Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

The theme of Green Action Week this year was Actions: individual actions can add up to have a big positive impact, and there are many small easy steps you can take at home to have a more positive impact on the climate.

wooden recycling symbol against a background of green leaves.

In this blog post, Seren Ford, a PhD student in the Laboratory of Gene Regulation, shares some of her top tips for being more green at home.

Tech

Instead of buying a brand-new phone when your old one breaks, you could first look on sites like BackMarket. These sites sell professionally refurbished tech, which is often much cheaper and in as-new condition.

Food

Another great positive green step you can take is cooking more plant-based dishes - Meera Sodha’s column The New Vegan is a great place to start for recipe ideas. Anna Jones has a calendar of ingredients to help you choose in-season fruit and vegetables.

To get rid of food scraps, you can either compost them or use a food caddy, which is available free of charge from Oxford City Council.

You could also learn more about where the food we eat comes from, and visit places like Rectory Farm where you can pick your own produce (they reopen at the end of February).

Fashion

The fashion industry is a major contributor to global emissions. Buying new clothes less frequently and instead purchasing items second-hand from charity shops, or websites like Vinted, Depop, and eBay, can reduce the number of clothes going to landfill.

If you’ve got old clothes to get rid of, you can donate them to a charity shop, sell them on a site like Vinted, or use Oxford’s free kerbside textiles recycling collection service. To learn more about the fast fashion industry and textile waste, you could read Aja Barber’s book Consumed.

Period products

Lots of disposable period products are made of single-use plastic.

If you’d like to explore more sustainable options, which are also much cheaper in the long term, some good options are: reusable period underwear (e.g. from brands like Wuka), plastic-free disposable pads (such as Fluus) or a menstrual cup (several recommendations and reviews for which can be found in this article).