One of my goals for 2017 was to reduce my plastic use and it is one I have found very difficult as plastic is everywhere!
The thing I have most succeeded in is cutting my use full stop by taking my lunch into work most of the time so I am not buying any disposable packaging. I have also been using my re-usable travel mug as most disposable coffee cups aren’t recyclable due to their plastic lining to keep them water tight.
One area I have really succeeded in sourcing alternatives is the bathroom. I have long used bar soap to wash my hands and now have forgone shower gel in plastic bottles for soap as well. My Mum bought me a pack of soap ends (so they are reducing waste as well) from Bomb Cosmetics once and I have been working my way through these at bath time.
For shampoo I was tempted by Lush’s bars but was put off by the Sodium Laureth Sulphates so I found this alternative bar which is also free from palm oil.
Then we have toilet paper. I saw adverts for this Australian company Who Gives A Crap online. They sell toilet paper and kitchen paper which is either made from recycled paper or sustainable bamboo. Each roll is wrapped in recycled paper in funky colours and half of all their profits go to Water Aid to build toilets in the developing world. When ordering your toilet paper online you have to keep track of your supplies before you run out, but as the smallest number you can buy is 24 rolls it’s pretty easy to keep well stocked.
In the kitchen we get most of our vegetables in a Riverford veg box so they are naked and we order our shopping from Ocado. The shopping is delivered in bags with where the food goes labelled on it (fridge/freezer/cupboard) for easy unloading and they collect the plastic bags back including non-Ocado ones and take 5p off your shopping for each bag.
I have seen articles online about Hackney’s Bulk Market which I am tempted to visit, my only reservation being how much I would be able to carry back on the train!
I am always looking for more tips and hints about reducing my plastic use so if you have any recommendations let me know in the comments below.
Plumes x
The World according to Plumes 
That is so cool! I want to get that toilet paper too! 😀 xxxx
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It does give you the warm and fuzzies!
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I think I’m going to do all my Christmas shopping there! 😀
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(don’t tell anyone 😉 )
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Good luck with your endeavours. I have been a massive plastic user in the past, but not any more. The nation/world needs to be educated. Packaging / labelling controls should be stricter and displayed on the front of packaging alongside the recycling information, with companies given a deadline of when to make all packaging recyclable. The single-use plastic bag culture is thankfully dying out in the UK, I look forward to hearing what the government’s next step will be.
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Thank you Jane! Yes hopefully single use plastic will come to the end, I look forward forward to more water fountains to refill water bottles.
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Great post – we’ve made a new year’s resolution to do the same. Thanks for sharing your finds 😀
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Thank you, just looking through your posts, must try and just fry potatoes rather than buying frozen chips!
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Or you could make oven chips from scratch – absolutely delicious and no frying necessary: just scrub your potatoes, chop them into chips or wedges and steam them for ten minutes until they’re just starting to soften. Then tip them into a large bowl and stir in a tablespoon or two (depending on how many chips you’ve got) so that they’re all coated in oil but not swimming in it. Spread them onto an oven tray and bake in a hot oven (220 degrees c) for half an hour. Absolutely scrummy 😀
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ps Waitrose told me that they send all their plastic bags to Asia for recycling because there aren’t the facilities to do it over here and I bet if Waitrose do it, so do a lot of other companies. Not surprising then that, according to Avaaz, 90% of the plastic in the oceans comes from just 10 rivers in Asia and Africa! That means the plastic we are diligently putting out for recycling could be ending up in the oceans. You can’t trust anyone! The only way to be sure we’re not part of the problem is to take control of it ourselves and not buy any new plastic in the first place. Thanks again for your inspiring post 🙂
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[…] It’s not difficult to buy recycled toilet roll and kitchen roll, but getting it without plastic wrapping is impossible. Or so I thought until I opened a wonderful Christmas gift from Miranda – toilet rolls: 100% recycled paper wrapped in nothing but 100% recycled paper! (She discovered them thanks to a post by The World According To Plumes) […]
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