Avoiding plastic. hard, isn't it?

[Deathraystare]

I was listening to Radio 4 about a family that tried to avoid plastic. It was hard because they could not find an alternative for toothpaste and I guess shampoo is pretty hard (though Lush do shampoo bars) , conditioner would be hard. Just thinking of all the plastic bottles and tubes I have in my bedroom, let alone what is in the kitchen and bathroom... I am too clutzy to use glass bottles anyway. Plastic is all I have known really.

Is anyone else trying (and failing) giving up on plastic?

I'm finding it very hard. Often when I want to make a big change, I just go zero tolerance, but have been trying to go no-plastic incrementally (leaving things like blister packs of regular medication till last) but it's so difficult. I have hard floors in the bathroom, and glass would be a foot slashing nightmare waiting to happen. The supermarket is terrible - and a greengrocer is a thirty mile round trip, which a) I dont have time for b)is hardly environmentally friendly either. Ive shifted everyone onto bar soap - but even that is overwrapped in cellophane and cardboard. Have also banned drinking straws until they bring the waxed paper ones of my childhood back. Likewise cotton buds. All that's really happening is im getting more and more irritated. If I could at the very least dump all the superfluous plastic round bread, vegetables and meat, I could focus then on reducing the other stuff.

You can get bamboo toothbrushes, use bicarb for toothpaste, Lush do showergel, soap bars, shampoo bars, conditioner bars all unpackaged and you can use reuseable tons to store them in.

Lots of people reduce plastic by buying in bulk so its just one large plastic jug to recycle and decanting into smaller glass jars/bottles etc

Its something I've looked into but as of yet haven't implemented.

Yeah I made a small effort already by going back to soap. I have a few glass jars of face cream amongst all the plastic but I am the klutziest person alive. I regularly drop the (plastic) tubes /bottles of shampoo and conditioner in the bath so gawd knows what would happen if I managed to get hold of glass bottles! Mainly not so bad in the supermarket as I managed to get loose apples (though the spuds were in a placcy bag as were the peppers and of course the grapes were wrapped in plastic and a plastic black box...sigh....