Tell us about yourself
I’m Thilini, an educator and content creator. I moved to UAE after my marriage in 2018 and currently I work as a fulltime content creator. I make content about this beautiful city, sustainable living and teach people about bunnies. During Covid I read more about the environment and this sparked my interest in sustainable living. Slowly I started researching about the ways I can contribute to the environment and live a more sustainable life.
What motivated you to shift to being eco-friendly?
I lived in a small village in Sri Lanka where I enjoyed green views everywhere and sounds of birds. Hence, I was a part of nature since my childhood. After moving to Dubai I found it really difficult to live in a city and realised the importance of nature every single day. I never met people who spoke about nature and spent time in natural surroundings. Everyone is so busy! So I wanted to inspire people to spend time in nature and be more responsible about our planet.
The main things you do to be eco-friendly?
Recycling is a big part of our house now. I use public transportation more compared to last year. Recently I started using eco-friendly cleaning supplies. I always water my plants with rice washed water and vegetable washed water. I also carry my own reusable bags for grocery shopping and try to avoid polythene packages as much as possible. I also try my best to do my own grocery shopping to avoid getting plastics and polyethene with my order. I never hesitate to request to pack our leftover food in restaurants.
Your easiest eco-friendly swaps They are reusable bottles, reusable coffee cups, eco-friendly cleaning products, reusable produce bags and tote bags.
What makes it hard for you to be eco-friendly? It’s difficult to be eco-friendly when it comes to grocery shopping. For example, we use scraped coconut as an ingredient in the kitchen, and it always comes in small plastic containers. So, we always try to buy a bigger container to avoid buying a lot. But these are not always available.
How do you plan on continuing your sustainability living? What other aspects do you plan to change? I want to inspire people around me to be more sustainable. That’s why I always try to join my friends whenever I recycle. I use my social media account to spread the word through my own videos and by sharing information from other sources. In future I hope to share more about vegan food and inspire people to shift to a vegan lifestyle.
Within the next few months I hope to reduce my meat consumption and be vegan. Meanwhile I am focusing on using public transportation more and being responsible about my carbon footprint.