Life before plastic

[ifigoup]

What did people use before plastics were everywhere? I don’t mean hundreds of years ago when most people lived in filth and had a miserable quality of life; I mean from, say, the late 19th century, when lots of aspects of society then are still pretty recognizable today.

I feel as though if I knew more about what people used before plastics, I’d be encouraged to try some of them and thereby reduce my own plastic use. In the scheme of things it really isn’t very long that plastic’s been ubiquitous, but we seem to have totally naturalized it, and we all know we can’t carry on the way we are.

I know part of the answer is that there are just so many more products now that wouldn’t even have existed in the past and that in all honesty we could probably do without entirely. But what did people use instead of plastic stuff in the following kinds of situations?

Washing up bowls (big ceramic bowls like old-fashioned mixing bowls? Just directly in the kitchen sink?)

Cups and plates for babies/toddlers who are still in the “throw everything on the floor” phase (metal mugs and dishes like you might use for camping? Just accept normal glass and ceramic stuff would get broken?)

Containers for products like facial cleanser and moisturiser (I know we have lots more products now, but in the early/mid 20th century people definitely already used stuff like “cold cream”: what was it contained in? Glass jars?)

Bringing home raw meat, fish etc. (People had their own shopping bags and baskets but what was raw meat etc. actually wrapped up in? Just paper?)

Shampoo, washing up liquid etc. (Did people just use solid soap for everything like this?)

It was common for people to take their own containers to local shops to be filled with produce; e.g. own jug filled with beer, own dish filled with chips.

Cables were fabric covered I'm guessing. Not sure about plugs, ceramic maybe. It's quite depressing how surrounded in plastic tat we are. I can't imagine it being banned as we've become so reliant.

What annoys me is the plastic for dry goods like porridge etc what can’t that be in recycled paper bags? Also why are cucumbers shrink wrapped? I buy loose where I can - I remember mushrooms in brown bags but now they are in a plastic box with film.

I get people trying to helpfully point out where the bags are, when I’m doing my veg shopping, because I weigh the veg and stick the labels on my shopping bag. I don’t need the extra plastic, thanks. As well as the obvious impact on the environment, it’s just more work to unpack the fruit/veg when I get haome and more rubbish taking up space in my bin.

I know it’s not what the OP is talking about, but I’m planning on making unpaper kitchen rolls this weekend. I’m very wasteful when it comes to kitchen rolls and hate drawers full of clothes, so I’m looking forward to trying this.

I'm very up for reducing plastic use, but I think the cucumber example that @MrsPear just gave is because cucumbers have a significantly longer shelf life when shrink-wrapped. I think the thinking there is that for a relatively small amount of plastic you get much less food waste. I'll see if I can dig out a link.

Fresh food bought daily. Lots more stuff made st home from raw ingredients rather than convince prepackaged in plastic.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/a-lesson-in-packaging-myths-is-shrink-wrap-on-a-cucumber-really-mindless-waste-8340812.html%3famp

@ThisCoolBean
I had this exact bowl when I was a kid (in the 90s) and my mum still uses it now for my kids

I'm 53. I remember packaging as mostly cardboard and tin. I used to go with my nan to the butchers every week and all meat was wrapped in paper, as was fish from the fishmonger.

We didn't do huge monthly shops, the supermarkets were just not so big then. My mum did a weekly shop at Kwiksave, and to the fishmonger and butcher, grocers for fruit and veg, bakers for bread. My nan baked. We had a chandlers shop over the road for things like paraffin and hardware, and a corner shop. We had proper heavy duty shopping bags.

If we had picnics out or packed lunches it was all wrapped in paper.

My father worked in a dairy, would probably be called farm shop now. I remember going into the big cold rooms where the cheese and butter were stored. Milk was in glass bottles. He would bring home two chickens on a Friday wrapped in paper, one for us and one for my nan.

But generally we just had much less stuff.

I was born in the 60's. I remember having smaller version metal fork and spoons for eating with. My high chair was wooden, so was my rocking horse. Nappies were cloth, and the covers were rubber pants, or nothing, the terry cloth ones were so thick, they didn't cover them sometimes, and just checked them regularly.
I had a ceramic baby cup with two handles, no lid, I was helped with it till I could handle it on my own without chocking myself. Kids don't need to wander with cups. All food and drink was at the table only.
food all came in paper or glass or ceramic containers.
Lots of things (stardrops cleaner comes to mind) came in a returnable bottle. You took it back to the shop for your deposit back, or bought another and the returned bottle was your deposit.
Bread came unsliced in a sheet of tissue paper. All the paper was used to start the fire.
Shopping for clothes all the good shops provided paper bags with their name on. Then you added them all into a reusable bag or basket to take home.
I had stopped using paper towels in the kitchen years ago. I had ended up with a massive piles of old holey tea towels (cut to size) and microfibre cloths. Used a few each day for various tasks then had a bucket by the washing machine I threw them in, once the bucket was full (usually less than a week) I put them on a hot wash and reused them.

It's mad isn't it. We always had the means to exist with barely any plastic use but choose not to.

When I was little my parents shopped the high street for food. Half a brown twinnie in the oven door. Tins on the co op. Queue in a line for fruit and veg in tregenzas. Not forgetting the guardian in the paper shops. They had stout shopping bags. As did everyone. Meat from the butchers and pop in a glass bottle from the newsagent at the end of the road.
The only thing that came in plastic was flora and my saved every tub and kept things in them like lolly sticks.

We have lost our post war survival instincts

Cables for electric were that braided fabic looking cover and plugs were made of the old bakalite material

I remember mushrooms in brown bags but now they are in a plastic box with film.

Some supermarkets still sell them loose.

The other thing about not having a fridge, and having to shop several times a week, was that people only bought what they needed and knew they would use in the next few days, because it wouldn't keep. So there was much less waste.

Plus nearly everyone who was running a home in the 'fifties and 'sixties would have grown up with rationing, when nothing was wasted.

I’m 48. It seems only recently that things like ketchup, mayonnaise, squash and mustard have come in plastic bottles. In fact I remember my (now) 90 year old aunt making all those things from scratch. I’ve made a big effort recently to start buying as much as possible as I can in glass or metal packaging, or loose.

Why is flour sold in paper bags, but pasta, rice and many other dry goods are in plastic/cellophane?

The very first electric plugs were made of metal. Not very safe!

I agree with BikeRunSki - things came in glass bottles when I was a child. The only plastic ketchup bottles you saw were refillable ones in cafes.

My great uncle worked in the co-op and told stories of slicing bits off blocks of butter for customers, so that removed all the butter tubs. Same for cheese, although there are 2 delis near me where you can buy cheese off a block and take it home in a paper bag. He says foods like yoghurt just didn't really exist, and when they did start to be popular they were in glass jars and quite expensive. We throw away so many yoghurt pots.
Loose fruit and veg, it's not hard. We just don't want the slight inconvenience of it all, and I include myself in that, I'm no better.

There is a shop opened near us where everything is sold loose and you go in with your own containers. But it's in a very busy street with no parking so you would have to lug all your containers home on the bus.

I think the increase in women working out of the house has meant that shopping little and often is not so practical any more so people want things to last longer.

We're trapped in a vicious circle really I think.

I take hope that we are beginning to turn our backs on plastic. Most supermarkets now let you take your own containers and lots (but not all) fruit and veg is package free due to consumer pressure. We have to keep this up. Buy the bananas which are loose, not in the plastic bag. Shampoo and conditioner bars are available and work well.soap instead of bottles of shower gel. Stop buying plastic lunches on the go. Say no when offered a bag.lots of little things add up to making a difference.

Tupperware was a big deal when it arrived. My parents still have some of their originals from the 60s. I can remember taking a drink to playgroup in a lidded tumbler, my name written on a strip of sticking plaster.

Ice cream came in a paper wrapped block, to be sliced and sandwiched between wafers or stuck in a rectangular cone.

Pills came in brown glass bottles, and stuff like baking powder came in lidded tins. Marmite jars had metal lids.

Quite a lot of product packaging hasn’t changed much - treacle and golden syrup tins, oxo. Quality street sweets were wrapped in foil and cellophane in a tin.

billybagpuss My nana and great nana's used to call the kitchen bin a 'bit-bin' I've never heard anyone else call it that. I still call it a 'bit-bin' even now and DD's have started to use that term.

OP, I can remember glass baby bottles, even though I'm in my late 30's, my mum used them for both of us along with reusable nappies etc.
My DD's did a school project last term about plastic, waste and single use plastic so we have been making small changes to how we use things in the house etc. We have a stash of stainless steel straws which came with a drawstring cloth bag so you can take them out with you. Sandwiches are wrapped in grease proof paper (I'm coveting some of those silicone, dishwasher safe, reusable food bags for things like sandwiches etc) We buy our fruit and veg from our local market, and have done for years, the fruit and veg is weighed and tipped into our cloth bags that we take with us. We buy lots of things loose, like dry dog food, pasta, condiments etc.

I can remember one of my great nana's buying her gin loose, she used to take a huge ceramic pot with a cork in it to the corner shop where they had massive ceramic barrels with gin and whisky etc in them. She also used to buy her parma violets loose

(in spite of each bottle being worth money if returned to seller) There was lots more broken glass in public places. Where I grew up was warm enough to go barefoot lots, so lots of glass got in my feet. That's one thing I don't miss.

Sweet shops. Everything in giant glass jars behind the counter and you asked for what you wanted. It was then weighed and put in small paper bags. And I can remember when Milky Way and similar were in waxed paper too.

Hairbrushes had real bristles set in a wooden handle.

My really big bugbear at the moment - cat food. None of that pouch nonsense, it was all in tins. And dog food was displayed in great wobbly slabs, and they'd cut you off however much you wanted.

MyDobermanIsABeaut1 my grandma had her 'bit tidy' which was the bin in her sitting room. She was from the North East, maybe it was a regional thing?

On the detergent thing - the kids were fascinated when we went to Beamish and there was a woman in the Victorian houses doing her laundry. She explained how she'd grate bits off a big bar of carbolic soap or similar to dissolve in hot water, and then use it to wash the clothes. Washing up liquid for dishes wasn't around until the 1940s, so before that I'd imagine you'd use the same bar of soap for washing clothes, dishes, floors, kitchen cupboards, hair, bodies... everything.

And nowadays you've got Instagram cleaning "celebrities" convincing their minions that you need dozens of different products to do everything the VIctorian housewife did with a bar of soap.