5 Tips for a Sustainable Spring Cleaning

20 March 2018 is officially the first day of Spring. To mark this day, we have created 5 tips for you to follow to achieve a sustainable spring cleaning.

Use non-toxic household cleaners

You can easily make organic and inexpensive products to substitute your toxic household cleaners:

Using baking soda is a great way to avoid toxic materials in cleaning products. The only thing you have to do is sprinkle baking soda over the area to be cleaned or onto a rag and begin scrubbing. The baking soda acts as a natural abrasive, deodorizer, and cleanser that can be used on nearly every surface of your house.

Natural oils also work as great substitutes for regular household cleaning products. Olive oil is great for polishing furniture and oiling/waxing wood. Essential oils are a good addition to natural household cleaners. These oils add aroma to the natural products and do not contain harmful “perfumes”.

White vinegar is another non-toxic product that is easy to use. It inhibits the growth of bacteria by creating an acidic environment. If you do not possess white vinegar, great alternatives would be lemon juice and apple cider vinegar.

Repair and/or reuse

Repair all things that need repairing or reuse the parts that can’t be repaired. It is very easy to get fed up with clutter and therefore it would seem easier to just throw everything straight into the trash. Keep in mind that many of these items might be repairable or reusable. If things can’t be repaired, upcycling is always a great possibility to create something new and usable.

Rehome

If you have some good quality items that no longer fit into your home, you have the possibility to rehome them – i.e. give the items a new home. One option is to simply ask your friends and family if they want the item. The second option is to sell the items you don’t want anymore – perhaps at a yard sale. The third option is to simply donate the items to charity.

Recycle

Recycle all the items that you are not able to rehome, reuse or repair. Everything you throw out can potentially be a resource. By recycling, you are participating in the process of making all kinds of material reusable. All recycled, upcycled and/or reused waste is part of a circular, rather than a linear, process that allow the waste to be included in the circular economy.

Through our Zero Waste Boxes and our Free Recycling Programmes, TerraCycle has created different opportunities for you to recycle waste that are otherwise difficult to recycle. Our Zero Waste Boxes comes in different sizes where you can choose the box that suits your own recycling needs. Our Free Recycling Programmes are national recycling solutions for typically hard-to-recycle waste streams. These are created in corporation with different brands to give the collectors the opportunity to earn points and thereby money to donate to a charity of one’s own choice.

Compost

It is important that you compost all organic material. Compost is an inexpensive, natural process you easily can do at home. It transforms your garden and kitchen waste into a nutrient-rich food product for your garden. Thereby, it will help improve the soil structure of your garden, maintain moisture levels, and keep your soil’s pH balance in check while helping to suppress plant disease. At landfills it is very difficult for the air to get to the organic waste and therefore, as the waste breaks down, it creates a harmful greenhouse gas.