Green on a Budget Living a planet-friendly life, with Claire O’mahony

Living a planet-friendly life is not about buying expensive ‘green lifestyle’ products. Claire O’mahony finds a different way to a sustainable future

There’s a perception that sustainable living is expensive. Ethical shopping choices o en cost more than their conventional alternatives and the eco-friendly lifestyle, as seen on social media, with its fabulous zero-waste home décor, luxury vegan fashion and climate-neutral cosmetics, comes with a he y price tag. As attractive as these aspirational images are, they create a false narrative that you have to acquire the products displayed to live sustainably. e true ethos of sustainability is about consuming less and its practitioners say that sustainability is entirely possible when you’re on a budget and can even be cheaper. “Because we live in such a consumer society and we’re bombarded with advertising, everything is presented like a solution you can buy and it’s the same with sustainable living. As people started to get interested, companies started to look at how they can capitalise on this and therefore put out beautiful products which may support a sustainable lifestyle but they’re de nitely not necessary,” says Elaine Butler (le ), who runs the website Living Lightly in Ireland (livinglightlyinireland.com), a sustainable living guide. “I’m not surprised if somebody thinks it can be more expensive and if you were to go by a lot of the social feeds or advertising, you could spend a lot of money but you can also live very sustainably and save a lot of money.”

Green products o en come at a premium due to the associated costs of labour, materials and certi cation. Mass industrial production creates economies of scale that means lower price that don’t re ect the environmental cost of production. It also means less demand for sustainable products, pushing up the price. However, there are signs that this is changing with a growing presence of eco-friendly products on supermarket shelves as shoppers look for eco-friendly options. Sustainability’s cost is o en that of time, for example seeking out stores that o er re ll options, but it doesn’t have to mean spending more cash. Here are ve ways you can live sustainably without breaking the bank.

Re-use and re-purpose

Recycling is hugely important but when it comes to being as green as possible, re-using and re-purposing items is better for the environment because products and materials are kept in use longer. “If you have something that is going to do the job already, that is the most sustainable option. Wear the clothes that you have, use the bag that you have, use the jar that you have and re ll it, instead of getting something new. Re-use is always the top of the hierarchy,” says Elaine, who estimates that living sustainably saves her household €2,500 annually. “Re-purpose something that you own. It might not have been intended for that function initially, but it exists, it’s in the world and by using something that already exists, you’re not putting any more carbon into the atmosphere by buying something new. So for instance, the bucket in my garden used to contain pie lling from a local supermarket. It’s a perfectly good bucket and I didn’t have to buy a new one and they didn’t have to dispose of this container.”

Change your mindset

At any given time, there’s always something on the wish list that’s going to require a signi cant nancial outlay, especially if it’s for the home. Taking a di erent approach and changing our idea of ownership demonstrates how the more sustainable route can also be the cheapest. “We need to pivot in what we consume but also how we consume,” says Mindy O’brien, the co-ordinator of independent environmental organisation, Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment (voiceireland.org). “Do we need to own something or can we share it? Can we borrow it? Drills are used in most households maybe an hour in their lifetime; you use them very quickly and you don’t use them that o en. Can we borrow them from a neighbour?” Sustainability also means developing new habits and again, this will lighten the load on your wallet. From next year, Ireland’s Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy will introduce a ‘latte levy’ to eliminate disposable cups, so if you want your takeaway co ee and you haven’t remembered to bring a reusable, you’re going to pay a fee. In any case, even if your at white-togo is in a compostable cup, this is still a single-use item which takes energy and resources to make, transport and dispose of. “Leave your house, grab your keys, grab your re-usable co ee cup and grab your water bottle and your shopping bag so if you need to do shopping, you have your bag with you; if you want a cup of co ee, you have your cup with you,” advises Mindy. “It’s just changing your behaviour. It doesn’t cost you anything more, it doesn’t take a lot of time, it’s just remembering. And once you do it over and over again, it’s a habit.”

Shop second hand

It might seem like an obvious one but opting for pre-loved items is a money saver every time. And a er a year of lockdowns, with so many people embarking on decluttering projects, now is an ideal time to visit charity shops and comb the internet for deals. “My daughter wanted a treadmill for Christmas and I went on Adverts.ie, got a used one for half the price of what a new one would have been and it works just ne,” says Mindy, who points to sites such as Debop and Gumtree as places to nd good value used items. “Buying second-hand sometimes takes a bit more time but you are extending the life of the product.”

Fix what you can

In an ideal world, repairing is preferable to replacing. However, this is not always possible and planned obsolescence means that many products are not built to last. e Right to Repair movement, launched in 2019, is gaining traction and the campaign looks for legislation to be created that will stop manufacturers making products that are hard to x and encourage access to spare parts and repair manuals for the lifetime of a product. In March, new EU

Ecodesign measures came into place, where washing machines, dishwashers, fridges and displays including

TVS, will now have to be more easily repairable and longer-lasting. Mindy highlights online directory Repair my stu

(repairmystu .ie) which lists local repair shops close to you as a useful resource. “Even if you re-heel a shoe, it’s cheaper than buying a new shoe if you invest in a good pair that can be repaired,” she says. Which leads to the question, is it always worth getting something repaired? “Repair is not easy to do in Ireland and it’s easier for certain things than others,” says Elaine Butler, who buys almost exclusively second hand. When she rst started buying clothes in charity shops, she’d pick up something because it was 50c but grew tired of having to repair them, and garments that washed badly, so she has learned to seek out good quality second-hand nds that might cost an extra euro or two instead. “You have to make a call on it. I have changed what I buy now. You can tell if you look at an item in a charity shop if it’s good quality,” she says.

MIY (Make it Yourself)

With the internet at your disposal and a few key ingredients, a new world of inexpensive, eco-friendly products you can whip up at home opens up. Some of the easiest DIY beauty products include cleansers, scrubs, refreshing facial mists and hair masks. e same applies to home cleaning products and Elaine, from Living Lightly in Ireland, notes that her biggest money saving switch was to stop buying standard cleaning products and to make her own instead. “We use bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, lemon juice,” she says. “We will have a few proprietary cleaning products like washing up liquid and we use dishwasher tablets and laundry powder because we tried the DIY versions and didn’t nd them as good but we do buy products that are less damaging to the environment. Most of what we use is bicarbonate of soda or vinegar on a damp rag and they’re as cheap as chips.”