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???

Thanks coffee. I'm glad bagless is an option. Might look into that then!

Greenteandchives
I hate plastic straws. Especially since seeing a sea turtle on FB post with one up his nose. Seeing as they are so plentiful at beach resorts and on cruise ships, I wish they could be banned. I will never buy them or have them in a drink when out.

Me too. I think they're a really pointless use of plastic that can just be eliminated if everyone refuses to buy or use them.

You can buy about 300 paper bags on eBay for about £2. I put sandwiches in those. Also sandwiches taste better.

Really pisses me off how Ikea bang on about sustainable living, see their last 'Lagom ' magazine, but have literal arches of plastic straw displays in their stores in the summer. Think how many of those they must sell world wide.

I come on threads like this for ideas. Trying to reduce your plastic use is an uphill struggle against the flow and I realise we're like dots compared to the world at large. But you have to live with yourself. Though some posters on here seem to be really pissed off just that it exists. Smug, naive, six yr old knows better, stupid Doris' ( wtf), patronising, blah blah.

This thread reminded me to dig out our old Cheeky Wipes for SIL (due any day with DN1). She's already been given a set of reusable nappies by someone else.

*It would be interesting to know the environmental impact of grocery delivery

When Ocado first launched, they said a weekly shop from them had a much lower carbon footprint than a typical shop from a supermarket

The main reasons were that in their warehouse, lighting was much lower than in a shop, and fridges and freezers had doors on them which were only opened when staff took something out
So the energy consumption was much lower than a brightly lit shop with open fridges (and presumably, heating on at the same time)

And the way they organise their deliveries mean their van journeys are more efficient than several households all driving to and from a shop

I don't know if they update the stats regularly but it was an interesting read at the time

I can see that warehouse-model grocery delivery would have a lower environmental impact than pick-in-store.

It's also surely more efficient to have one fully-laden van doing a long loop than (say) six cars doing the full journey with a few bags each.

Really pisses me off how Ikea bang on about sustainable living
seems a bit rich when you consider how throwaway and flimsy some of their furniture is?

Ocado at one time claimed that deliveries from them were more energy efficient than walking to the supermarket. The rationale being that their single warehouse took a fraction of the energy of the hundreds of supermarket branches needing to be run and stocked.

has anyone given up disposable razors and taken up with razor blades?

Frankly the whole idea terrifies me - but I used to be terrified of mooncups too and now I am completely in love with them, so I'm open to persuasion re razors.

I keep my own soap in a plastic soap dish with lid ( I know it's all lasting but it can be washed out) but still have shower gel to use up

Decided today I'm not buying anymore plastic squirty bottles of bathroom/kitchen cleaner .Most of them are just marketing hype.Hot soapy water cleans just as well,and can always add a tiny bit of bleach for disinfecting if needed.I've never liked all the antibacterial products anyway.

Trying to do a lot more lately, but know I've got a fair way to go to, switched from shower gel to soap.
Have a little wrap that has knife, fork, spoon, chopsticks and metal straw, so if I need to get a take out or something when away I don't need to use the plastic throwaway utensials.

Got some little net bags to use when shopping for veg etc so don't have to use the plastic bags the supermarkets have.

I've made beeswax wraps for my sandwiches as neighbour has beehives so I have a seem to have a never ending supply of honey and beeswax!

I switched to soap for purely selfish reasons as it kills bacteria in my puts better than shower gel. 6Yo DS was jealous of my soap so i put some in his Christmas stocking and he was over the moon! I now have a child who loves the bath and smells of lavendar

We don't use wrapping paper. I hemmed bolts of Christmassy fabric and made different sized drawstring bags some years ago and they come out every year. We all love seeing them again. I was on a thread about 'do you wrap stocking gifts' and said no because it is wasteful and the stocking is wrapping enough - you'd think i had admitted to skinning cats to make boots and then kicking puppies with them! I also have a handful of these bags for birthdays- they are great, save money and space and are multi-use.

We all have refillable water bottles, a necessity here in Spain due to the scorchio! And luckily can dry clothes outside pretty much 350 days of the year.

I have sewn cute tote bags for shopping and made a couple of really durable bags out of broken umbrellas - strong, waterproof, pretty.

We don't buy ds magazines with tat. We don't go to Macs/BK with their free gifts. We do go to a local place that gives kids a balloon, lolly, pack of 4 crayons and big colouring/activity sheet, so he isn't completely deprived!

Spain doesn't really go in for 2nd hand clothes, so charity shop shopping isn't an option. A shame as i love shopping this way. We do pass outgrown ds clothes to friends and receive bigger stuff for him from others, but these friends aren't Spanish. They have an obsession with the new which understandable as parents/grandparents grew up under Franco. I'm in Catalunya which was severely fucked over.

Anyhoo... We try and do what we can. I have never heard of metal straws so will look into them. I think it is better for dc to drink juice from straws as it goes straight down the throat and spends less time swishing around teeth. I could be talking bollocks though

Due to post-birth pain i cannot use a mooncup but have made a batch of reusable pads.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/258839/

I always get antibacterial handwash/soap
Normal soap cleans but it doesn't kill bacteria.

I haven’t used soap since the 1970s!

Why would I use a highly alkaline product on my skin, rather than something that is skin-neutral and packed with beneficial compounds? Soap is horrible for trans-epidermal water loss, ie for drying out and aging the skin.

To use a waxed paper wrapping, rather than a recyclable bottle? No thanks.

Mrs Hathaway, re delivered groceries.

I can see how the bulk nature of selecting and distributing groceries may be good, as many things done in bulk are generally cost savings.

IME, though, even though Ocado has a £40 minimum, it is so easy to over-order by clicking through all the special offers. When you buy too much fresh food, inevitably a lot of the excess gets wasted.

When you shop every day or two for just what you need, there’s virtually no waste.

I imagine that any models about energy costs of an Ocado van versus going to Sainsbury’s don’t take account of food waste.

Consumer shopping habits are changing rapidly, so it’s hard to find a relevant up-to-date study.

Finding this thread very interesting, as pp have said although it's big companies that do the damage we as consumers can at least do our bit. As a family we don't use bottled water, or fizzy drinks or straws and we don't buy takeaway coffees/drinks so that's a good start. I wash clothes, sheets towels etc only when they need it and I don't have a dryer. I use bleach and sprays very sparingly and don't use air freshesners or anything like that. However with five dc including teens who are avid consumers there is lots more we need to do. We are not wasteful generally I don't think in our house but we do use a lot of plastic including sandwich bags. I am going to reuse them a few times each for now then replace them with reusable ones as mentioned uptrend. I am also going to switch to bars of soap from bottles of soap and shower gel, it is ridiculous how much of the stuff we go through weekly. I will rtft when I have more time and hopefully get lots of tips that I can put into practice.

@CraftyGin - have a look at The Soap Thread to see why so many people have switched.

tl;dr: because shower gel leaves residue on your skin and soap doesn't, so they end up less smelly/sweaty by switching.

Crossed with you. Good point re food waste though I suspect that might also depend on family size. There's economies to be made by buying something that stretches across a week, meal planning etc.

As with everything in life, balance!

Going back to lettuce, I bought some cut and come again salad leaf seeds at a flower show last summer and gave them a try. They were amazing! I planted half a packet in a trough and pretty much lived off them for the last half of the summer, and unlike the living leaves you can get from the supermarket, they really do keep coming. I have a very tiny garden but if you don't have one apparently they do really well on a windowsill too. I got mine from a lovely guy who runs Pennard Plants www.pennardplants.com/

Maybe this is too much science for this thread, but I’ve asked several times and no one has answered:

What do we do with ethene, propene, butene, etc, that are bi-products of the oil industry?

I know far more about soap than anyone on the soap thread, ffs.

Well, we ought to plan to refine less oil for a start. Reducing our dependency on plastics by planning to use them only where there isn't a sensible alternative (eg single-use medical devices) is a kind of future-proofing.

That is, if we refined a minimum of oil for fuel then there would be a minimum ethene (etc) byproduct which could then all be used for good causes IYSWIM and only recycled materials could be used in more frivolous products.

LOL I'm starting to think we should take this off board

Is there more of a demand for the (plastic) byproducts of oil refinery than for the basic (fuel) products?

@CraftyGin we need to simultaneously reduce our use of fossil fuels, so there's much less byproduct being produced by the oil industry.

I'm not totally against plastics - they are immensely useful for things like medical goods, plumbing and durable toys like Lego. But the insane amount of packaging waste and short term disposable goods we get through is ridiculous and devastating when there are sensible alternatives. Such as people bringing their own thermal coffee cup for takeaways, drinking fountains, buying loose veg, cotton buds with paper sticks, refillable shampoo, washing liquid and other toiletries/household detergents etc.