Reusing items is one way to “go green,” since doing so produces less waste and ultimately means less resources are used to manufacture new items. Here are a few items you can reuse during pregnancy to reduce your – and your baby’s! – carbon footprint.
1. Reusable water bottle – It’s vitally important to stay hydrated during pregnancy! Instead of buying bottled water, invest in a high quality and eco-friendly reusable water bottle so you can fill up at home and keep water with you while you’re on the go.
2. Food storage containers – During pregnancy, it’s important to keep a light snack with you while you’re out and about in case hunger strikes. Be sure to keep your snacks in reusable food containers rather than disposable plastic bags.
3. Maternity clothes – If you don’t already have maternity clothes from a past pregnancy to reuse, consider finding what you need at a thrift store, garage sale or consignment store. You might even have a no-longer-pregnant friend with some maternity clothing to get rid of.
4. Items for baby – Since you’ll be doing plenty of shopping for baby now, during your pregnancy, start thinking about how you get your baby off to a eco-friendly start in life. Cloth diapers are reusable – you can even use them for more than one child! Some cloth diapering moms also use reusable cloth wipes for clean up at changing time. You can also reuse toys, clothes and larger items like cribs and play yards. You might have these items still on and from when older children were little, but even if this is your first baby or if you got rid of those items before, you can still reuse by shopping at thrift stores, consignment shops, garage sales and looking out for general freebies. Family members and friends might also have items they’d like to unload.
As you can see, there are many ways to make use of reusable items during your pregnancy. Many cities even have entire consignment shops dedicated to items and clothes for pregnant moms and babies, so you can be green even without having to search and search through thrift store racks and garage store piles to find what you need – unless that’s something you enjoy, of course!
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