To think reducing plastic consumption is only really possible for wealthier families.

[P3onyPenny]

So we recycle every single thing we can and having researched reusable bottles that don't leak all 5 of us have Smash bottles at £12 each. Not having the plastic in the house in the first place is what really counts and wanted to do more but every single recommendation costs a fortune.

We shop for most of our bill at Lidl which is the worst for plastic packaging so can't change supermarket.

Changing to a milkman to stop plastic milk cartons cost double.

Having toilet role delivered in non plastic wrapping which supports building 3rd world toilets is double.

Having a Riverford( or any box) for veg let alone meat is hugely more expensive.

Lush shampoo bars and tins are very expensive.

Bamboo toothbrushes,paste in jars,non plastic deo are things we would get though a lot of and again are££££££...

Beeswax wraps are £££££ for a decent size x5........

Re laundry powder. I've always used Ecover which is obviously again more expensive. The boxed powder gunked up my machine so I switched to the new lavender concentrated one. Washes better,doesn't gunk the machine and I buy less. What to do?

You're doing what you can, and that's the important thing (and more than what many other people are doing).

If you can access a Tesco, they now sell recycled toilet roll in paper packaging (can't remember the brand).

Can you encourage other people to reduce their plastic consumption? For example, keeping a few bags for life at work and encouragin people to use them when they pop out 'for a few things' at lunch time?

I've started doing a few litterpicks with colleagues in our local area - it means we're getting rubbish out of the environment, a lot of which can be recycled. So there are different ways you can help, without spending more money.

YANBU, some of the things you mention like bamboo toothbrushes can be expensive. I think to totally eliminate plastic, then yes it costs a small fortune, but there are inexpensive things you can do to reduce plastic use. For example, metal water bottles are relatively inexpensive from outdoor type shops. Or people could just reuse an old cleaned out pop bottle for a while before discarding it.

Lidl veg isn't too bad for packaging, most items can be picked up loose, potatoes, bananas etc. I normally just pick out what I need and put it loose into the basket. If you wanted to bag up the produce and be frugal you could save the net type bags that onions and oranges come in and use those for future shops.

For toilet paper and shampoo I normally just buy the biggest quantity I can afford at the time (look for the best offers). Lush is expensive, but if you look online there are plenty of small soap business who sell decent shampoo bars much cheaper, have a browse on ebay. I don't think you need to keep them in a tin, you could just wrap up in a flannel.

I don't use a great deal of cling film, I've just finished up a roll which I've had for around 3 years. I tend to just cover bowls etc with a plate if I'm microwaving or fridging something. I use and reuse tupperware for sandwiches/food storage.

You can buy a bar of soap for about 30p.

But even if it is wrapped in plastic or plasticised paper the amount of plastic its wrapped in compared to the amount of plastic in a show gel bottle is negligible.

Others things we do, we bought a soda stream as I love fizzy water - it was a big outlay (bday present) and alway use cardboard packaged washing powder. I make my own yoghurt as we get through loads of it and it's great for my ibs.

We are trying to eat less meat, we dont have foreign holidays and buy most things like furniture and kids clothes secondhand (they are small, so don't care about fashion).

I would love to have the balls to take off the wasted plastic packaging and leave it at the check out. Perhaps we need a mn day where we all do it, then supermarkets might start to take us seriously.

There is only so much we can do as consumers, the emphasis is continually being put back on us, yet we are the end user. Sadly esp in places such as lidl its not as simple as just not buying the plastic wrapped apples/ tomatoes/ potatoes as usually thats your only choice.

Lidl is supposed to be the worst re plastic packaging,sure I read it in the news recently.

Morrisons is making great strides to make this easier, I take in Tupperware/pyrex for meat, little cloth bags for loose produce etc.

I bought a yoghurt maker yesterday since it was half price in lakeland with two free sachets of yoghurt starter so It effectively worked out to be £3. Its made of plastic (!) but will save a lot of single use plastic particularly since I don't intend on continuing to buy the plastic sachets of powder.

There are lots of things you can do though! As someone else said why buy special water bottles, just reuse a water bottle.

Always carry your reusable coffee cup and water bottle so you don't buy a disposable one.

Carry a packed lunch so you don't buy a prepackaged sandwich.

Use greaseproof paper not cling film to wrap sandwiches. Don't buy cheese strings or dairylea dunker type products with all their packaging. Make use of reusable boxes for these things.

You can buy washing powder in a cardboard box (Lidl powder comes in a cardboard box).

You can use bars of soap instead of shower gel and hand wash.

Buy shampoo and conditioner in really big bottles. I buy tres emme in 900 ml. I know it is still plastic but the bottles last longer so it at least less plastic.

Make sure you remember your reusable shopping bags.

Make sure that any plastic you do use gets recycled.

Send Lidl an email asking them to reduce the amount of plastic packaging they use (I should do this). In Germany I watched customers leave all the unnecessary packaging on the packing bench before they left the store. If we all did that at every supermarket and made the waste their problem I think things would improve. It would need stricter recycling and waste rules for businesses for this to be really effective but would make the point.

Being "green" is much more nuanced than just "plastic is bad" for example the extra weight needed to transport milk in glass bottles means that the co2 emissions are hugely increased.

I have come to the conclusion that the greenest way to live is just by being frugal. Only buying what you really need and not wasting what you buy. Second hand when it's sensible. Everything has an environmental cost but we can take steps to reduce our own impact.

We only use Ecover cleaning products. Again they cost waaaay more but I do feel it's important for Marine life and what ends up in the water system. Switching to Lidl for the box would be a back step. Think I read somewhere that Ecover can be refilled although that will be another weekly errand and petrol consumption.

Is that the metal water bottles. We still have all plastic ones have lasted for years though. I find the Sistema one's really good, any metal ones we've had in the past have done something funny on the inside like corrosion spots (not sure if it's our hard water) so I'm loathed to spend a lot of money on experience ones.

@p3onypenny have a Google to see if there are any shops near you that do ecover refills - there's a health food shop near u were we can refill the laundry liquid, hand wash and some cleaning products.

I think if you’re poor and frugal you’ll naturally cut down on a lot of stuff - you’ll take sandwiches out with you instead of going to a takeaway, reuse water bottles instead of buying and throwing, buy a single big bottle of cheap shampoo for the whole family instead of one small one each etc. One superfluous trip to a less fashionably waste-conscious takeaway will leave you with a whole bag of plastic. Of my twenty (yes I know, ridiculous) canvas shopping bags I probably only paid for two or three.

And I am so sorry about the lack of paragraphs which I promise were there when I wrote it! What does the app do with them?!

I've switched to Huel for my lunches. Its fairly cheap (about 1.40 a meal) and its nutritionally balanced. I've done it because whilst I'm slim, my diet is poor however anther big upside is that its one bag which contains enough for 28 meals. Big reduction in packaging.

Morrison's allows you to bring your own containers for unpackaged meat and fish, your local market will willingly fill your bag and costs less than the supermarket. Asian area shops tend to have cheap veg but that depends where you live.

But even if it is wrapped in plastic or plasticised paper the amount of plastic its wrapped in compared to the amount of plastic in a show gel bottle is negligible.

Except I can put that shower gel bottle in to be recycled , the plastic wrapper goes in landfill.

It costs nothing to not use plastic straws, or not use single use cutlery (as staff do where I work ) or to re-use bags for shopping. Like already said, a bar or soap is often cheaper than bottles of shower gel; washing powder is cardboard packaging is often cheaper than bottles of washing liquid. YABU to assume that only 'wealthier families' can reduce plastic consumption.

Whether things go to landfill depends where you live. Where I live the tiny plastic inner wrapper on the soap will be burnt to make energy. Of course that has a carbon cost.

But even if it is wrapped in plastic or plasticised paper the amount of plastic its wrapped in compared to the amount of plastic in a show gel bottle is negligible.

Except I can put that shower gel bottle in to be recycled , the plastic wrapper goes in landfill.

Depends on the bottle I guess. Often the tops can't be recycled. Soap also lasts a lot longer. There's loads of paper wrapped soap anyway.

Have you looked at bio d for your laundry and cleaning? Their products either come in paper/ card or fully recycled packaging (I think) since you're already paying a premium for these products that might be a greener choice? And as they are a British company it's a bit less on shipping miles.

Cach but they still end up in landfill or recycling just later in the week. They still replace bin liners or sandwich bags, unless you already don't use those. I usually use sandwich containers, but on a day out don't want to carry them around empty.

Don't use sandwich bags and have to use compostible bags for the green bin,buy recycled bin bags for the black bin. Yes at a greater price- again.

Buying from Suma Wholesale has been good for us. We buy with a couple of friends as you need to order £250 worth of goods. But we buy large quantities of things like washing powder and porridge oats and they come in paper sacks.

I have a compost bin now, but I didn't use bags in the green bin, just a couple of sheets of paper towel in the bottom of the kitchen green bin. They fall apart before the week is up anyway.