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........

I drink tap water.

I take my reusable coffee cup everywhere and get money off in many places.
Soap instead of gel.
Always carry a reusable bag for shopping with me.

Avoid palm oil.

None of this costs more.

Any single change that you can make is a step in the right direction. Any concession you can make to stop using single use plastic is better than nothing. There is a great low impact youtuber who always ends her videos by saying 'you cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do' 😊

And it's a drop in the ocean if you'll pardon the pun.

Collect every bit of plastic that comes into your house for a week. Recycling often doesn't end up recycled according to news reports. To do anything worthwhile you need to stop that mountain you'll collect entering your house in the first place.

I think it all is getting out of hand with plastic. How the fuck does it end in the ocean? I think the buck should stop not with individual people/families, but the companies responsible for disposal of waste.

As to the "personal impact" campaign then better have a "don't litter" campaign than go apeshit with paper bags for veg in supermarkets.

Yes, it's expensive, it pisses me off, it's like ants trying to lift a wardrobe. We recycle, and that's that. I won;t stop flying on planes now and then and having 2 showers a day.

Its the same with clothes - I wanted to find a new dress for a wedding. The occasion dresses in my local charity shop were mostly priced at £15. There were nice dresses in the Apricot sale at £10.

Allergies also complicate things, the whole family suffer from skin allergies/sensitive skin - once we find something that works for us we tend to stick to it (especially because we can't afford to just waste it) so washing powder is a no-go.

I don’t see how it can be up to the individual when every fucking thing I buy in the supermarket (Lidl mostly) is wrapped in plastic. If you only buy the stuff that isn’t you’d be living on baked beans. I do the very small things I can but they are pretty much insignificant. We still have a bin full of plastic at the end of the week.

Lush will actually recycle plastic lids if you take them in. The assistant in there told me this last week.

EBay/charity shop are great for second hand toys and small children don't notice.

I take my own containers to the butcher's now. I had a good chat with him about it and he thinks it's a great idea and is now suggesting it to other customers.

I think that governments are responsible for allowing big business to mass produce things that are bad for the environment. I recycle, shop efficiently so that I throw away practically nothing, etc., but I don't believe things will change until big business and governments do the work on a global level. For instance, re water bottles, if public taps were provided and plastic water bottles simply not produced, people would carry reusable containers, like used to happen.

I've seen washable metal straws but I'm guessing they could be a poss hazard for some or not bendy enough.

We have Summit water bottles.

I got them from a camping shop when the DC were about 18 months old. They are metal and really hard wearing. Quite a few dents now but the DC are now 7 and they've been in constant use, they also take them to school every day.

Cost about £4 each.

I would 100% recommend them.

These are like the ones we have.

The title of this thread reminded me of this that I saw a few weeks ago

This is good

We have been trying to reduce a lot. So far we're doing ok. We can and will do better though.

There was a thread on here a few months ago about buying bottled water and the number of people who said they only ever drank bottled water 'because tap water tastes horrific' or whatever, was completely unbelievable.

That is the sort of thing the planet is up against. Bottled fucking water in a country where you can turn on the tap and have unlimited access to clean, safe water.

My local Morrison’s has just put a sign up saying you can bring your own containers if you are buying anything from the fish meat deli type counters
Their loose weigh fruit and veg is normally cheaper too
I don’t buy much processed food due to diet issues so less packaging there
Washing powder is always in cardboard boxes isn’t it?
Milk and things like washing up liquid and shampoo etc are the only plastics I can think of I use and am not sure how else they could be packaged
I prefer bar soap anyway
Where I live we have a mixed recycling bin for glass plastic and tins it would take me a year to fill it! I probably put it out every other month with a few things in the bottom - doesn’t smell as it’s all rinsed before going in there

Just reminded myself how I used to love going shopping with DM when I was 3-4 every Friday down the local high st and market
She had a variety of huge wicker baskets and the greengrocer would weigh all the veg and then just pour loose into her basket heaviest at the bottom, she would then leave the basket under their counter whilst we carried on to the butcher fishmonger baker and cheese shop
Then on way home we would go and collect the basket - greengrocer would give me a banana or orange to eat on the way home!
This was in the 60s

Jesus how big is your recycling container? We get through 4 big sizes of milk for 5, cleaning product bottles( toilet etc),washing up liquid bottles,shampoo/ conditioner bottle( can't afford bars for all of us), shower gel( I will stop that), stretchy plastic,yogurt pots,juice cartons,deo bottles,toothpaste tubes.....

We struggle to fill the landfilll bin but the recycling plastic bit is easily filled and that's with trying quite hard.

Yes, probably.
Our market is dreadful for waste. Can't buy many items individually and I don't need a huge bag of red onions.

I buy small amounts in supermarkets and grow a few bits of my own. Very rarely buy salad these days, staggered sowing means it keeps ticking over all summer.

And then there is tins and glass too. How do you only fill one a year?

Some free/cheap things we do:

Ask locally if anyone is selling [item] - especially children's toys - before buying new. 99% of the time someone will pipe up on the neighbourhood FB group that they are, and it's usually free/pennies.

Swapping to larger bags/portions where that's an option, instead of lots of small ones.

If I buy a drink bottle, using it again and again and again.

Ooh I thought of another thing, there's a whole big debate in feminism about how environmentalism makes more hard work for women (I had a lecture on it in approx 2010 - that's the sum of my knowledge )

I can see their point though, I think having to wash cloth nappies or the extra bus journeys to go to the supermarket with less packaging could be the straw that brakes the camels back in some cases.

It's not just about us personally reducing it. It's also about putting pressure on shops to reduce plastic. If enough people bug Lidl and Aldi, they will change it. Slowly, because it's not easy process, but they will. Have you popped a comment on their facebook? Or sent them an email? Go for it. That the ultimate thing which needs doing.

I don't agree it's just for wealthier families. We are reducing plastic brought in slowly, but surely every month.

We're a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 primary aged children) and these are the things we've done to reduce plastic without spending more - infact many of these have saved us money:

Swapped shower gel and liquid hand soaps for bar soaps.
A paper-or card-wrapped bar of Dove, Palmolive or Coal Tar soap is less than 50p somewhere like Savers or supermarket. The bar in our downstairs loo is used the most and probably lasts up to a month.

Swapped bottles of shampoo and conditioner for bars
We started off buying the bars from Lush - about £6 each but lasted about a month between the 4 of us. Now buying from Funky Soap online, which is more like £4 for a larger bar.

Swapped bubble bath for bath salts
£1 for a cardboard box of Radox - lasts about a month at a sprinkle a day. (Miss the bubbles though.)

Swapped washing liquid tabs for powder
Definitely much cheaper! Just buy powder in a large box, lasts forever.

Always use fabric shopping bags instead of buying 5/10p bags in shops
Been doing this for years. Usually pick up fabric shopping bags cheap or free.

Choosing loose, tinned or jarred foods over plastic-wrapped
Have found it hard to reduce plastics in my food shopping but am choosing alternatives where possible/affordable and leaving unnecessary plastic packaging behind at the checkout.

No longer using cotton buds or straws of any kind
Used to use daily to dry my ears after a shower, but now just use a twist of loo roll.

I'd love to try milk bottle and veg box delivery but these are definitely pricier.

I'm asking for a safety razor and a yoghurt maker for my birthday :)

Agree with you to a large extent - modern society is structured in such a way that personal change against the grain is difficult. It is down to businesses to be sustainable (and governments to incline/compel them), not individual consumers. Effecting ecological change by atomised personal choices is like trying to build the Hoover dam by individuals chucking pebbles in the Colorado river.

Having said that, there is lots you can still do. I’ll try to pick up on the main points in the thread.

Main point is don’t sweat the small stuff. A bit of cellophane round a pack of bar soaps is far preferable to a plastic shower gel bottle. A lot of plastic bottles don’t actually end up recycled due to contamination in the recycling process. Plastic is a waste product of the oil industry anyway, and petroleum isn’t going out of fashion any time soon. They will always be surplus waste fractions of petroleum products for plastics manufacture, as long as we are so oil thirsty. So try to reduce both counts in parallel, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good (so you end up say driving 12 miles to buy a glass bottle of something than a plastic one in a shop in walking distance).

Totally agree with the poster who said that being totally frugal is the best thing you can do. Minimise consumerism, buy mostly second hand clothes and goods and mend things when they start to wear out. Stitch up small holes in the toes of your socks; get some bondaweb to mend the frayed areas in the inner thighs of your jeans and stitch to reinforce. Cotton is immensely resource intensive - pesticides, water, fossil fuels, bonded labour… get as much life out of clothes as possible.

Shampoo - Lush shampoo bars last for months, so do actually work out good value for money. I don’t recommend the “Friendly” bars though… they seem to clean my hair at the “lank and oily” end of the oil spectrum, but don’t touch the greasiness at the “waxy” end of the spectrum, so it’s gunky and ganky after a couple of weeks. If conventional shampoo is the only option, get the biggest bottle you can to minimise the plastic surface area to volume ratio.

Milk - either buy organic milk in large pitchers (organic milk is less resource intensive), or buy the huge 6-pinters of regular milk - choose ones at the back with longer use by dates. If you don’t use enough, either freeze (decant in to smaller bottles 3/4 full) or make yoghurt. Just buy a tiny tub of Yeo Valley natural bio yoghurt to get started.

Deodorant - try this out on a day you’re pottering around at home and not facing the world. Get a small jar, eg single serve pot of jam. Add a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda and a few drops of lavender/tea tree oil. Stir. Put a pea size amount on a damp face cloth and apply to armpit. Costs pennies and it keeps me whiff free till the next morning (though it’s not anti-perspirant).

Beeswax wraps - just use a bowl with a saucer on top, or pick up tupperware in a charity shop.

Produce bags - put the produce loose on the conveyor belt, or make drawstring bags out of old voile curtains or shirts. Buy wonky veg, even if it comes in a plastic bag. Perfect/premium grade fruit & veg is hugely wasteful. The trend towards wonky veg is an enormous step to cut down waste in the freshproduce industry.

Water bottles - you don’t need to spend anything near £12. I got a silicone covered glass bottle from Home Bargains for around £3. Even just reusing a plastic bottle is fine till you can get a permanent one.

Meat - buy from the butchers’ or Morrisons where you can take your own tupperware to the counter. Same for cheese/fish/deli items.

Laundry detergent - buy powder. Aldi is cheap and effective and comes in a cardboard box with no plastic handle. Use a bit less than recommended.

Coffee - drink in the cafe with a ceramic cup. Or look out for a thermal camping mug in a charity shop, they come up all the time. I got lucky and found my Contigo for £1 which is totally leak proof. Take a cloth napkin and a camping (or regular) cutlery set wrapped up when you have lunch on the go.