simple swaps, and a slight change of mindset when making purchases, you can create a healthy and sustainable environment in your workplace rest rooms, while also rejuvenating and protecting the planet.
- Refillables
For more sustainable options in your rest rooms, opt for refillables that can be refilled at a local conscious living shop. Choose compostable packaging, and glass or metal containers that last. This prolongs the use of existing materials and minimises the new materials needed while also lowering transport costs and C02 emissions. Refillable bottles are usually made of glass or metal and can look really stylish in your bathroom.
- Go Plastic Free
Less than a third of all plastic in the UK is recycled and every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. So, every time you buy toilet cleaner or hand soap, make sure it doesn’t come in single-use plastic.
- Choose Sustainable Materials
Bamboo is a great sustainable choice: it grows fast, is completely renewable, and can be made into a myriad of items, such as wash cloths, toilet roll and soap dishes. These bamboo products are also compostable once you’ve finished with them, so they are all zero-waste.
- Natural Products
Products derived from natural substances generally contain far fewer toxins. This is good news for the environment, (fewer toxins being washed down drains, into water supplies and harming wildlife) and for our health.
- Choose Cruelty Free Products
Each year, more than 100 million animals—including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds—are killed in U.S. laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing. Cruelty-free is a label for a product that does not harm or kill animals anywhere along its supply chain. Products tested on animals are not considered cruelty-free, since these tests are often painful and cause the suffering and death of the animal. Look for Vegan Society or Leaping Bunny Certified products to be sure that the products have not been tested on animals.
- Toilet Paper
This is one of those items that most of us feel we cannot live without. However, you can now choose from many eco-friendly brands that have developed rolls made from sustainable materials (such as bamboo). They have also thought carefully about their packaging, ensuring that it is either 100% biodegradable or fully recyclable. And many support community projects too.
- Cleaning
When it comes to cleaning it really does pay to shop around and look for ethical, non-toxic brands with formulated solutions that are not harmful to our waterways and the wildlife that live in them. And buy them in concentrated form and in refillable bottles. It’s also important to consider the health benefits to you and your colleagues of switching to non-toxic cleaners. Many of the chemical cleaning agents are known to have health implications.
- Redecorating
If a rest room needs to be redecorated, think about the paint you choose. There are eco-conscious paint brands on the market now that offer smart solutions, such as no single-use paint tester pots, plastic-free, and paints containing very low levels of toxins. You can even get paint brushes and painting supplies that are made from sustainably-harvested bamboo, recycled brush filaments and recyclable steel.
- Plants
Many plants love the humid, moist environment that a bathroom can provide and are often great for air purification. Houseplants can literally filter out harmful toxins from things like paint and cleaners and help to clean the air that we then breathe in.
- Business bonus
When we start to make more conscious choices about the way we live and the products we purchase, we often notice that we start to buy from smaller, independent brands. These are often the ones leading the way with natural, low waste, sustainable alternatives. These smaller businesses are set up by passionate people who have spotted the need for change. They have developed products and services that offer us greener, healthier alternatives. Eco-friendly or sustainable products often seem to have a higher price tag, but in our experience these items generally have a longer life, so you end up making savings when compared to sticking with the traditional plastic bottle and chemical filled brands that we’re used to seeing on supermarket shelves. In addition, many of these small independent brands are also supporting charities and their communities, which contributes towards a more circular, no waste approach to the economy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tiffany Kelly is founder of Beyond Bamboo, a global community of sustainable products, services and suppliers working as a collective to restore and rejuvenate the planet. With a marketplace, a B2B supplier portal, a knowledge hub and a team of passionate people dedicated to triple bottom line reporting, Beyond Bamboo aims to help us all do well by doing good.