I have been living in various UK cities in the past 11 years now. Living in different areas of UK let me see the country in different perspective. one thing I was always aware of, not only as an interior designer but as the person is the cleanness of the cities. I remember having a conversation with someone in my early years of being in the UK and their comment, that UK big cities are not very clean. I really disagreed with them, as I personally found it really clean and well looked after. I have only realized, that I used to live in a small community friendly environments and cities where people did actually really cared.

I have only started to notice people littering and generally don’t care about the environment when I moved to Manchester, furthermore closer to the river. Every day, I pass through the bridge to see a shocking amount of litter floating in the river and what people are throwing away is actually utterly disgusting.

Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

As an interior designer and huge fan of recycling and upcycling fun read about my live lagom journey I was always looking after the surrounding and try to minimize not only littering itself but also creating less litter and use less of plastic. Other than in life, I am lucky I can choose products in my work for client projects as well that are recycle and environment-friendly. I have the power as an interior designer.

You don’t need to be an interior designer like me but you can have the power to look after your environment too. Here are a few tips how can you change that:

1. Use outdoor litter bins. Yes, this is as simple as that especially that Glasdon UK offers a wide range of bins, that hard not to spot and I think these days these are everywhere, so think twice before you drop anything on the floor.
2. Create less litter. Other than just throwing away litter, try to reduce creating trash. Instead of throwing away items, check if you can repair them first. These days, people would rather throw £40 hoover, than trying to replace £5 filter.
3. Use re-usuable bags, coffee cups, and water bottles. Even if this sounds like a ‘’normal’ thing believes me so many people still throw away plastic bags just to buy them again. I usually try to get my bags from home with exemptions when I walk from work and just don’t have one on me. I recently carry a backpack with me so I can put all my shopping in it.
4. Make a list of your shopping and what you need. This will help you to create less food waste ( so less packaging ).
5. Join a local community and volunteer to clean your area. You will be surprised how your perspective will change about environment once you see the amount of litter around.
6. Educate children and siblings. Help spread the word and teach younger how to reuse, recycle and not to litter. Be the proud example.

My friend Anna, recently took part in Volunteering in her area in Stockport to clear the surroundings of litter and she took full 9 bags of litter herself. ( photo by Anna Jarosz)

There are so many ways you can help and be the proud community spoiler of 2018. It’s honestly super easy, but also you not only helping with the beautiful planet or your city but to yourself and your children, the fewer chemicals in pollutions the healthier we will be.