Climate change is super scary and although it’s important to do our bit, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Rising temperatures and the effect of carbon emissions on the atmosphere is a problem much bigger than us, that it can feel daunting and, at time, hopeless.
Even still, every small thing we do counts. Every elimination of a soft plastic product, every sustainable brand we endorse, every choice we make towards a sustainable lifestyle; it all adds up to contribute to a greener future.
Over recent years, we’ve learnt a lot about the foods we consume and how they can be unsustainable. While many people choose to have a vegan diet based on sustainability values, others feel as though meat is an integral and healthy part of their diet. The foods we eat are up to us, and there are ways to consume meat in sustainable ways, but the vegan mindset is a really powerful one.
Being vegan doesn’t just mean to foods you eat. You can also see vegan as a mentality towards products and things you use to fuel your body in other ways.
Here are four ways that you can go vegan, but not actually eat vegan.
Switch up your coffee order
Oat milk has been proven to be the most sustainable and eco-friendly of the plant milks, and in my opinion, definitely the most delicious. Soy milk is a popular choice for beginners, almond and rice milks can be a pretty light consistency, and oat milk is creamy, a little bit nutty, but not overpowering, so it allows for coffee flavour to come through.
Even if you’re a dairy-lover, it can be good to give your body a break sometimes, as excess amounts of dairy can be tricky for your body to break down. If you are a two-coffees-a-day person, you could try one with dairy milk and one with oat milk.
Go vegan on your beauty products
In beauty product world, vegan means better for the environment and better for you. Heaps of mainstream beauty products contain toxic ingredients like parabens, monoethanolamine, formaldehyde, Propylene Glycol, which can cause things like skin irritations and infections, joint pain and hormone fluctuation. There are also heaps of skin and hair products that use palm oil, which leads to the devastation of forests as well as being full of saturated fat, which is bad for your body, skin and hair. Basically, buying vegan can assure that you’re giving back to the environment and yourself.
Some great vegan hair brands are: Bar None, BRITE Organix and Olaplex
Some fab vegan skin brands are: Tailor Skincare, e.l.f cosmetics and EcoTools
Find the best websites to buy beauty products in Australia here.
Drink vegan
Vegan alcohol doesn’t last as long, but that’s because it doesn’t have chemicals or animal products in it that increases its shelf-life but harms the environment. Common non-vegan ingredients in wine can often include casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein), chitin (fibre from crustacean shells) and isinglass (fish bladder protein).
There is an incredible offering of vegan wine in Australia, and it honestly tastes the same – if not better – than a non-vegan drop. You can be pretty safe with natural wine, as there’s often nothing in a natty wine other than grape juice, but to be sure, get into the habit of checking the ingredients, which can always be found on the back of the bottle in fine print.
Eco-friendly pleasure
Vegan sex toys have been on the rise in the last few years. I bet you’d never think that your pleasure is harming the environment? Well, I guess it’s technically not, but your toys might be. Many sex toys contain phthalates, which is a family of industrial chemicals used to soften polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and as solvents in cosmetics and other consumer products, can damage the liver, kidneys, lungs, and reproductive system. They’re also bad for the environment.
There are so many vegan-made sex toys on the market these days, that there’s no reason to run the risk of internal and external damage. Online stores such as Organic Loven and Nikki Darling have an amazing range of vegan products, including toys, condoms and lube.
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