Reduce Waste by Replacing these Household Items with Sustainable Alternatives

Consider substituting these household items with sustainable alternatives to reduce waste around the home and in your life!

This post contains affiliate links for which Expedition Wildlife may receive a commission (where applicable) at no additional cost to you.

What’s your routine throughout the day? Can you pinpoint the times during the day that you end up tossing something in the trash?

We’ve slowly been switching our lifestyle over to a more sustainable one that helps reduce waste overall. Ultimately, getting rid of single-use items helps to keep more trash out of landfills.

Reducing plastic and waste overall is a CHALLENGE. Almost everything is now wrapped in plastic or comes with some kind of non-recyclable or reusable item. But the more you shift your mindset, the more you’ll find ways to keep your household trash output low.

Here are some items we’ve switched in our lives to reduce waste around the home. Do you use any of these?

Grocery Bags

Reusable bags can be small enough to fit in your pants pocket or purse, so they’re super easy to integrate into your life!

The movement toward using reusable bags in grocery stores and shops has been growing for years. Shops in certain states now charge a fee for single-use bags or at least offer the option to purchase a reusable bag for a minimal cost.

Did you know some places even offer a discount to bring and use your reusable bag during your shopping trip?

I keep one of these reusable bags in my purse and car at all times. They’re so light and easy to grab out, fill, and stick back in my purse when I’m done.

Reducing plastic bag use also prevents those nasty bags from ending up in our local waterways and oceans.

Saran Wrap

Many a household has saran or plastic wrap in a kitchen drawer, ready to be used as a bowl or plate cover-up.

A wonderful alternative is these handy silicone covers! They come in all different sizes to accommodate covering a small cup all the way up to a large mixing bowl.

They are even made in rectangular and square shapes.

While I sometimes prefer having one fewer dish or container to clean, you can also get glass storage containers for leftovers or temporary food storage.

Makeup Removers

If you’ve ever struggled with getting rid of mascara around your eyes, the makeup eraser does an incredible job. I got the makeup eraser as part of my quarterly FabFitFun box, and boy do I love it!

Makeup removing wipes irritate my skin, and of course, cotton squares have to be tossed after makeup is removed. The makeup eraser works wonders on removing makeup without anything but some warm water!

It’s also machine washable, or you can wash it by hand in the sink, so it’s incredibly easy to clean.

Kitchen Towels

No, I don’t mean paper towels. If you don’t already use a cotton or reusable kitchen towel to dry your hands while working in the kitchen, try it out!

We have these towels right next to the sink, so they’re very easy to use, they’re cute, AND we aren’t throwing away a paper towel every time we dry off our hands.

We still keep paper towels for cleaning up messes and wiping down counters, but we are switching to using washcloths instead! You’ll be surprised how much room will be in your trash bags without all that extra waste!

Straws

Not only do these straws look great, they are totally reusable and come with a little straw carrier to bring from place to place. 

Whether you prefer a silicone straw or metal straws, any reusable straw that you can rinse and put in your on-the-go bag helps keep another straw out of landfills.

Kindly ask the clerk at whichever shop you’re getting a drink from to “hold the straw.”

Straws aren’t recyclable and they are most likely to end up on the side of roadways and our waterways.

If you’re having a party, consider these biodegradable straws. They aren’t great as a reusable, as they don’t last terribly long, but they work wonderfully for gatherings!

Qtips

Qtips have been around for ages, and it wasn’t until recently that this silicone reusable Qtip came into the spotlight!

While some Qtips are made up of cotton and waxed paper, others have a plastic body that takes centuries to degrade.

A quick rinse underwater with some soap and you’ve just lessened the amount of trash you’re putting outside on pickup day. Silicone is also known to have antimicrobial properties, so no worries about reusing the product.

If you really can’t part with the traditional Qtip, try these bamboo ones.

Produce Bags

Loads of tasty fruit and veggies can fit into reusable produce bags, and they’re easy to pack and clean.

If you’ve been to any grocery store, you’ll see that the produce section almost always has plastic bags to individually sort your various fruits and veggies.

These plastic bags usually don’t get reused at home. Plastic also suffocates your fruits and veggies, causing a greater chance for mold buildup. Yuck!

When you go on a grocery run, grab these cotton produce bags to bring with you! They’re lightweight, allow your fruits and veggies to breathe, are machine washable, and have the tared weight on the bag.

These bags are a must-bring during our grocery runs!

Water Bottles

One of the easiest ways to reduce waste in your everyday life is to get a reusable water bottle! Bring it in your car when you run errands, to work at your desk, to the gym while you’re working out, and even while traveling.

Plastic bottles make up some of the largest amounts of waste in the world, so eliminating the amount you use in your daily life will help reduce your footprint.

This one-liter camelback water bottle is one of our favorites for travel as it’s lightweight and easy to clean.

While at home and on errands, we love these double-walled, insulated mugs. These keep your drink cold for around 24-hours, even when it’s sitting in the warm sun throughout the day! Hydroflask also has awesome customer service.

Sparkling Water or Soda Bottles 

Along the same lines as above, plastic bottles from sodas and other carbonated beverages are a huge contributor to overall waste in the world.

Consider investing in a soda stream if you like soda water, or even flavored sparkling water and a variety of sodas. The full kit includes everything you need to get sparkling beverages in a minute at home.

You will have to swap out the used CO2 canister once you run out. This can be done through Amazon, or at retailers such as Target and Home Depot. Each canister gets you 130 liters of bubbly goodness!

K cups

There’s nothing quite like a great, freshy ground and pressed cup of coffee in the morning.

I LOVE coffee, and so do millions of people around the world. How are you consuming your daily brew?

My personal preference is using a French press, and grinding my coffee the morning-of to get a really fresh cup.

If that’s a little too extra for you and you already have a Keurig or other K-cup machine, consider switching over to a reusable K-cup. You can still purchase all the tasty coffee you want to drink and you won’t be adding more of those little plastic pods into your local landfill.

Read more about sustainable coffee here!

Battery-operated Items

With solar panels on vehicles and houses, so many household items are switching to more sustainable forms of energy.

Before buying outdoor items that require disposable batteries, consider getting something solar powered!

Pathway lights, twinkle lights, even fountains come with solar capability. And they’re so much fun to relax around on a summer night.

Reduce Waste with Used Products

Also for your consideration, instead of buying new, look into Amazon Warehouse, Goodwill, and other used items stores or shops.

You would be surprised what people end up sending back or giving away, especially new or like-new items! When you get these at more than half the cost, you’re getting a real deal.

Do you use any of these sustainable products in your everyday routine? Would you consider switching to any of these items? Let us know in the comments!

Happy Reducing,

Christa and Nathan