At Beagle, we're all about sniffing out the best sustainable swaps. Best means two things. Firstly, we select products and services that are genuinely sustainable to help you avoid greenwashing. Sadly, lots of businesses claim to be way more sustainable than they are. The Green Claims Code, reported that as much as 40% of firms' green claims online could be misleading. This is why we do the research, so you don't have to. Secondly, we look for products and services people genuinely love using. As much as we can we recommend products that our team have tried and tested.
Over the years, our never-ending pursuit of finding the best ethical and sustainable alternatives has taught us a few things. To help you avoid greenwashing and save a bit of time we've pulled a list of our favourite 10 super-easy changes you can make that will have a big impact.
1. Bar of Soap 🧼
The humble soap bar is a clean, simple swap. When did things get so complicated? Forget the plastic bottle and dispenser that after a single use will sit in landfill and outlive your great grandchildren's great grandchildren. Dial back the years, simplify things with a good old fashioned bar of soap. They're available pretty much everywhere, over time you can pick the brand, type and scent that best suits your needs. We're big fans of Faith in Nature, lather up really nicely, hold together well and last for weeks.
Top tip: get yourself a soap pouch, the bar will last twice as long and lather twice as hard.
2. TP/Bum Buster/Flush Fighter/Tushy-Tender - you know Toilet Paper 🧻
There's no denying it comes in handy but does it really make sense to chop living, breathing, carbon saving trees down when there are perfectly good alternatives? Give a sheet, try the bamboozling good Cheeky Panda or Serious Tissues if recycled paper is more your thing.
Tip: Customise a subscription to get your orders every month, you'll never have to run/waddle to the shop for that emergency loo roll ever again.
3. Green Cleaning 🧽
Conventional cleaning products are up to 90% water, causing needless shipping waste. There's nothing worse than major retailers greenwashing with 'eco' ranges that still come wrapped in plastic! Enter HomeThings with household cleaning essentials in gel sachets that are fully biodegradable. They're already reasonably priced, but enter the code BEAGLE20 at checkout to get a further 20% off your order!
4. The name's Bamboo, Bamboo Toothbrush 🎋
Type Bamboo Toothbrush into Amazon (with Beagle installed you'll see some handy recommendations, right there in the search results 😍). Without us, good luck wading through the 1000s of options and sorting the genuinely sustainable from the greenwashing.
The best bamboo toothbrush is the simplest of switches, the worst is a greenwashing nightmare. From experience, bamboo can sometimes be coarse on the inside of your mouth. We advise shopping around to find the brand that suits, for us the Environmental Toothbrush is the cream of the crop.
P.S. Even James Bond has switched to bamboo, MI6 standard issue?
5. Toothpaste Tabs 🦷
How old are you? (we know it's rude to ask but hear us out), how many toothpaste tubes have you gone through every year? Those bright Crest blues and distinct Colgate red tubes are still out there. Every single one still exists somewhere on the planet.
Collectively we send 20 billion (20,000,000,000) to landfill each year. Instead, a single PÄRLA Tooth Tabs jar can keep up to 4 tubes from going to landfill.
Subscriptions arrive every 4 months in a plant-based package delivered right to your door. Our Co-Founder Daniel swears by PÄRLA and has been a customer for years. These days you can even pick them up in Boots and Sainsbury's.
6. Refillable Deodorant 💪
When did aluminium free become a selling point for deodorant? What is aluminium doing in my deodorant in the first place? A growing body of research suggests the weird cocktail of parabens, aluminium, triclosan and phthalates found in mainstream deodorants may cause us harm 🤨.
But it doesn't have to be this way! Fussy offer a reusable alternative, with plastic-free, 100% vegan, compostable excellently priced refills at just £5 a pop. Pick your colour, pick your scent and subscribe to a flexible plan to save 15%. Get 12% off with the discount code: FUSAFF12 (Valid until 2nd April 2023)
7. Switch up your phone plan ☎️
Every call, every text and every selfie you've ever sent has generated emissions. Fortunately it doesn't have to be this way. The alternative is Honest Mobile with the world's first carbon NEGATIVE mobile plan!
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They remove more carbon than they emit
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They have great signal and excellent customer service (4.6 on Trustpilot)
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It's completely painless to switch
Not to mention the average Honest Mobile user removes 140 kg CO2 from the atmosphere each year!
8. Oddbox 🍑
A terrifying 40% of all food grown goes to waste. Too big, too wonky, too many. It is either left at the farm or thrown away at home. Enter Oddbox with a super convenient solution that battles the fight against food waste, helps you cut down on plastic and reduce emissions. Use the code SAVEODD to get 50% off your first delivery and join the fight against food waste and make a difference to the planet.
9. Your pension 💰
If you work in local government or in the private sector, then part of your pension is almost certainly invested in coal, oil and gas companies.
Unfortunately that means your pension is most likely fuelling the climate crisis. Growing your money for the future doesn't have to cost the earth. CIRCA5000 makes it simple to invest in a better world, with their easy-to-use app. Invest in companies that aim to tackle social and environmental challenges whilst earning a financial return. And it's easy to invest by opening an ISA, Pension, or GIA.
Find out more on the CIRCA5000 website
Remember as with all investing, the value of your investment can go down as well as up. Capital at risk.
10. Sustainable Tipples 🍻
Congratulations on making it this far! Reducing your impact can be tough but we believe there's always a better choice. Alcohol is no exception. Whatever your tipple, we've pulled together a few of our favourites that are as easy on the pallet as they are on the planet.
So cheers to you! If enough people like yourself can shift their habits, just a bit, with sustainable swaps like this, the positive impact could be enormous.
If you have a favourite sustainable swap, please let us know by tagging us on social media @thebeaglebutton
For more handpicked eco alternatives browse our collection of everyday essentials
Happy swappin'
The Beagle Team
A note on our links
When we link to products and services, these links may be affiliate links. If you click on those links and make a purchase within a certain time frame we earn a small commission.
The commission is paid by retailers at no cost to you. We carefully vet the products and services we recommend. We select partners based on their ability to help people reduce their impact on the planet. As much as possible we link to products and services that we ourselves use.
Any money earned helps keep Beagle running and funds our mission to sniff out the best sustainable and ethical alternatives.