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???

I am going to stop buying fruit and veg from the my local shop as it's all plastic wrapped. So a longer walk to where I can buy it loose. The bonus of uppping my step count!

I do my bit, believe me, but these posts are just so holier than thou.

And you know, I always believe what a stranger on the internet preaches that they do

I use daily disposable contact lenses which I never really thought about because they are so common. My eyesight is very poor so my glasses really are hideously expensive. I'm going to change to monthly disposables. I already use a reuseable water bottle and coffee mug but sometimes if I fancy a coffee and have forgotten my mug I get a disposable, but Im going to do without. You can get hard plastic sandwich boxes that my DS uses for his lunch that you can reuse. I think it systema. We've had ours for years.

How do we get the supermarkets to stop wrapping four-packs of baked beans in plastic? Surely the tills are sophisticated enough to be able to charge accordingly if tins are bought in units of four?

Far too much food is wrapped unnecessarily in plastic in our supermarkets.

I got us all a stainless steel water bottles from One Green Bottle

Makes the water taste better too.

It should be obvious from your bin what the main culprits are. Whether it gets into the ocean is more about waste management, which is quite controlled in the UK. But definitely get a tupperware box, some people where I work have been using the same one for 20 years!

Guineapigs - I've never moved on from gas permeable contact lenses. My last pair cost £99 and I wore them for four years. My optician confirmed they were in good order and had been well looked after. They're obviously harder to get used to than soft lenses, but I've never had any problems with them.

There was a thread about this a few months ago, and this link
www.beatthemicrobead.org/product-lists/ was very useful.
Especially that you can have shower gel, just got to pick your brands!

I'd like to buy loose vegetables rather than packaged, but what do you put them in when you take them to the checkout? Do you take your own paper bags to the supermarket?

I had gas permeable when I was a teenager because I have an astigmatism and in the olden days, you couldn't wear soft contact lenses! I'll look into them.

Its not up to me to reduce my plastic. I recycle what i can. Its down to companies to reduce it not the user.

Delphinium - but that's just about microplastic beads isn't it? Surely the problem with shower gels is that they come in plastic bottles?

I stopped buying bottled water and got a glass jug to keep in the fridge.
I have also started looking for more items without unnecessary packaging when food shopping , like bananas that come in a plastic bag.

I feel like I do the standard that most people do (re-usable water bottles, soap instead of shower gel, nothing with microbeads in, re-useable food containers, refuse straws etc.) You’re definitely right @Sunnysidegold it’s the ‘forced upon you’ plastic that I don’t know what do to with. I’m starting to shop at markets (instead of supermarkets) for fruit and veg so this is less plastic as they don’t use packaging. I’m starting to shop at butchers (instead of supermarkets) for meat but instead of hard plastic bases with plastic film, it’s plastic foam bases with cling film type plastic so not sure which is worse? Or if it’s any better at least.

I want to start buying bar shampoos / conditioners if such a thing exists (Lush?) to reduce plastic there. I would love for things like coffee, tea bags, sugar etc. to be available like pick and mix (if that makes sense) so you could just measure, weigh into your own glass jars / re-usable containers and pay.

Why are people so nasty all the time? The OP has asked a relevant question. Some people have been plastic aware for years but others haven't. Being nasty because someone says they use cling film is totally unnecessary. As is saying you hate threads like these - just hid it or don't click on it!

There is lots of info now in the Ethical Living section but some people won't necessarily see it so putting a thread in AIBU is a good idea.

I'm trying to reduce our use of plastic. But it's not easy. DS has a bad bottled water habit. He does like water with slices of orange in so I have a glass jug to have that on the go at home. And I bought him a metal water bottle for Xmas. I have lots of water bottles to avoid having to buy water when out. I rarely buy coffee in a disposable cup - usually have coffee in cafe and use normal cup. Had an annoying incident in a Pret though where I was eating in and they still gave me a disposable cup as they had run out of normal ones!

Bought some mesh produce bags on Amazon for fruit and veg. Cashier in Sainsbury's thought it was interesting and experimented by weighing in my bag and loose - cost an extra 3p using the mesh bag. That was buying three courgettes. Could really add up over time.

I've switched to soap in the shower. No residue. I feel cleaner. No issues with sharing as I have my own shower but I'm sure you could make sure you have your own soap and soap dish if you were bothered by it?

Haven't gotten as far as solid shampoo yet but I will look at it once current supply is done. Could be a while! I have a bit of a stock!

I've switched to washing powder in boxes rather than liquid. I suppose dishwasher tabs will be next to go.

I've bought some elasticed cotton covers for bowls of leftovers but usually use clip boxes. Yes they are plastic but not single use. We've had some for years.

I'd like to source milk in bottles rather than plastic. That's next on my list. Only issue is that I read on another thread that some of the companies that do bottles don't pay farmers a reasonable price for the milk. We buy Sainsbury's who are not as bad as others so need to weigh that up.

Straws - I have some metal ones with a skinny brush which are reuseable but I don't use straws often anyway. We do have some plastic ones as DS was using a lot but he doesn't now so will not be replacing once current lot are gone. And I bought that box over a year ago. Don't have straws when out.

I have bought a book - Zero Waste Lifestyle- which I am going to read too.

Oh - I don't buy disposable razors any more. Have an Epilator.

Toothbrushes are another one. Thought about bamboo but I use an electric brush.

We stopped using plastic sandwich bags/boxes and replaced them with metal ones (once they needed replacing) and the same for plastic water bottles. Dc still have plastic bottles for school but reusable and we don't buy any drinks that come in plastic throw-away bottles if we can help it.

We try not to buy fruit/veg in plastic bags/boxes and when we have take out food we use places that will either use our reusable boxes or their own cardboard ones. But it's harder than it sounded.

We have metal straws too.

That's all we do at the moment. Going to take some ideas from this thread.

I hate threads like this, for a number of reasons but mainly that no-one understands the issues involved.

I work in waste prevention. Plastic packaging isn't evil. It is more environmentally-friendly than cardboard. A far bigger problem we have in the UK is household food waste. 50% of the fresh fruit and veg produced is wasted. Plastic packaging protects most fresh fruit and veg for an extra 2 weeks so less is wasted in the home. Throwing away a lettuce is 100 TIMES more environmentally-damaging than the plastic packaging it comes in.

Packaging is a hugely complicated area. There are environmental impacts to recycling glass (melting and remoulding, for example) and paper (hugely water and chemical intensive). It isn't that plastic is the demon and everything else the angel.

Everyone watches one episode of blue planet and assumes banning plastic will solve everything. It won't. The plastics in our oceans come predominantly from China and America.

Rant over.

I think the supermarkets need to be held to account. Everything is wrapped in 4 tonnes of plastic.

Interesting StepAway. We compost our food waste - try not to have any obviously!

However I do find it interesting that plastic protects food. I will still try and reduce my plastic use but maybe not feel too guilty about what I can't reduce

stepaway why is throwing away a lettuce environmentally damaging?

Stepawayfromgoogle - thanks for your post, please help us! I think most of us on this thread just want to do the right thing but as you say it's complicated. I take your point about food waste. We have a composer so our fruit and veg waste goes in there. We very rarely throw away unopened or unused foods, it's mostly from our plates, especially DD who is such a fussy heater. I will keep trying to reduce.

I was not aware that cardboard was harder to recycle than plastic or is that a simplification?

This is totally misplaced. Manufacturers and the Government are the people who should be answeting this question, not the consumers

I only had 1 child.
Feeling guilty OP?

joke

After xmas sadly not nearly enough

I have reorganised the work recycling and am tying to buy loose produce - glass produce but it’s NOT enough