One of the aims of my Redbubble online shop is to offer sustainable gifts.
From collecting cans from neighbours when I was little (I got 1p per can from the recycling companies!) to promoting campaigns aimed at festival goers taking their tents home, sustainability has always been an issue that I have been passionate about.
I often watch shows produced by the wonderful David Attenborough and have a little cry inside at humanity, and wonder what can I as one small person in a population of billions do to improve the planet? It’s easy to feel helpless. And so I decided to do what comes easiest to me – design.
I decided to help tackle the problem of single use plastic bottles and take away coffee cups from ending up in landfill and the sea. No mean task I hear you cry! But with the average person buying 175 bottles of water a year I decided that should one person (just one!) decide to purchase one of my reusable bottles, I could have potentially saved the planet of over 5,000 drinks bottles being produced and disposed of over a 30 year period. That’s bonkers.
In addition to this, the sustainable gifts that I produce are printed on demand and so don’t need to be stored in massive warehouses, and so if nobody wants to buy them, then that’s not a problem either. I also donate 10% of profits from these gifts to environmental charities.
My side hustle isn’t just about keeping me entertained in the dark days and nights of lockdown. It’s also one woman’s attempt to do a little bit of good and keep the David Attenborough dream alive 🙂