to ask what you're doing to reduce your use of plastics?

[k2p2k2tog]

Lots of coverage on the BBC yesterday about how we used to ship loads of plastics for recycling to China, and China have said they aren't taking it any more.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42455378

Of course recycling is a good thing. But that should come third after reduce and reuse.

Plastics are an environmental nightmare - we can't avoid all plastics but we can certainly reduce what we're using. I've just ordered reusable sandwich wraps for the kids to take to school rather than wrapping in cling film. Little steps. If everyone does a little bit, we can reduce the total amount of plastics.

So what are you doing???

Using soap instead of shower gel is not good for your skin

That's a joke right?

No I don’t holiday abroad, largely for carbon footprint reasons. And beer can rings are non-recyclable so will not be shipped overseas, they’re burned locally.

Seems a bit facile to try and salve your conscience with 'the beer can holder is not my fault'.

We're all at fault, in one or another.

amazing you've never had a beer in another country - not many people can say that.

or a soft drink even

Evilring you do realise that most areas of the country do not have incinerator don't you?

The whole thing is fucked up. What is being done about the manufactures and retailers that are producing this stuff? I can’t understand why the onus is on us to change our behaviour to try to force them to change theirs it really doesn’t make sense.
It’s all very well for the governments to implement a new recycling system every month and tell us we’re the cause of all the ills of the planet but if the manufacturers and retailers would do what they are supposed to do then we would adapt accordingly. We can’t use what isn’t available to buy.

Yes I recycle and have as little food waste as possible etc and I definitely think everyone should do what they can but it really pisses me off

DH drinks litres of lime and soda water every day. he is diabetic and drinks a lot! We have invested in a soda stream and loving the results. Same taste, no outlay once initial cost is covered, and use the same bottles over and over. We worked out that previously drinking 3 bottles a day at 40p a bottle, it was costing £33 a month or £403 a year! And 21 bottles a week to recycle!!!
Not any more.

I think Soda Stream are based in illegally occupied Palestinian land.

I would choose a more ethical alternative.

Using soap instead of shower gel is not good for your skin

Depends on the soap. Nice bar of something soothing from Lush vs bottle of Radox. I know which one feels better for my skin anyway.

I use a plastic drinking bottle and refill it wherever I go. Yes, it's plastic but a glass one would be so heavy, surely?! I walk most places with a big enough heavy bag as it is without adding to it.

Using soap instead of shower gel is not good for your skin.

Someone hasn't joined the revolution

heron multi use plastics are not really the issue and so your drinking bottle is fine. If you were buying a bottle of water every day then your consumption of single use plastics would be high and that's something we can change.

I’m all in favour of reducing waste, litter, fossil fuels and greenhouse emissions, but it’s a bit simplistic to make it all about the plastic mountain in the sea which is largely not a UK-consumer-waste problem.

Reducing plastic bag use by reusing them or putting your shopping in your pocket is an excellent idea. Reducing them by encouraging shops to substitute strong paper bags with a much larger carbon/water footprint or building up a huge stockpile of free cotton/nylon bags (guilty as charged) because “plastic, boo” may not be so great.

'the beer can holder is not my fault'.

That specific thing might not be your fault. But what about earbuds?

Many of them get flushed down the loo, or otherwise escape from the waste collection stream into the sea. Walk along any beach at the high tide line and you will see thousands of them. I went to south Wales the summer before last and one evening went to the beach. Had a bag with me so spent a good half hour picking up litter. So much of it was cotton bud sticks.

Then there's the nurdles. These are little gravel sized grains of plastic that are used in the manufacture plastic goods and items like packaging. They're transported around the world on container ships. Many of the containers get lost overboard in stormy seas, the nurdles escape the rusting shells, then get washed up on beaches around the world in their trillions. And ingested by fish and marine creatures. Anyone but anyone who consumes plastic items in their life is responsible for their share this. Again, look on the beach around the tide line and you will spot loads of this plastic gravel.

What are FMCG manufacturers doing that is so wrong?

What are FMCG manufacturers doing that is so wrong?

Putting unnecessary packaging on everything. I don't need my avocado in a polystyrene tray with reinforced cardboard edges and then shrink wrapped in plastic.

RebeccaBunch re: coffee pods, yup. That new 'gold' one being advertised on TV horrifies me. Why do we need such self-indulgent and wasteful things? Even the inventor of the coffee pods admits that he wishes he'd never invented them.

Sorry haven't RTFT. But thanks for your input Stepawayfromgoogle, really useful.
And to the poster who asked if you could take your own paper bags to the supermarket for veg, I just buy, weigh and pay for them loose. And then put them in my shopping bag (reusable linen of course!). However, I still end up buying plastic bags of 6 apples, or a plastic tray of tomatoes wrapped in film, so plenty of room for improvement!

swapped from isngle use sandwich bags to multi use sandwich boxes. try to use bread bags for lunches on school trips, and as bin bags. also try to use the recycled plastic aldi shopping bags rather than single use plastic bags... though ex does not seem to get the message.

failing as buy from aldi and many things are packed in plastic.

They put in the amount of packaging that is required to protect the product. As has been pointed out already, food waste is very costly.

They put in the amount of packaging that is required to protect the product. As has been pointed out already, food waste is very costly.

No they don't craftygin, as evidenced by the fact that I can buy cherry tomatoes in a single small bag without excess plastic, or I can buy them in a plastic tray, half full, surrounded by the plastic bag (twice the size it needs to be). Both perfectly good in terms of "protecting the product" and ensuring that the correct quantity is taken.

I’ve never seen loose cherry tomatoes. If they did exist in my supermarket, I’d still choose the ones in the trays. They have to survive being squished in my vegetable drawer.

They don’t always just use the amount necessary to protect the product Crafty.

Some apples come in simple plastic bags, some in plastic bags over cardboard sleeves, some in plastic wrap over moulded polystyrene trays. It’s all the same fruit. And sometimes the cheapest veg will come unpacked whilst the organic stuff is wrapped so they can tell the difference for charging purposes - I can see why they do it but you’d hope there was a better way. I do think it’s worth continuing to push retailers and manufacturers for more efficient packaging, as long as it’s genuinely more efficient.

They're not loose, they just come in a bag

But you're determined to argue with everything anyway so...