I’m reviewing 5 easy sustainable swaps from Tiny Yellow Bungalow online shop! Welcome to the Small Sustainable Shop Series where I’m testing out different sustainable shops and giving a full review on products I’ve found there.
Tiny Yellow Bungalow is a zero waste store by Jessie from Athens, Georgia. Jessie started Tiny Yellow Bungalow back in 2015 and has grown her platform into a thriving blog, social media sites, and an eco-friendly shop! You can learn more about Jessie here. Be sure to check out this blog for some amazing sustainable products from her shop.
This blog post is all about 5 Easy Sustainable Swaps from Tiny Yellow Bungalow!
Biodegradable Cotton Swabs
Organic bamboo and cotton, biodegradable cotton swabs! These cotton swabs are not just organic, they’re vegan and fair trade. I know you may be thinking, what’s the big deal, but let me tell you! The average person throws away approximately 415 cotton swabs each year! These cotton swabs are then sent to the landfill where they undergo anaerobic digestion, producing methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Instead of throwing away your cotton swabs, you can compost these cotton swabs. If you’re like me and only have a home compost, these are perfect. They break down easily in your compost bin and instead of forming methane emissions in a landfill, they can be recycled into amazing and fertile soil.
Learn more about composting here: Making Composting Understandable For Kids
I’ve tried some cotton swabs that are flimsy and practically bend in your hand. That is not the case with these cotton swabs. They are sturdy and durable. I’ve added them to an upcycled pasta jar and have them sitting on my bathroom sink to make them easy to access.
Easy Sustainable Swaps: plastic cotton swabs for biodegradable cotton swabs | Cost: $3.99
Biodegradable and Vegan Dental Floss
You may be thinking, is dental floss really considered easy sustainable swaps? YES! In fact, dental floss can take up to 80 years to break down (source). This fact is mindblowing to me because we use floss so frequently and mindlessly that we never consider what happens at the end of life.
Recently, dental floss has also been identified to contain PFAS. The EPA has ruled PFAS as a forever chemical and has recently set more strict rules and standards to try to reduce the amount of PFAS in our bodies and the environment.
This is why I was so excited to find biodegradable dental floss. I’ve been wanting to make this sustainable bathroom swap for years! The Brillant Black Dental Floss is made with bamboo and charcoal.
The floss string is thick enough to actually capture food and particles in between the spaces of your teeth, but still thin enough to slide through your teeth easily. In addition, charcoal helps to whiten teeth, absorb bacteria causing bad breath, and is naturally antifungal! One of my favorite parts about this floss is the plastic-free packaging! This is just another way to reduce our plastic consumption.
After use, this floss can be composted in your home composter.
Easy Sustainable Swaps: non-biodegradable floss in plastic packaging for biodegradable zero-waste floss | Cost: $9.99
Handmade Soap Bar
Soap bars will forever be my favorite eco-friendly swap – yup, ever! The main reason why I love soap bars is that there are so many more unique smells and options with bar soap than with liquid soap. In addition, soap bars are often zero waste. Traditional liquid soap is almost always in a plastic bottle. Soap bars, on the other hand, are typically plastic-free. They’re often wrapped in paper packaging if they’re wrapped at all making them easy to dispose of and less waste to get rid of.
What I love about this soap bar, however, is that the bar is wrapped in seed paper! Yup, the paper contains seed. When you get your soap bar, take apart the paper seed paper, soak it in water, and plant. This makes this soap so functional and even more unique. This would also make it a great gift idea!
This soap bar is Jasmine Sticky Rice Mango. I had no idea what it smelled like when I purchased it, but the name had been certain it had to smell delicious. The soap scent did not disappoint! The smell is mild and sweet and has a hint of fruit brightness from the mango.
The soap bars in the Tiny Yellow Bungalow shop are handmade with quality ingredients that are better for your skin and the environment. This soap is palm oil free! This is an intentional omission because of the devastating impact of palm oil on deforestation.
Learn more about palm oil here: 8 Things to Know About Palm Oil
Easy Sustainable Swaps: soap in plastic packaging for sustainably-made zero waste bar soap| Cost: $6.99
Reusable Cotton Snack Bags
Tiny Yellow Bungalow shop has so many options to make zero waste lunches a breeze! I already have stainless steel containers and stasher bags which I use often to pack my kid’s low waste lunch, but I had never tried organic cotton reusable snack bags before!
This will not be my last cotton reusable bag! These bags are not only absolutely adorable, but they’re also surprisingly efficient! They’re lightweight, easy to clean, and easy for my toddler to open by themselves! Of course, these bags are not leak-free so you only want to add dry snacks to them, but I love that they’re easy to wash and my kids don’t have to ask for help to open them up.
What’s even greater about this sustainable swap is that it’s reusable and can be fully biodegraded at the end of life. Instead of single-use plastic zip-lock bags, try switching to reusables!
Easy Sustainable Swaps: plastic single-use zip lock bags for organic cotton reusable bag | Cost: $6.99
Organic Cotton Unpaper Towels
How adorable are these unpaper towels?! Paper towels were one of the first sustainable swaps I made almost 10 years ago. I finished off all the paper towels I had at home and didn’t buy any more. I was a bit worried when I had kids wondering if I could keep up this, but it has been surprisingly easy. The kids grab towels just like they would paper towels, but the difference is that I can wash and reuse these instead of constantly buying paper towels. To make it easy, I keep a small basket downstairs to toss in the towels after use.
I’m so in love with this unpaper towel pattern. It’s not only beautiful, but it’s very clear for kitchen use. There are 6 unpaper towels in each set. The unpaper towels are so soft and gentle on your hands and incredibly functional for cleaning hands, washing dishes, and using as a replacement for paper towels. These towels can be used over and over again, saving you so much money. Start with just one set and build up your collection over time.
Easy Sustainable Swaps: paper towels for unpaper towels | Cost: $14.99
I hope you enjoyed this blog post all about 5 easy sustainable swaps from Tiny Yellow Bungalow!
These items were purchased from Tiny Yellow Bungalow which is based in Athens, Georgia. The purpose of this shop is to help you help Mama Earth by providing useful information on my eco blog and high quality, plastic-free products on the online zero waste store.
Leave a Reply