Environmentally friendly Cornish gifts for a greener lifestyle
World Earth Day, the world’s largest environmental movement, is due to take place on Saturday 22nd April. And in honour of this, we’ve brought together a range of eco-positive products that will help you do your bit for the future of planet earth.
Whether that’s through choosing sustainable fashion, reducing plastics, cleaning up the planet, or planting trees – each little step that you take makes a real difference.
Hearteningly, Cornwall produces a growing range of environmentally considered products, and Shop Cornish is proud to have many of these on board. Here is our Spring 2023 Eco-Guide to Cornish gifts – whether that’s for someone special, or perhaps an earth-conscious gift to yourself!
Plastic-free haircare
If you’re looking for a plastic-free alternative to regular bottled shampoo, Wild Cornish Soap has this covered with its natural, Rosemary & Orange Shampoo Bar that is packaged in 100% recycled, recyclable, and biodegradable materials.
Handmade in small batches, from a soap-free recipe, this beautifully scented, solid shampoo bar contains naturally derived, active ingredients and selected botanicals that gently cleanse the hair and scalp.
Arriving in a hand-stamped, eco-friendly kraft box, on a bed of shredded kraft paper or wood wool, your shampoo bar will reach you in perfect condition, and with no synthetic colours or parabens, it’s reassuringly kind to your body and mother nature too.
Bake to save the planet
Fresh, straight-out-of-the-oven, home-baked bread is on another level compared to shop bought. And homemade bread also means we can avoid those nasty, disposable plastic bread bags that do nothing for our planet.
Poppy Treffry has come up with an ingenious way to keep home-baked loaves fresh – with her Bee Print Organic Canvas Bread Wrap. Made from organic cotton canvas, with an Oeko-tex, wipe-clean lining that makes it reusable again and again.
With a fully adjustable Velcro fastening, this handy bread wrap fits various loaf sizes, and will become your new kitchen favourite that’s way too pretty to hide in the bread bin!
Green greetings
Awarded the ‘Most Ethical Luxury Homeware Brand 2021’ by British Made Awards, Budeful is a brand that cares deeply about its environmental footprint and creates products in the most ethical and sustainable way possible, using only UK-based suppliers.
Their Naked Surfers Gift Card Collection is testament to this, and the 3 ‘naughty’ designs are wholeheartedly eco-friendly. Printed on ethically sourced, recycled card, with an envelope made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper, and a biodegradable cello wrapper, every element of these greeting cards has been carefully considered with the environment in mind.
Choose from Plunging Breaker 2, Shacked 2, or Bottom Turn 2, knowing that whichever one of these 150 x 150 mm greetings cards you opt for, Budeful will plant a tree for every product sold! Having a partnership with Greenspark, Budeful has so far planted 1600 trees. Simply wonderful.
Skincare without nasties
Environmentally considerate, against animal testing, and palm oil free, B Skincare is the kind of brand that we need more of. Making effective skincare from all-natural ingredients, this Cornish company is a force for good that has created products for well-known Cornish botanical attractions, The Eden Project and The Lost Gardens of Heligan.
We adore the Lemongrass and Jojoba Hand Wash – a vegan formula that leaves your hands feeling clean, soft, and delicately scented with zingy lemongrass.
Packaged in a recyclable glass bottle that has been sourced from the UK, and sent to your home in an FSC-approved cardboard box, with compostable and water-dissolvable potato starch packing chips – B Skincare always takes the greener option for your peace of mind.
A toxin-free home
As an earth-positive business, Cornish Milk Mineral Paint is passionate about minimising its impact on the planet, and strongly believes that paint shouldn’t contain toxins or chemicals which are damaging to our health and the earth on which we live.
In the environmental spirit of this blog, we have chosen to feature the striking, Samphire dark green. A deep and rich tone that was inspired by the dark samphire seaweed found on Cornish shores. This plant-based paint contains organic earth pigments and pairs well with neutral shades.
Cornish Milk has a fabulous collection of other paint shades on its website – or for a closer look, order a Hand-Painted Colour Card – made from 100% recycled card.
Opt for recycled silver
Silver can be recycled over and over again, and SilverHare Jewellery is helping us choose the sustainable option over newly mined silver with its lovely range of recycled fine and sterling silver pieces.
Dog owners, looking for something unique to adorn the collar of a furry friend, might like the Paw Print Dog Tag – a solid, fine-silver tag with a miniature imprint of your own dog’s paw!
Available as either a 20mm or 25mm disk, and in a matt or polished finish, this handcrafted silver dog tag is made to order and comes in a recyclable and compostable box.
Have the reverse engraved with your details at any good engravers, or keep things simple and stick with just the paw print imprint – a delightful token of love to your four-legged friend.
Helping keep our planet clean
Staying on the theme of our canine companions, Dicky Bag is making it easy to clean up after our pets with their nifty, Biodegradable Pick-Up Bags which come as a flat pack of 100.
You can then deposit bags of dog mess into one of their Dicky Bag Carriers which are designed to carry poop discreetly and hygienically until a suitable disposal point is found!
There is a brilliant range of designs and sizes, but one of our favourites is the Dog Print Dicky Bag by artist, Jo Scott. UK manufactured for a reduced carbon footprint, and using minimal packaging, Dicky Bag has come up with a solution to the problematic bags of dog waste that we all too often see scattered around our countryside.
Recycled cotton
Perfect for spring shopping sprees or beach trips, the Natural Recycled Cotton Tote Bag by Kernow Mojo is made of heavyweight, 100% organic brushed cotton from pre-consumer, recycled textile waste.
With a 10L capacity, this roomy bag has earned itself the title, ‘The Take Me Everywhere Tote’ and lovers of Cornwall will appreciate the standout Cornish Dreamer design.
Shop all these environmentally friendly Cornish gifts at Shop Cornish.
Thank you for supporting local businesses that care about the planet.