At Brushbox, we’re passionate about making a positive impact on the environment by reducing the amount of plastic we use and the amount of waste we produce. That’s why we’re always thrilled to see people just as passionate as us – especially when they give us more tips about how we can make changes to make our lifestyle as sustainable as our toothbrushes. We’ve drawn up a list of our ten favourite Instagrammers that promote ethical living, zero-waste and plastic-free lifestyles, or raise awareness of the impact humans have on climate change.
1. Max La Manna
Max La Manna is the author of ‘More Plants, Less Waste’ – he encourages a plant based diet with zero food waste, and encourages reducing the waste we produce on a daily basis in order to tackle the plastic and litter problems that are destroying our planet. His recipes look incredible, and show us how living ethically can be so much more exciting than living a wasteful lifestyle!
2. Lauren Singer
Lauren Singer leads a totally waste-free life: so much so that she can fit eight years of rubbish into one jar! She set up her Package Free Shop (@packagefreeshop) to help others do the same, and documents her waste-free life on Instagram, where she raises awareness of the damage of popular non-recyclable materials and single-use plastics.
3. Jo
Jo is Vegan activist who advocates for a low-waste, low-emissions lifestyle. She discourages travelling via plane in order to reduce carbon emissions and hits back at fast fashion and wasteful ways of life. Jo is moving to Wales this term to study at CAT toward an MSc in Sustainability & Adaptation Planning – how exciting!
4. Amy and Ella
Amy and Ella are on a mission to make the world #PlasticClever and are encouraging young people like them to pick up litter – they’ve picked up over 100,000 pieces of litter so far! They’re taking their mission to Westminster to fight for real change. We were shocked by a post that showed a 20-year-old crisp packet they’d found while litter picking, that looked in pristine condition (minus the mud!). It goes to show just how long these materials stick around for, and how very harmful they are to our environment.
5. Bea Johnson
Bea Johnson lives package-free, waste free and encourages others to do the same. She promotes the use of buying bulk and reusing old containers to reduce consumption of single-waste plastic, and is taking her mission to big corporations like Starbucks and L’Oreal with the aim of raising awareness of and corporate responsibility for plastic waste.
6. Rob Greenfield
Rob Greenfield is on a mission to grow and forage 100% of his food for an entire year as part of his off-grid lifestyle. And, while we might not live as extreme a lifestyle as Rob, his efforts set a great example to those of us who think leaving plastic-packaged food behind is impossible, proving that to be untrue.
7. Kate Nelson
Kate Nelson hasn’t used single-use plastics for over a decade and uses Instagram to raise awareness of their damaging impact on the ocean. She advocates for mindfulness, sustainability, and producing as little waste as possible in a fight against ocean pollution. She also discusses the harmful impact of microplastics on our oceans and their presence in our diets, urging us further to say goodbye to plastic.
8. Anita Vandyke
Anita Vandyke is here to show us that living a zero-waste lifestyle isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t have to break the bank either. Anita’s Instagram page is chock-full of sustainable alternatives to everyday items: whether it’s keeping existing plastic items in circulation by upcycling and reusing them, or finding non-plastic alternatives, Anita provides both budget and investment suggestions to demonstrate that going plastic-free isn’t as expensive (or as inconvenient) as we might imagine.
9. Tim Silverwood
Tim advocates for reducing our plastic consumption and waste in order to fight back against plastic pollution in the ocean. He founded ‘Take 3 for the Sea’ (@Take3fortheSea) which encourages everybody to take three pieces of litter away with them every time they go to the beach – if we all work together, we can fight plastic pollution!
10. Megean Weldon
Megean Weldon has a minimalist, zero-waste lifestyle and encourages others to do the same: she shows how fun and full a zero-waste lifestyle can be while giving handy tips to living the lifestyle yourself.
So there’s our top-ten list of our favourite Instagrammers – we hope they inspire you as much as they have us! Don't forget you can follow us on Instagram, too - @brushboxuk.