The Mindful Shopper is a new guide launched this week to help consumers make planet-friendly decisions about what they buy, who they buy it from and whether they actually need to buy it at all.
Through helpful guides on how to waste less and reuse, repair, share and recycle more, the site showcases brands that can help us all do that.
The average volume of waste from households collected by local authorities in England amounted to 399 kilograms per person in 2020.
ReLondon, who have created this new guide, say that by shopping more “mindfully”, not only can we save water, reduce carbon emissions and save money by reducing waste, we’re also helping to keep things out of landfill and reduce the amount of new resources that are extracted from the earth to make stuff.
we hope that it will grow over the next few years to become a vital resource for London and beyond
The brands, products, platforms and services featured on The Mindful Shopper all help reduce waste in at least one of these ways:
- Rent or borrow – Brands that lets us rent, lease, borrow or share things, rather than buy them
- Buy once – Products that are made to last, used well, that can be re-used and repaired or services that support this
- Second life – Brands that make it easy for products to be taken back when we’re finished with them or provide a platform for others to sell second-hand
- Less packaging – Products with no packaging, or in reusable or refillable packaging
- Recycled – Products made from recycled materials or what would otherwise have been wasted.
But not everything on the Mindful Shopper is about shopping. Some of the brands featured will help people borrow or rent what they need – rather than buying things once, only to never use them again.
ReLondon says they have been working for years with small businesses with really innovative approaches to reducing waste – either at home or at different stages of the manufacturing and distribution process – and so the idea of The Mindful Shopper was born out of their passion to share these planet-saving solutions with a wider audience.
Andrea Charlson, Commercial Manager at ReLondon, said: “There are so many amazing solutions out there that can help us live a more sustainable lifestyle, but it can be time consuming to find them and hard to know who to trust. We want to make it easier for us all to make small changes by sharing products and services that we believe are a step in the right direction.”
“We’re hugely excited to be launching this website, and we hope that it will grow over the next few years to become a vital resource for London and beyond – helping all of us waste less and reuse, repair, share and recycle more.”
Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues, said: “Tackling the climate emergency will create new jobs and can be done in a way that helps businesses to cut costs. Through his Green New Deal fund the Mayor is supporting the growth of small businesses who aim to reduce waste and use resources more efficiently.
“We welcome this initiative by ReLondon to help Londoners shop more sustainably.”
