Plastic Change

Reducing My Plastic Usage

In recent years, climate change and the impact we, as a society, are having on the environment has been of a greater focus to the general population. I think that we are all trying to do our best to help slow climate change and lead greener lives, however this can be hard for everyday people.

One area that some people are trying to focus on is limiting their plastic usage. This is because plastic is an entirely man-made material and most don’t bio-degrade, this means that once it exists on the planet it is here to stay for the foreseeable future. In the 70 years during which plastic has been readily available to the public and used for many different tasks, 79% of it has been put into landfill. Only 9% has been recycled and the rest has been incinerated, which itself is not a great option due to the environmental pollution caused by this burning. It has been estimated that in this time period, around 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic has been produced, that is a lot of waste and damage to the planet that mainly ends up in the water or soil, causing harm to wildlife.

It was with this knowledge in mind that I went single use plastic free for one month. I wanted to test myself and see how easy this was to do in the world we live in. At the time my town didn’t have a plastic free shop and so I had to prepare ahead of time and buy staples such as pasta and rice online and organise for regular milk deliveries. I was also fairly new to town and so had to work out where would be best to get other supplies such as fruit and vegetables, oddly I found butter the hardest item to source, it took a whole week!

That month was the most expensive month, in terms of food, I have ever had. The amount I spent on food more than doubled and I found that we ate out more in order to satisfy my food cravings, such as pizza. I worked out that financially I couldn’t continue being plastic free. Since then, I have tried to make the changes I can and to buy items with no or minimum packaging where possible and it is also not too expensive. However, now two years on I have found that I have made more permanent changes in other areas of everyday life as a consequence of this month, below I have listed 10 changes that I have made due to the plastic free month I had. These are all fairly simple changes but over time they’ll have a big impact on landfill sites and our planet in general.

1. Water bottle – I always have a reusable water bottle on me, and a spare in my car just in case I forget my everyday one. I’ve found that cafes and pubs are really helpful if I need a top up and that it’s super handy to have on me at all times
2. Travel mug – I also always have a reusable mug on me, normally in my car so that if I think I’ll be getting a drink that day I can take this with me, in the summer I swap this out for an iced coffee cup. I now tend to always ask for my coffee in my own travel mug, even if I’m sitting in at the coffee shop, as sometimes they give you single use cups either way and most places give a discount!
3. Reusable straw – I think these have become more popular with the recent ban on plastic straws in the UK, especially as the paper straws you get given now are so bad. I have collapsible metal straw on my keyring, that way it’s always with me and it doesn’t get lost and filthy at the bottom of my bag.
4. Beeswax sheets and Tupperware – Before my plastic free month I’d regularly wrap leftovers up in clingfilm and put it in the fridge, despite having perfectly good Tupperware already, thinking I was saving time on the washing up the next day. Now I use Tupperware for leftovers 95% of the time, we have a cupboard dedicated to them! In times where Tupperware isn’t going to work, or I want to cover up a half-finished dish, I use beeswax wraps, these are super easy to make yourself or you can buy them premade in packs and can be easily cleaned and reused.
5. Razor – During my plastic free month I ran out of razor heads for my standard woman’s razor, and I decided to look into plastic free ones to see if there were any good alternatives. I found that I could buy an all metal, fully recyclable razor with 100 blades for less than the cost of my usual razors in a year, and decided to give it a go. The only downside of this razor is there aren’t any attached soap bars so I have to be more careful, this took a few weeks to get used to. Two years later I still have over 70 blades left!
6. Period cup – Similar to the razor I ran out of tampons during my plastic free month and looked into alternatives. Having heard about a period cup before it seemed like the best option, however there are so many on the market I had to look into which was the best for me, there are some quizzes online to help with this and they gave me a great option first time around. Again, this has saved me a lot of money as well as saving a lot of waste in the form of tampons and sanitary towels and I find it even better to use     , once I got used to it that is.
7. Toilet paper – Once again, we ran out during my plastic free month and looked for alternatives, we found a company who delivers  toilet paper wrapped in paper to your door (by law it has to be wrapped in something     ) and haven’t looked back. They donate half their profits to charity and the toilet paper is made of recycled paper so it doesn’t require any deforestation to be made.
8. Shampoo and conditioner bars – These are so easy to find on the high street now and last a lot longer than a bottle of shampoo or conditioner. As with all hair products you need to find the right one for you but they’re so easy to use, if you’re intrigued by them give it a go!
9. Face cloths – I used to remove my makeup and cleanse my face using cotton pads, sometimes using up to 3 in a day. This was so convenient and there are some days that I wish I had some lying around for ease but I now use a face cloth instead and pop it in the wash at the end of the day. This stops so much going to landfill and once again saves money as you can find face cloths fairly cheap.
10. Cotton buds – I know you’re not supposed to use these in your ears but it’s a bad habit I have, and I also use them for makeup. I found out fairly recently that this was the only disposable item I was using in my daily routine and so looked into alternatives. I found lots of reusable versions made of silicone that you just have to clean after use and decided to give them a go. They work great and I’m so thankful that I got rid of this final single use item in my routine, even though I was already using plastic free ones.

Some of these changes many people have made in the last few years and others are becoming more common, if you’re intrigued by any of the points, I’d highly recommend researching them and giving them ago, they also all work out cheaper for you in the long run, a win-win really.