Reducing single-use/disposable plastic

74 watchers
Feb 2018
11:59am, 15 Feb 2018
3,055 posts
  •  
  • 0
run free
With many trying to reduce the need to use single-use/disposable plastic, thought it might be good to have a thread to encourage and share.

BYOR (Bring Your Own Reusable): Thermal Cup, Water bottle, plate, cutlery, foldable bag - these are things I take to work and use in the canteen. Have also managed to encourage some of the local takeaways to accept containers and provide a small discount

Food shopping:

- Loose veg and fruit. I refuse to buy them if they are in plastic which does mean I sometimes miss out. However my local market is pretty good
- Found oats in a box (Scott's and Quakers and apparently Lidl do it cheaper)
- Canned stuff
- Lidl used to sell loose nuts

Being mostly vegetarian (am not when visiting my aunt) am finding problems some foods without plastic (such as pulses; veg protein) - but maybe need to explore alternatives better.....or go back to being a meat eater as can get that plastic free from the butchers. My only problem is - I don't use a fridge at the moment. Going to have to work that one thru....

- If I were a mother - I'd try communication elimination. Have a couple of friends recommend that to me and swear by it as it has saved them a load of money on nappies and the babies were potty trained much earlier.

- Toothpaste - have made my own and the dentist visit gave me confidence it was working well (bicarb of soda + coconut oil + salt + tumeric) though he was concerned that I might have a lack of fluoride.
- Mouth wash - oil pulling with a virgin oil (olive oil or coconut oil or seasame oil, etc) - only needs a teaspoon and sucking thru the teeth for about 10 mins.

Okee that's my starter for now.
Feb 2018
12:30pm, 15 Feb 2018
7,605 posts
  •  
  • 0
becca7
Isn't going back to eating meat, with all the environmental impact that that entails, a bit disproportionate when you can get beans, lentils and other foodstuffs in tins and in some places loose?
Feb 2018
12:35pm, 15 Feb 2018
3,056 posts
  •  
  • 0
run free
Hey Becca7 - currently haven't found places where I live selling it loose. Prefer it to tins....and just recently found out that tins have a plastic liner :(
Feb 2018
12:37pm, 15 Feb 2018
3,302 posts
  •  
  • 0
Curly45
We have gone to glass milk bottles via milk and more - which also means we can have organic milk and proper west country butter, cheese and eggs :)

I am thinking through how we can reduce plastic bottle use now, so next steps are likely to be:
Bar soaps
washing powder instead of liquids
Some replacement for washing up liquid
Biodegradable bin liners

One of the problems is we use online shopping and despite me ordering loose veg & fruit they do tend to wrap stuff like bananas in plastic bags!
Feb 2018
12:38pm, 15 Feb 2018
3,303 posts
  •  
  • 0
Curly45
Oh and pryamid tea bags because they dont tend to contain plastic...
Feb 2018
12:55pm, 15 Feb 2018
13,656 posts
  •  
  • 0
Carpathius
Splosh for replacement washing up liquid and spray cleaner - they're really good. Their clothes washing liquid not so good.

017BBB as a referral code; gives you £5 off I think.
Feb 2018
12:56pm, 15 Feb 2018
3,057 posts
  •  
  • 0
run free
Hey @curly45 - thanks - that is awesome. I haven't tried an online delivery as walk to the shops, but am wondering if any of the boxed options might work. Wonder if anyone has tried them?

independent.co.uk
Feb 2018
12:57pm, 15 Feb 2018
13,657 posts
  •  
  • 0
Carpathius
Bar soaps are often hard to find without plastic wrapping which is usually not recyclable. Dove do them but you have to find them separately and not in a pack of two.
Feb 2018
1:08pm, 15 Feb 2018
3,058 posts
  •  
  • 0
run free
@carpathius Splosh looks really good. Thank you for the referral code :D
Feb 2018
1:09pm, 15 Feb 2018
4,257 posts
  •  
  • 0
Wine Legs
That winds me up about soap. And most multi-buys. Why do they get encased in plastic? Why can't supermarkets just price for multiples? So, if you buy 2x boxes of soap, you get charged a slightly lower price per bar than if you bought one bar. Same goes for tins of beans etc.

About This Thread

Maintained by run free
Information about Plastic Packaging:
UK: wrap.org.uk

EU: ec.europa.eu

What products have microbeads?
beatthemicrobead.org

To help you reduce try one level at a time:https://tyrelady.wordpress.com/support-the-challenges/



What the EU is doing:
europa.eu

- currently the UK will be following SOME of the EU measures.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

Terms used to describe plastic:
1. Biodegradable (also oxi-biodegradable)
2. Bioplastic
3. Compostable
4. Plastic that potentially could be recycled (has numbers)
5. Plastic that cannot be recycled

Some resources:
BBC's info on the numbers on Plastics:
news.bbc.co.uk

The misconceptions of biodegradable plastics from an academic:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.7b04051?src=recsys&

Understanding plastic terms:
wrap.org.uk

Bioplastic developments as seen by British Plastic

britishplastics.co.uk

Related Threads

  • environment
  • recycling









Back To Top
X

Free training & racing tools for runners, cyclists, swimmers & walkers.

Fetcheveryone lets you analyse your training, find races, plot routes, chat in our forum, get advice, play games - and more! Nothing is behind a paywall, and it'll stay that way thanks to our awesome community!
Get Started
Click here to join 112,265 Fetchies!
Already a Fetchie? Sign in here