10 eco-friendly essentials for camping

With exotic summer holidays being cancelled, perhaps you’ve decided to take the plunge and try camping. Don’t be nervous, we’ve got all of the essential products to make your staycation fun, easy and sustainable!

With our top 10 eco-friendly camping essentials, you can enjoy the beauty of nature stress-free, and without worrying about the mess (or lack of) you’ll leave behind.

1. Hand wash with an ecoegg Laundry Egg – inevitably when spending lots of time outdoors, you’re going to come across a stain or two. Don’t stress! You don’t have to wait until you’re home, all you need is an ecoegg Laundry Egg and a bowl of water. Simply place the egg to soak in water for around ten minutes and hand wash as normal. It’s super lightweight and small so you won’t even notice it in your luggage.

2. Stock up on Stasher Bags – an absolute lifesaver for every adventure. The reusable, non-toxic, self-sealing silicone storage bags are perfect for on-the-go adventures. They come in a range of sizes: Pocket Bag, Snack Bag, Sandwich Bag, Stand Up Bag and the Half Gallon Bag. Stasher Bags are endlessly reusable and you can use them for pretty much anything, even cooking!

How to use your Stasher Bag:

• Meal prep – to save you buying food when you’re out and about (also saving you on plastic packaging), plan in advance and make some meals beforehand. Even if you cut up and pack all of your vegetables to use for your trip, it will save you time later on. Additionally, the Stand Up Stasher Bag has a wide opening so it’s easy to drop in a pot of water with your ladle and cook any curries, stews or soup you’ve already prepared. Top tip: store any sauces or dressings in a Pocket Stasher Bag to pour over your meals.
• Save leftovers – you don’t have to waste anything. With Stasher, you can save any leftovers for the rest of your trip.
• First aid kit – keep all of your essentials in one place so you don’t have to scrounge at the bottom of your bag for a plaster. Our PATCH Biodegradable Plasters are ideal for spending time outdoors as they’re fully compostable and hypoallergenic.
• Keep your toiletries all in one place – you won’t have to worry about anything leaking as Stasher Bags are pretty much leakproof, and easy to clean even if there is a leakage.
• Keep your gadgets safe – if you’re bringing a camera to snap some beautiful wildlife shots, keep your lenses and cables all together. Stasher Bags are also splash proof so you can keep your phone dry. Another great thing about Stasher is that you can use your phone’s touchscreen without taking it out of the bag so you can use maps even when it’s raining (it is England, after all).
• Pack your favourite snacks – the fresh air always makes me hungry so packing snacks for long walks is essential. My go-to’s are trail mixes, dried mango, flapjack and protein balls.
• It’s also handy to keep a Stasher in your backpack in case you get any take-away food, to prevent your plastic usage and waste.

You’ll probably enjoy a lot of picnics too, so read our plastic-free picnic tips.

3. Bring your bamboo toothbrush – all of the plastic toothbrushes you’ve ever used are probably still sitting in landfill right now. But bamboo produces less waste, is fast-growing, needs less land to grow and releases more oxygen than most trees. Our Non Plastic Beach Biodegradable Bamboo Toothbrush can be composted in only four-to-six months, so after you’ve used it for the recommended three months, you can dispose of it worry-free. Our Family Pack comes with four sustainable sourced biodegradable toothbrushes, which you can take home and use too.

4. Pack enough loo roll – perhaps the most important tip I’ve learnt! There’s nothing worse than sitting down on the toilet at your campsite to realise there’s no toilet roll. Our Uranus Wiper Toilet Paper is 100% plastic free as it’s made from recycled paper, so that means that less material is going to landfill and no trees are being cut down in the process. It’s also vegan friendly, hypoallergenic, chemical free, BPA free and comes in eco-friendly packaging, so you can appreciate nature without worrying about how Uranus is impacting the planet.

5. Be prepared with a Kind Bag – it’s always handy to have a reusable bag with you because it’s always the time when you don’t bring one, that you need one. I love Kind Bag because they’re made using 100% recycled plastic bottles, saving millions being sent to landfill, and they come in beautiful patterns so you can wear your personality too. They’re also perfect for camping as they’re designed for comfort and longevity: it can hold 20kg of weight!

6. Eat with bamboo cutlery – although you may have perfectly suitable cutlery to bring from home, our Bambaw Bamboo Cutlery weighs a lot less in your luggage. You already know the benefits of bamboo but this cutlery set is particularly strong and sturdy. It comes with a cotton pouch so you can keep all of the dirty ones together and simply give them a wash later. Bringing this set with you will prevent the need for single-use plastic and you can use them all throughout Summer too.

7. Reduce your carbon footprint with sustainable firelighters – you can’t go camping without having a BBQ! Suitable for BBQs, indoor and outdoor fires and cooking, our FireUp Natural Sustainable Firelighters are fossil fuel free, so they’re entirely carbon neutral. Plus, they’re totally safe for the environment which is a camping must-have.

8. Leave no trace – rule one of camping (or any outing really), always pick up your litter! Our Waste Not Compostable Caddy Liners are made from 100% natural vegetable cornstarch so they’re totally safe for the environment. They’re strong and durable so you can pick up your litter as you go and dispose of it all when you find a bin.

9. Make your own fizzy water – not only do fizzy drinks come in big single-use plastic bottles, you’d also have to lug them around with you on your camping trip. With SodaStream, you can make your own fizzy drinks in your tent, without electricity. You can choose from multiple flavour syrups too, so you can make all of your favourite drinks without the plastic. It’s not just for camping either, it’ll get used lots at home too.

You know we like to make your life easier, so our SodaStream Starter Kit is ideal. With a touch of a button you can have all of your favourite drinks on hand.

10. Stay anti-bac’d – it’s still important to ensure you’re keeping as clean as possible. With our OceanSaver Anti-Bac Spray you can clean any surface or products as you go. Made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, your bottle will last forever so you can replace the solution whenever you need it at home too. It’s a plant-based, non-toxic solution so it’s safe for the environment and pets.

Other eco-friendly camping tips:

• Keep it local – where you can, support small local shops to invest in the local community. Reducing the distance you travel will also reduce your carbon footprint.
• Bring a bike – if you’re taking a day trip, why not hop on the bus instead. Even better, bring or rent a bike to embrace the countryside.
• Borrow camping gear from a friend rather than purchasing everything brand new
• Leave no trace – remember to pick up your litter but also, minimise how much you disturb local wildlife. This means not taking any shells home from the beach or pick any plants.
• For extra light, bring solar powered fairy lights.

Shop our sustainable range of products to get prepared for your staycation.