Is it enough? 8 ways to begin your plastic free journey.
So July has come to an end, but my plastic free journey is set to continue. My metal straws arrived today (covered in plastic, but thankfully recycleable plastic). But with all these changes Iâve made, and hopefully continue to make, I canât help but think: is it enough? Is it ever going to be enough? My contribution to the plastic free campaign is only a very small drop in a very big ocean, and as insignificant as it may seem, I hope that just by the plastic I skip out on, at least that means a smaller percentage of plastic in the environment, and hopefully moving forward with how easy some changes are, other people, perhaps whoever reads this blog, will be inspired to cut down on their plastic, little by little.
So to make the transition from inspiration to change a little easier, here are some tips and tricks - tried and tested by me or others (Iâll try to rank them from easiest to hardest). Iâve included ways to re-use plastic that you might already have before you purchase any new or fancy re-usables.
1. Re-use bags. Whether you buy a re-usable bag or re-use the ones you already have, this is by far the easiest and cheapest change you can make, and in the UK, youâd be saving yourself some money. These can be re-used for your fresh fruits and vegetables too. An estimated 1 trillion plastic bags are used each year. Thatâs 209 for each person on the planet. At 5p a bag, thatâs a spend of ÂŁ10.45 a year. If you re-used a bag you already have, youâd save a lot of turtles and also enough to...Â
2. Buy a re-usable water bottle. Just because the bottle says âBPA freeâ doesnât mean that itâs âother chemicalsâ free, so to reduce the amount of chemicals and microplastics in the water that you drink, buy a metal or glass water bottle. I purchased a King Do Way stainless steel water bottle, which is double walled and vacuum sealed, and when I put ice in with my water, the ice stays for about 10 hours. (10/10, would recommend!) A recent article I read said that, if you were to buy your 2L of water a day in plastic bottles at 69p, you would be spending ÂŁ425 a year on water. Why pay extra if youâre already paying your water bill? Save ÂŁ400 a year and your body from chemicals and buy yourself a bottle.
3. Switch to solid soap. Iâve heard some say that this was their number one easy swap, but for me it was a little trickier, because Iâm a bit fussy when it comes to skin products. But if youâre not fussy, you can purchase soap for as cheap as 50p a bar, and sometimes cheaper when bought in bulk from places like amazon. These soaps tend to be made of more natural ingredients, so safer for your skin and for the environment.
4. Buy some re-usable straws. This one is not at the top of everyoneâs list, but if youâre a straw drinker, this one is for you. Among the top offenders, plastic âdisposableâ straws are one of the worst. Whereas you can actually recycle plastic bags, plastic straws are not as widely recycled as it is not deemed worthwhile due to their size. But there are many different reusable options with straws - glass, metal, bamboo, silicon. You can even buy collapsable straws which you can carry with you in case you want to go out and have a drink and not damage the environment in the process. (P.S. As pretty as the colourful straws are, I was very dissapointed when they arrived individually wrapped in plastic. The plain silver ones only came in an external plastic bag to keep the bag clean - still unnecessary in my eyes but not so wasteful! If youâre buying online, sometimes reviews will state what packaging the products come in, but if not, you can usually contact the seller.)
5. Shop at a farmerâs market. Although some markets do use plastic bags to carry, the produce is mainly unwrapped, meaning that you donât have to feel guilty about trying to be healthy and eating vegetables. They often also sell things like milk and juice in glass bottles which can be re-used for so many different things at home, or returned and re-used by the farmers. And if this doesnât work for you...
6. Switch to tins. Contrary to popular belief, preserved fruits and vegetables (tinned, frozen, dried, etc) are just as healthy, if not sometimes healthier, than the fresh versions. This is because as son as they are picked and gathered, they are put through their designated preservation techniques, preserving the vital micronutrients that keep us healthy, whereas the âfreshâ fruits and vegetables have been siting in the supermarkets for a few days, and have previously travelled possibly thousands of miles to sit there in the first place. The main plastic free conender are tins, and these can often be a lot cheaper than buying the fresh version anyway and can be stored for much longer. So save yourself some money and switch where you can.
7. Shampoo & Conditioner bars. Although this was one of the first things for me to change, it is not an easy transition for everyone. It can take a while to get work out how to use the products on your hair and also to find out which type is right for you. If this is a worry for you, I would reccomend going into somewhere like lush and having them do a demo for you, so that you can get a (not literal) taste for how to work with these products. Alternatively, places like lush sell their chemical free liquid shampoos and conditioner, and you can return the bottles when youâre done so they can recycle them.
8. Invest in plastic free Beauty Products. The main source of these I have found so far are from a website called âPlastic Freedomâ. I know there are others, but this one has the most variety and range of products. This one is probably one of the harder ones as it means letting go of your beloved brands, and I havenât tried the products yet, but just looking at the products available has me excited to invest in some soon..
I hope that these are useful tips and you find some way to incorporate them into your lives. One of my main motivations to continue this journey, is that the Earth does a pretty good job of taking care of us, so we should repay the favour however we can.
