Simple Ways to reduce our Plastic use as a family
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Don’t know about you, but I’ve recently realised that I seriously need to up my game when it comes to reducing our plastic use. I guess I thought that I recycle, reuse, compost and upcycle with the best of them and that I bring my own bags to the supermarket and so maybe I was doing my bit? But like many of us, I was shaken by David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II and Liz Bonnin’s Drowning in Plastic on BBC 1 – both were full of shocking evidence of the ways in which we are choking our oceans. So, I looked into more ways we could reduce the amount of plastic we use.
It’s been estimated that we buy around a million plastic bottles a minute. A million plastic bottles! Most of them will never be reused.
When you consider that every single piece of plastic that we chuck away is left to rot on an ocean bed (and doesn’t rot when we come to think of it) what we face can feel overwhelming. How on earth can we make a difference as an individual, when the problem’s so huge?
But, we can’t go on as we are and it’s important we are role models for the next generation – so I’ve listed the few small ways we’ve tried to reduce our plastic waste as a family. There’s lots of things we are not doing yet that we could be and I’m guilty of using the time pressures that come with being a busy family of 6 as an excuse. But we’ve made a start and hopefully we can continue to cut down our plastic use further in the future.
Hope these are ideas are helpful to you as you also begin your plastic free journey with your family. If you’re already doing some of these then this post is helpful for those who are more advanced in this area!
Step One: Reducing our Plastic Use in the Home
We decided to start with reducing our plastic waste in the bathroom and thought I’d share some of them with you as I go. I’d love you to share your ideas with me too by leaving a comment at the end of this post if you have any other things we could try.
Reducing Plastic Use in the Bathroom
Shampoo Bars
We started our plastic free journey by trying some Shampoo Bars from the Friendly Soap Company and I was pleasantly surprised! Firstly, there’s a very large choice of different soap bars you can get – we liked the Lavender and Geranium small the best! The shampoo bars weren’t as drying on the hair as I thought they would be and they lather up nicely with lots of bubbles. The packaging is both fully recycled and recyclable. and although it’s more expensive £2.60 than traditional soap – the long-life nature of this bar means you won’t have to repurchase anytime soon, it lasted us longer than two bottles of liquid shampoo. I also preferred washing the kids hair with this – it was much easier.
Soap Bars
Rather than using shower gel, we’ve been trialing using soap bars instead. The Friendly Soap Company have a really wide variety to choose from including Shaving Soap Bars, Facial Cleansing and moisturising Soap Bars. Our favourite was the Orange and Grapefruit which smelt good enough to eat! Our only problem was the kids like playing with it in the bath and so it isn’t generally lasting us as long!
Make Up Remover
I was guilty of using make up remover wipes before so now I’ve replaced these with Washable Bamboo Make-up Remover pads which you wash in the washing machine. I’m still on the lookout for plastic free make up cleanser that isn’t ridiculously expensive so I’d love to hear your recommendations.
Bamboo Toothbrushes
We had tried Bamboo toothbrushes before but found them too soft. But with Bam & Boo toothbrushes you can choose your bristles and the colour (making it easier to distinguish between the kids!) Bam & Boo are a subscription service so you can choose to renew your toothbrushes every 1/2/3 or 4 months and they are delivered straight to your door so this was an easy swap!
Charcoal Dental Floss
I must admit, I had never thought about the impact of dental floss. Regular dental floss is just waxed nylon, rolled up in a small plastic box. Just like plastic, nylon is derived from crude oil. Unlike plastic, it does not take 500 years to decompose, but still around 50-80 years and it is dangerous to wildlife in the process. Georganics have some compostable dental floss which we tried and found it’s just as effective. The 30-metre floss is packed in a zero-waste and plastic free glass container; the metal dispensing lid allows to easily cut the floss. Once it’s finished, you can buy refills for your glass bottle. For more bathroom swaps, see these ideas.
Baby Wipes
Obviously baby wipes are not plastic free. But I didn’t feel quite ready to make the move to flannels just yet with my messy three year old! However, Aqua Wipes are a natural, 100% biodegradable, plastic free baby wipe with purified water and Organic Aloe Vera. I’m pleased we’ve made the switch to these baby wipes and not just for environmental purposes. They are the best baby wipes I’ve tried! They lift off any spill or grubbiness and they don’t dry out as easy as other baby wipes so they’re perfect for travel and when out and about!
Next Step: We’d like to try to reduce our plastic in toothpaste but so far we’ve only found expensive plastic free toothpaste – I’d love to know if you’ve found anything different!
Reducing Plastic Use in the Kitchen
Sponges and Dishcloths
Before #plasticfreejuly we used to use disposable dishcloths and sponges. Shocking when I think about it! We’re still using some up in the cupboard, but I was recommended these scrubbing cloths by a friend which seem really long lasting. You just pop them in the washing machine every now and then. We also have some of these reusable sponges which so far, have washed really well and are great for wiping surfaces, cleaning sinks etc….
Sandwich Bags
For our lunches, I’ve switched cling film or tin foil for reusable sandwich bags. We have these Keep Leaf Food Wraps which are very easy to wash/ wipe and so far the kids really like them and have remembered to bring them home and not throw them away at school!
Bowl Covers and Beeswax Wraps
We’re trying to negate the reason for cling film at all by using these Yumble bowl overs. So far this has worked really well. Not least because everything looks a lot prettier wrapped up in the fridge! These wraps from Islay come in a particularly lovely range of designs and they’re made on the beautiful island of Islay. The beeswax wraps stay on the food better than cling film too. However, the bowl overs can’t transport food because they are fabric and I will need to purchase some more beeswax wraps as three get used all the time. The initial cost is daunting but I’m hoping it saves us money overall.
Yoghurt Pots
It wasn’t something I’d thought about before but we get through lots of yoghurt in our house which also means lots of plastic pots! So when we were sent a yoghurt maker from Easiyo, it seemed the perfect chance to try making our own yoghurt. This is way easier than it sounds! You don’t need to plug in the Easiyo yoghurt maker or worry about batteries. It makes 1kg of yoghurt and preparation literally takes 5 minutes. You do however, have to wait 8-12 hours but you can make this before bed and then have for breakfast! The yoghurt mix comes in a full variety of flavours (we loved the blueberry) as well as low fat, low sugar and indulgent varieties. We haven’t quite worked out how to transport the yoghurt in lunch boxes without taking up too much room but we will definitely be using to cut down our yoghurt pot purchases.
Bamboo Straws
Swapping plastic straws for bamboo or steel is now very commonplace. It’s such a simple swap that people are happy to make the change which is great news because hopefully more changes will catch on and just be ‘the norm’ in the future. We use these Bamboo Straws from Yumbles.
Plastic Free Partyware
With 4 kiddos, we have a lot of parties and I dread to think how much we’ve thrown away over the years after parties! I have managed to recycle themes, we reused our digger themed decorations from Finlay’s 3rd birthday for Archie’s 3rd birthday last week! But there’s often a lot of plastic in birthday parties that we need to reduce. Laura at Make it Pop has the answer for eco-friendly parties! Her themed party tableware pages help make party planning a little easier for busy parents when it comes to pulling-off the ultimate sustainable themed party table. You can hire themed party packages of reusable party ware and she even stocks items for eco friendly party bags too! This is going to be our new go-to site for party planning from now on! I love this Mermaid Party theme…….
Next Step: Washing Powder and Cleaning Products
We’re going to try signing up with Earth Breeze Review where you can order bottles of cleaning products and then keep the plastic bottles and order refills which can be delivered through your letterbox. See a review of Earth Breeze Review
Step Two: Using your Voice and asking for Change
Plastic is almost inescapable. Trying to completely avoid plastic and reduce our use just isn’t realistic unless we get tough on the companies producing it. Since the initiative of paying for plastic bags came into force, it has taken over 9 billion plastic bags out of circulation and there has been an estimated 50% reduction in plastic bag marine litter. It is clear we need the government and supermarkets to make more changes to packaging and plastic use. Here are some ideas you could try as a family to try and put pressure to get new laws through parliament to tackle plastic pollution.
- Try sending back plastic waste that is avoidable to freepost addresses of supermarkets!
- Sign Friends of the Earth plastic pollution petition to get the government to end non-essential single plastic use.
- Use sites like Ebay and Gumtree to buy things second hand instead of always buying new.
- Use the Plastic Free July website to be inspired and find plastic free events near you!
- Sign the Greenpeace petition to ask the supermarkets to ditch throwaway plastic packaging.
*This post contains affiliate links* Some of the items have been gifted in exchange for a review but all words, thoughts and images are my own.
