Inspired to take your family on a journey to a less wasteful life but not sure where to start? Fiona Walker shares her favourite zero waste swaps for parents and babies to help you reduce your plastic waste at home.
Taking your family zero waste might sound daunting, but with the following simple swaps for your kitchen, bathroom, baby changing bag and lunchboxes, it’s much easier than you might think. The main website that I buy my eco swaps from is Lincolnshire-based Peace with the Wild, but there are an increasing number of zero waste stores popping up.
Organic Rainbow Washable Baby Wipes, Cheeky Wipes
These organic cotton ‘zero twist’ wipes are soft yet heavyweight, making them ideal for both bums and hands & faces. After use, machine wash with your normal wash, and then simply re-soak with water and fresh baby wipes essential oil soaking solution in your fresh baby wipes container. I also make my own nappy wipe solution to spray on Wilf’s bum from aloe vera, tea tree, lavender and almond oil.
6 unpaper towels, Marley’s Monsters
Marley’s Monsters 100% cotton unpaper towels are reusable and washable, and are a great replacement for disposable paper towels and paper napkins to reduce kitchen waste.
Organic Muslin Squares, Molly & Moo
I use muslin square cloths, like these organic muslin squares from Molly & Moo, as wet wipes for food and at meal times (they are nice and soft, good absorption and wash/dry easily).
Reusable water bottles, Kleen Kanteen
To avoid single use plastic bottles, our whole family has stainless steel water bottles from Kleen Kanteen for drinking on the go, including the boys. They do bottles for kids, including sippy bottles and toxin-free baby bottles, as well as adults.
Beeswax Wraps
For lunchboxes, replace single-use cling film with these plastic free, 100% cotton beeswax wraps from Beeswax Wraps Co.
Nappy Wet Bags, Marley’s Monsters
Marley’s Monsters large wet bags have a leak-proof liner and are perfect for used cloth nappies and wipes while on-the-go, or even for dirty clothes and wet swimwear.
Zero Waste Utensil Wrap, Marley’s Monsters
This Marley’s Monsters utensil wrap gives you everything you need to say no to single use plastic on the go, with reusable bamboo cutlery, bamboo straws and a reusable unpaper towel.
Reusable Nappies, Totsbots
These award-winning Oekotex certified reusable nappies from Totbots are made with love in Scotland and boast an absorbant and gentle bamboo core and clever stich free seams that mean no leaks.
Read more about Fiona’s zero waste journey in Politics of an Eco Nappy.
For more zero-waste inspiration, see Melissa Hemsley’s 10 simple single-use plastic swaps and our plastic-free beauty swaps.