Living a Sustainable Lifestyle- RefurbishedProducts

Living a sustainable lifestyle is not that difficult because wherever you live, you can make adjustments. If you have read my posts on my natural health site, you will have learned that I love everything natural; nature, moving, food.

There is so much we can do without leaving much waste behind. I buy my vegetables and fruits in an organic shop or market, and I try to purchase only organic meat, knowing where it comes from and how these animals have died. For me, it is essential to know.

But I have to admit that I have also not given a thought to the idea of living healthy and sustainable for years, and still, I love my car driving around, feeling free and independent. I am a free spirit and love traveling and living in other countries; thus, I have often used airplanes and cars. My dream is to be financially free and live in other countries, but I wouldn’t travel for two weeks but like to stay for six months, or even longer. Being on holiday, we love to do sightseeing walking, so this is already something positive.

We all have to reduce our luxury and live a simpler life; by living simply, we can stop the pollution. The industry depends on our choices and will surely adapt to them if we decide to rethink our options, be a consumer, or enjoy our lives. By this I mean really to enjoy, most people overconsume due to an empty life.

One century ago, people still lived a quieter life at a slow pace, but now it is like people are in a centrifuge; faster,  higher, more. There are no brakes!

It is my impression of life nowadays observing the people in my surrounding. Have you ever consciously reviewed what you possess? Do we need this all? Is quality not more important than quantity?

Living a sustainable lifestyle!

I believe we don’t need to be hippies living a sustainable lifestyle. We need a vision, and everything we add to help our planet is essential. It is impossible to live in caves anymore, and I am sure we can combine modern life with a sustainable lifestyle.

For example, by helping the bees and insects, we can have more native plants and trees, which allows our bees to survive.

If you want to help the insects, you could leave your garden somewhat wild, with tree trunks and branches where they can hide, as well as in autumn, leaving plants and trees uncut.

There are many possibilities to help animals and insects to increase their population; lastly, they are food for the birds and small mammals.

Fixing insects’ hotels on the housewalls will help them to survive the winter. In my blog about my garden, I have written about the possibilities of creating a fairy garden for the animals, insects, but also you.

There is so much reading material throughout the internet; you will undoubtedly find something to join people from all over the world, helping Mother Earth to recover.

If you would love to do something for your family or yourself, you might look into buying organic vegetables and fruits. There are organic farms and markets in my neighborhood where I can buy everything I need, and it is even cheaper than believing in a supermarket. You will significantly improve your health and your environment and use the waste for your compost.

I love sustainable communities which live a green life, using no pesticides and herbicides, treating their animals well. We need more such communities and people burning for the planet; the only way to adapt to sustainable production is to force the industry. Education is essential, in school, but also via TV, the Internet, and radio.

Newly-Made Products vs. Refurbished Products

Many new products come with many waste and toxins while produced, often leaving a devastating environment behind. Nearly all cheap produced items made in China and other countries intoxicate rivers, forests, oceans, and the people working for our comfort. There is so much rubbish on this planet we can’t handle anymore.

Plastics cover the shores of beautiful beaches or are found in the stomachs of fish or mammals. Microparticles are found in our bodily cells, even in fetuses. There are rivers colored and dead in China and India due to the fashion and furniture industry producing cheap clothes.

Little children are sent into narrow holes of cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine the cobalt for the batteries of our smartphones, laptops, and other electrical devices. This is child labor!

Women are exploited in Asian countries, being victims of our greediness in the fashion industry. There is so much going on; we can’t keep looking away because we still want to consume. The industry is earning a lot of money because we are feeding our greediness. If we could be content with less, industry would be forced to stop over-producing and shift from quantity to sustainable quality.

It is our all fault! 

Why not use the waste already present on Earth, recycling, refurbishing, and renewing? I try to reuse secondhand articles, like a refurbished washing machine, or smartphones, laptops. It works fantastic, and I know they are made from used parts of other devices.

It is not important to buy the newest Apple smartphone; I am content with a secondhand product. I do the same for clothes, and they are always still nearly new or not used. But still, we need to stop the over-production of products.

Fortunately, many beautiful people are producing sustainable vegan clothing and accessories, which are beautifully made. More companies join the sustainable movement and sell organic, sustainable clothes, which I welcome very much.

We have too many items in our wardrobes and houses, so why not stop and stand still, rethinking the value of such things? I think it is an urgent call to enjoy what we already have instead of running around, consuming more than we need, creating more waste. Many companies are producing sustainably due to people’s demands for sustainable products, a trend that is great and necessary.

There is no need for medical materials and medications;  eating healthily and using natural antibiotics is often enough, resulting in fewer antibiotical resistance. We could spare these essential medications for real infections instead of feeding them to sick animals and fish due to the wrong food they receive. All these medications, including the mass production of hormones, are polluting our water supply.

It is time to stand still and rethink, take responsibility for ourselves and our environment, and stop being dependent on doctors and pharmacies for our well-being, who are mainly interested in earning big money, not in our lives.

Nature has so many beneficial plants to heal our bodies. We need to reflect on our roots and natural sources, knowing where we are coming from. If more people would buy refurbished, recycled products, our world might recover.

How to Avoid Plastic Packages?

It is a tricky one; it seems nearly impossible to avoid all the packages. If you go shopping in the supermarket, more than half of your products are wrapped in plastic, especially organic vegetables. Horrible!

I try to purchase a glass or organically made plastic products, which are not burdening the environment or buy vegetables and fruits without using a bag on the organic market, whereas bread is wrapped in paper.

Organic cosmetics are available in sustainable containers made from recycled materials. Containing plastic particles in our bodies and brains signifies that we urgently need to stop plastics, especially regarding our children and grandchildren’s future.

In Germany, people doing the grocery are allowed to leave plastic wraps and bags in the supermarket. It is a great idea to force the supermarkets to rethink their strategy, using fewer plastics for their products.

If more people leave the plastics in the shops, they are forced to pay the price for the daily flood of plastics, not the client. Let us be fully aware of our shopping pollution, avoiding every plastic bag and wraps. There are other ways of shopping, like in former times, maybe using glass or sustainable containers for our groceries.

It is a change we all need to get used to, and we will. Maybe you have some tips and ideas on how we can avoid using plastics. Let us know! 🙂 Together, we will have an impact, possibly leading to a cleaner environment.

Refurbished Electrical Devices- Do You Know?

I already have purchased the second refurbished iPhone, a washing machine, a sewing machine, and television, and I am more than happy because they all work fine. Of course, I could have bought a new product, but why should I do that, knowing that refurbished second-hand devices are perfect ones. They are all quality products for little money. Our furniture is antique; we favor antiques over two centuries old, which were still made from high-quality materials, mainly wood.

I will recommend to everyone buying refurbished devices, in this manner, we can contribute to less waste production. There are companies here in the Netherlands where you can buy nearly all electrical devices refurbished.

I have no idea how the situation is in other countries, but companies will adapt to recycling and refurbishing articles, even sofas and chairs, if there is enough demand. You can purchase everything recycled and renewed.

There is such a flood of products in second-hand shops; people throw very much away that is not even used. Why should we pay a lot of money if these products are still new and don’t cost much?

The demand creates the market! 

Final Thought

We all can do so much for the planet by being content with our possessions and trying not to be greedy, enjoying instead of consuming. If we refocus on enjoying our lives, we will discover that there is not much necessary to be happy, especially not consuming materials.  A good point is buying quality that sustains for years instead of quantity wasted within some months.

In this manner, we can control the production and waste of products globally, including the avoidance of plastics in supermarkets or other shops. By leaving plastic bags and wraps in the supermarket, we force them and the industry to rethink their environmental pollution and waste. In the end, it is the consuming client who makes the choices and leads the industry in the right way. Sustainability is the new trend, urgently needed, to save the planet, and finally us.

Please let me know how you cope with all the plastic and waste? Do you buy many products only to collect them in your house, or are you thinking about sustainability and buying organic or refurbished renewed products? Let us know by commenting in the comment section below!

All The Best,

Sylvie