What are your best eco swaps?

[SimpleComforts]

I'm particularly worried about single use plastics, as we seem to have completely abandoned all the work that was done over the last few years with the need for single use PPE and disposable cups etc for hygiene purposes. Some schools, for example, seem to have banned reusable water bottles.

I'm happy to pay a bit extra to do my bit, but I'm not made of money so it needs to be cost effective too. I just looked at getting milk from the milkman but it's almost 4 times the price of milk in a plastic carton from the supermarket!

Things I have done:

Canvas shopping bags.

Chillys water bottle

Reusable coffee cup

Weekly organic veg box that comes with only paper or cardboard packaging and the box goes back to be reused.

A delivery from the fishmonger, which comes wrapped in paper in a plastic crate that goes back. I freeze it in Tupperware.

I get a similar delivery from the butcher but he uses polystyrene trays and clingfilm or plastic bags.

I've ordered the trial of Smol DW and laundry tabs. Does anyone have an an opinion on their other products?

Looking at my recycling, it mostly seems to consist of yogurt pots (I buy the big ones and do reuse in the freezer, but there's a limit to how many you need), cleaning products and toiletries, plus plastic packaging from online orders.

What are your most successful and/or cost effective swaps?

DISCLAIMER I am not an agent and usually avoid MLM selling but a friend gave me a Tropic body pebble for my birthday and my hair and skin have never been softer. I buy online and at £8 it works out cheaply as lasts me at least 6 weeks.
I haven't bought anything else from them.

Lots of above I already do.

Soy mince in anything like chilli or bolognese. Keeps for a long time, doesn’t need refrigerated, most people can’t tell.

Bars for shampoo and conditioner.
Silicon liners for trays instead of baking parchment or tin foil.

Bread maker for bread. You can avoid palm oil and packaging.

Beeswax wraps
Mooncup
Cheeky wipes
Bamboo cotton buds
Smol
Ocean saver cleaning sachets
Loose leaf tea
"Pitt putty"
Little eco shop shampoo / conditioner bars

You can avoid soap residue by using either in a soap dish (ridged or otherwise designed so water drains and you can tip it out) or a soap bag and hang it. Soap bags are also great for cleaning and exfoliating and you can stick a load of too small to use bar soap pieces in and use them up.
We use "Carbolic" soap for cleaning just about everything. Shampoo and conditioner. Hand soap. Shaving soap. Washing up soap.

Safety razor instead of disposable or plastic.

Bamboo toothbrushes.

ECloth Mop.

Loofah washing up instead of sponge

Can't abide beeswax wraps, they stick to food and dont clean properly.

Eco egg instead of washing powder etc.

Solid shampoo, conditioner, soap and facial bar (all from thesoapmine.co.uk/)
Flannel
Milk delivery
Egg delivery
Veg box from farm shop
Cloths for cleaning made from old clothes, bibs etc
Where possible I buy things in recyclable packaging eg tinned rather than fresher in plastic.
Reusable nappies (when we used nappies)
Food waste bin

Mostly our black bin contains plastic packaging and all those odds and sods to that crop up now and then. We tend to have one bag a fortnight.

I'd like to look in to cleaning products as they are a source of plastic in our house. I do buy concentrated Dettol for surface cleaning but the bathroom seems to require several different potions.

Crisp packets are not recyclable here. Or cat food pouches, I did read of a scheme for collecting them, not sure which it was. You take them to a drop off point, like a box in someone's garden, and they are picked up from there.

We have used our own shopping bags for many years.
Have reusable coffee cups although I just take a mug and flask.
I have some of the little mesh bags for loose fruit & veg.
I tried to use tins of cat food so that the tins could be recycled, instead of pouches but have never found a cat that liked tinned food so failed with that one.

@Namechangeforthis88 thank you!

The same thing as the recycling contact lenses is recycling crisp packets to drop off www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/crisppacket

I have achieved better skin and zero waste by swapping out my facial cleanser for l'occitane soap, which is paper wrapped. It works beautifully, my skin has never been better. I have ditched all plastic-containered shower things except shampoo. Conditioner I have replaced with hair oil, which I use very sparingly.

Also, fabric panty liners. Much nicer than the plastic, itchy kind.

I forgot, our milkman is now doing refillable liquid soaps etc in glass bottles. Just like milk, you put them out and they get replaced with full ones (keeping the pump that you buy first time). We've got a liquid soap and washing up liquid in the kitchen. The bottles are attractive too. Not the cheapest though and this is the thing - we used to have an eco refill shop but it was so expensive, washing up liquid cost twice as much per mL as Fairy from the supermarket. The shop only lasted about a year, it closed before lockdown.

For cleaning products I use splosh (already mentioned by pp). If anyone’s interested use NEZMTX7Y8W referral code to get you 15% off your first order (it gets me £3 so feel free to use someone else’s instead!). This has been a game changer for our plastic as a lot of ours was cleaning products. Same as pp I use soap in the shower but I use refillable liquid soap by sinks as DDs kept on putting bars down the sinks.

I don’t bleach toilets but bulk buy citric acid to remove limescale rather than just turn it white.

A small one but this year when putting up my very amateurish hanging baskets I lined them first with plastic delivery packaging that I cut a few holes in for drainage.

The baskets are still flowering months later, I'm using less water on them and I've reused the plastic. A small win

Easily agreed - we've a zero waste shop in our town but everything is more expensive than supermarket prices and for all I know those giant bars of rice are filled with the cheapest basics equivalent!

I read a blog yesterday that said many areas of zero waste/eco living are a privilege to be able to afford ...

Still, if we all do as many things as we are able to afford it must help.

It is so much more expensive to be Eco friendly. It’s ok saying it’s cheaper in the long run, but if you haven’t the initial money for the outlay.

@EvilPea

It is so much more expensive to be Eco friendly. It’s ok saying it’s cheaper in the long run, but if you haven’t the initial money for the outlay.

This is so true and partly the reason I made my own cloths etc. Although I appreciate my privilege in having the ability and tools to do so. I started a thread a while ago asking for advice about making san pro and was told it was a lot of messing about when I could buy some for £25. I don't have £25, but do have a large stash of fabric!

We have a refill shop here, but i just can't afford to shop there. Likewise milk and more. 1pt is 81p, in morrisons i pay 25p per pint. And yes I know, farmers shouldn't be selling their milk so cheap, but i genuinely can't afford the more expensive stuff :(

I feel bad because I could do more, but then I'm doing more than a lot of others.

I’m the same, wish I could do more, but can only do what I can afford. it’s so disappointing when you try something and it’s shit or you just can’t get on with it.
It’s truly wasted money then.

Good on you with making your own san pro, and clothes. I’m shit at sewing but do my best at mending things.

I find with the eco shop I use some stuff works out much cheaper, other stuff more expensive. Herbs and spices are so cheap it's ridiculous. It turns out when you buy them in a glass jar with a plastic lid you are mostly paying for the glass jar and plastic lid. Filling up my bay leaves for 10p sticks out in my mind.

I've started getting dried pulses there, that's crazy cheap. It wasn't a priority before because tins are easily recycled and make life easier but better to have nothing to recycle and as I'm still working from home it's no bother to boil the chickpeas for an hour before getting into the proper cooking. They are nicer too.

I find some stuff is more expensive there because for some stuff loose is still a niche market and it's only the small, organic suppliers selling it. Hopefully the more of us buy refills the more there is an economy of scale.

I've got £15 worth of solid shampoo and conditioner that I dont like and £20 worth of beeswax wraps that I can't get on with. Its infuriating.

I haven't made my own clothes (yet). I crocheted a load of cleaning cloths though

Washable cotton pads
Recycled toilet paper
Also didn’t get along with splash so if I don't make it myself we use ecover/method.
Bar soap (Haven’t found a shampoo that works well in my hair yet, taking recommendations though)
Refillable deodorant (i use Wild, None seem strong enough to work for DD though, we’ve tried a few brands over the years, again taking recommendations).
Good quality metal razors for everyone. Haven’t had to buy a new one in at least 5 years (just blades)
Everyone has their own metal Bento style lunchboxes/water bottles with bamboo cutlery & reusable straws.
Beeswax wraps are to expensive for the amount we’d need so I have a few but also use a mix of silicone covers and the Lakeland reusable elasticated cling film type covers (they’ve been going 4 years now!) for leftovers/fridge stuff.
And we’re vegetarian-consume minimal dairy (e.g we only eat it if its baked into a cake someone’s made us), trying to persuade everyone else to cut out eggs so we can make the jump to vegan. Use the greengrocers for as much as possible-I Always have a tote bag tucked in my handbag for impromptu shopping.

Looking over it we seem to be a fussy family, always a struggle to find products we all get along with But I try my best!

Gousto or hello fresh is good for reducing food waste (I found that my weekly bill didn’t go up much but had less surplus food).
Considering getting a metal razor which take blades so no more disposable or rusted razors.
Buying less lunches with excessive packaging has also helped due to wfh so hope to keep that up when back to work.

Eco egg for laundry. It's a plastic egg but refillable.
Ocean saver for cleaning products, microfibre cloths instead of sponges.
Wild deodorant.
Don't bother with smol DW tabs, have the same ingredients as the Aldi ones which also come in cardboard and are half the price.
Lush shampoo and conditioner bars are amazing, my £9 conditioner bar has been going since January.
Waiting for my mega stash (2 years worth and counting..) of sandwich bags to run out before I swap to silicon.
Bought a few sets of cheap metal cutlery for parties etc instead of plastic.
Any recommendations for eco fabric softener??

Hi OP

I've been buying my liquid hand soap online at www.highlandsoaps.com/handmade-soap/hand-wash

The soaps don't dry out my skin and even better the 1 litre refills come in glass bottles. When I fill up my plastic dispenser I dilute the soap slightly with water so I don't use as much and the refill lasts longer.
Free postage if you spend more than £40. The bars of soap are lovely too

I also like gruum products - I've tried the shampoo and body bars
www.gruum.com