As a supporter of Love The Oceans you will be no stranger to the immense problem that plastic pollution has become to our oceans. The statistics out there are terrifying. According to The World Economic Forum “The world’s oceans will be filled with more plastic mass than fish mass by 2050”. The study released by The WEF states that the use of plastics has increased by over 20 times in the last 50 years and is set to double again over the next 20 years.

Statistics like this can leave one feeling extremely helpless and insignificant. What difference can one person’s actions make when the problem is so colossal? Whilst it is true that change really does need to come from the top, in the form of legislation for example, that does not mean that your efforts are either inconsequential or unimportant.

Every single action you take to reduce your use of single use plastics makes a difference. The consequences of each one of us committing to make small differences in our day to day lives adds up in a big way! You might struggle to quantify the difference it makes for you to carry a refillable water bottle with you for example. However, if 1000 people commit to doing it, the difference soon adds up. On average a person buys 167 single use plastic water bottles per year. If 1000 people make the swap to a reusable bottle, that could save a whopping 167,000 plastic bottles. This small change suddenly doesn’t feel so insignificant does it?

Here at It Won’t Cost The Earth, we are all about enabling you to make small differences like this, without it needing to cause you any stress or hassle. We are well aware of how busy everyone’s lives are and understand how hard it is to make eco-conscious choices when you have little time to research. We wanted to make it really easy for people to shop beautiful, gifts that are ethically designed, sourced and created whilst also being single-use plastic free and eco-conscious.

We only work with small UK based businesses who have sustainability at their cores. Interestingly, most of the businesses we work with are female founded. We have around 100 small businesses working with us at present and the lengths that these businesses go to in order to reduce their carbon footprints and be environmentally sustainable is incredible. Their efforts put larger corporations to shame. For example, Claire, Founder of Cloudy Lemonade,  a one woman business creating recycled, silver jewellery, is having solar panels fitted to her studio to provide renewable energy for her business.

We spend hours finding just the right businesses like these to showcase their products on our marketplace – businesses who do more than just talk the sustainability talk – they really mean business.

With this in mind, it was really important for us to find the right non-profit organisation to partner with which is why we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Love The Oceans. Love The Oceans have pledged to remove 1kg of trash from the ocean for every order placed on our website and we are proud to be donating 5% of our gross sales to them. So now when you shop with us, not only are you purchasing eco-conscious gifts, you are also helping clear our oceans of rubbish and supporting LTO’s research. Gifting through us really won’t cost the Earth.

To support small businesses across the UK, whilst shopping eco-consciously, you can visit our website here www.itwontcosttheearth.com

You can also come and follow our journey on Instagram – we’d love to have you! (@itwontcosttheearth)