To think there is no real alternatives to plastic right now?

[speakout]

Like many I have been horrified by the videos of plastic floating in our oceans. I have been thinking about my own plastic use. I recycle ( council waste collection) as much as I can, but over the past week or two I have been looking at ways of cutting consumption.
There seems no real alternative to lots of stuff.
Shampoo? I see bars of solid soap like stuff in the health food shop- are they any good? Shower gel- OK I can buy soap wrapped in paper, but wash up liquid? Toothbrushes ( I have seen boar hair alternatives, not sure I fancy that) cosmetics? Detergent? Even loo roll is wrapped in plastic. Seems an uphill struggle- ant ideas?

For beeswax cloths, if you didn’t want to make your own @gussyfinknottle then I can recommend BeeBeeWraps - small, ethical company & since getting them I’ve hardly used any cling film or foil (they aren’t recommended for raw meat but otherwise I use them for everything). I share pp’s concerns that it’s too little, too late, but I suppose something is better than nothing!

I agree. For detergent we use a huge box of powder so that's almost all cardboard. You can buy them on subscription on Amazon and it's very cost effective too. We also follow the tips PP have said e.g using bar soap but it is very difficult to avoid plastic entirely right now. I think you can buy bamboo toilet paper online that comes packaged in paper.

Right now we reuse all plastic bags like bread bags or vegetable film bags as bin bags for nappy liners. Not great but at least it cuts out bin liners which we would otherwise be using.

For lots of cleaning products I use Splosh.com, you get one plastic bottle and they send you concentrated refills.

I'm trying to do little bits but there is more I can do. Going to try to make at least a change a month from now on. Ordering some beeswax wraps today!

Is there such a thing as a conditioner bar?

hyper do you have a link for the washable cotton dish sponges/cloths?

Re toothbrushes, Humble Brush is one good brand.

Regarding cheese - sorry to get preachy, but do consider that really cheap supermarket cheese generally comes from very sad cows. I love cheese but have cut down on it (and all other dairy products, but cheese is the only one I really miss) so that I can afford to buy a little of the good stuff. That usually comes wrapped in paper

Agree though, it’s really hard to avoid plastic. In the old days it was easier.

Coldilocks some people use apple cider vinegar as a conditioning rinse, along with bicarbonate as a shampoo alternative.

Worth a shot? I buy bicarb in a big [plastic, ] tub of a few kilos as a time and use it all over the house for cleaning, hygiene, etc etc

This video clip gives a food explanation into how plastic ends up in the ocean: www.greenpeace.org.uk/plastic-end-ocean/
So even if you’re miles away from the coast, your use of plastics can still contribute to pollution.

A good explanation.
Sorry, sausage fingers...

You can buy the beeswax wraps on Ocado now.

We have been moving towards plastic free for a few years now. It is hard but worth it.

What you lose is convenience and it does take more time than more conventional approach. Sometimes it is about buying in bulk to reduce the plastic. For example, I bought a 5l Multi Surface Cleaner from Bio D 3 years ago and it is still hall full. I decant into a smaller glass bottle for use in the kitchen.

The only thing I have been utterly unable to find is colouring pens. I have small children and pens are better for early mark making/emergent writing than both pencils and crayons.

Do you follow Bea Johnson? Inspiring and intimidating!

https://zerowastehome.com

Start your journey by trying to reduce your landfill waster and then try to reduce your recycling. A big part of this is not consuming and being happy with preloved. You spend more on items but they last longer. My bar soap comes from a local soap maker. It is £20 for 4 bars which is significantly more than a bottle of liquid soap from ALDI. I find we take care of resources because they cost more.

Our approach is really no NEW plastic. So this phone I am typing on is preloved from GAME. The Duplo & Lego in the house is from eBay.

Where I live, waste is incinerated and converted into energy. For that reason, only certain plastics (mostly bottles) are accepted for recycling and the other plastics go with the unsorted rubbish. Apparently the plastics help the waste burn better and produçe more energy.
I'm not an expert but a friend is and he explained it to me - apparently the process is quite clean (much more than it used to be).
Not a solution to the plastic problem of course. But maybe better than landfill?

Having said that the amount of plastic packaging on products drives me crazy. Even the stuff I get from our local health food shop - so many plastic wrappers.

I hope the big supermarkets will be along with some solutions and improvements soon. Junk mail is irritating although I noticed one of my professional magazines now comes in an envelope instead of plastic wrap.

And I saw the most dispiriting thing in ASDA - ‘brilliant, loads of Easter eggs wrapped in just foil and cardboard not plastic’ ‘oh look, someone’s poked their finger in all of them and broken the chocolate, just for fun’.

I've used Splosh since 2013...To get some money off a starter pack use this code

A84889

splosh.com

We use the kitchen and bathroom cleaners, the handwashes and the washing powder. The spearmint bathroom cleaner is ace.

stargirl- we already live on second hand stuff- have done for 20 years.

I would be hard pushed to find a piece of furniture, item of clothing, car, handbag, coat etc that is new in my house.
All my bedding and towels are pre loved. All my garden tools, rugs, crockery- all second hand,
I rarely buy new anyway.

I do think a lot of this has to come from the top down.

We had a Nandos takeaway a couple of weeks ago- not a single piece of plastic. All card and paper. Even McDonalds are getting the message.
This needs to extend to supermarkets.

We use e-cloths and have almost entirely done away with cleaning products. No furniture polish, no window/glass cleaner, no need for bathroom cleaner (though we still use a product on the toilet). We also have a steam cleaner which we use on floors and tiled walls. And yes to bicarbonate of soda - my go to for pretty much everything around the house.

I am struggling with conditioner too because if I don't use one I actually cannot get a brush through my hair and I doubt a vinegar rinse would work...will give it a go.

I have never heard of Splosh before.
Thank you for pointing me to them.

Hmmm but takeaway paper that has touched food cannot be recycled. It is contaminated. It doesn't help. You would need to use your own containers.

The e cloths mentioned are a source of microplastic ocean contamination because they are made of microfibre.

It really is up to you how far you want to go it's this. It is doable but it is a lifestyle change.

@stargirl would aquapencils work you use them like normal pencils then brush them with a paint brush and they blend

Hmmm but takeaway paper that has touched food cannot be recycled. It is contaminated. It doesn't help. You would need to use your own containers.

Yes, but it will biodegrade. It will not pollute our oceans and end up as microplastics and end up in fish and the food chain.
It won't add to the plastic problem.

I have a toilet roll solution for you! Google “Who gives a crap”. It’s a ethical toilet roll company that deliver recycled toilet rolls, wrapped in paper straight to your door for less money than Andrex. No plastic, no bleach and 50% profits go to building toilets in the third world. We love it!

Thank you for doing this. I live in NZ right on the beach and the amount of plastic that gets washed up is utterly remarkable and massively depressing. This is my latest haul after a short walk along our tiny desolate beach. I will spare you the pictures of the dead native penguins.

In that pile is the top off a Lilt bottle. According to Wikipedia Lilt is only sold in the UK, Gibraltar or the Seychelles. Also there's a package for a Snack bar from the Philippians in there.

And yet they somehow end up on a pristine beach in NZ.

The full horror

here is a link to the ethical plastic free loo roll

We have a plastic free bulk food ahopnjust opened near us. You buy all your dry goods by shovelling them into your own jars or bags. I now have a plastic free larder. I hope more shops like that open due to consumer pressure, super markets will then respond by packaging less.

That's a good point on microplastics. I hadn't considered that. Oh dear!

Most of the cloths can be hand rinsed in a bucket of water though - is that better as they are not being machine washed?

It will not biodegrade in landfill. There isn't enough oxygen. There was a landfill from 50 years ago excavated last year. A carrot compacted into the landfill still looked like a carrot.