Here I talk about some of the easiest changes that you can make in your bid to lead a life with less plastic, and all that it requires is that you visit the supermarket or your online site as normal, and then take a few moments to make some simple swaps along the way!
So, if like I was, you have been putting off the effort and waiting for the ‘right time’ to reduce your plastic footprint, you can stop. By which, I also mean start.
As this website is all about making it easy, I have designed a simple infographic to summarise the simple swaps, just in case you are about to rush out the door.
If you are looking for a bit more information then feel free to read ahead where you will find a little more explanation behind each of the swaps and a few more examples of the swaps you could make and how easy they are to do.
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Before you leave…
This part isn’t essential, some of the swaps require you to take absolutely nothing more to the shops with you than is usual, however, to get the most out of this I would suggest that you make it part of your routine to take with you:
- Canvas or strong reusable plastic bags
- Brown paper bags or reusable thin cloth bags, for fruit and veg.
- A small selection of reusable and leak-proof containers if you plan to buy deli counter items or from the meat/fish counter
Swap: Liquid soaps for Bar soap
How many plastic bottles of hand-wash do you have around the house right now?
How quickly do you tend to get through them?
Think about those two questions and then think about how many bottles of plastic hand-wash you go through in a year.
Yikes!
A really simple solution to this is to swap out the liquid soaps, like handwash and shower gels, for simple bars of soap. You can usually find them without plastic packaging if you scan the shelves of your local supermarket.
If you want to know about which ones are my favourites, whether they really work as well and where you can also find bar shampoo (and navigate the many options) then check out this blog post!
Swap: Liquid washing detergent for powder or alternatives
Research has suggested the average family gets through 8 loads of laundry per week. Let’s say you use a 40 load size bottle of detergent, which as far as I can see is about the average size, that is 11 bottles in a year. In 2016 the Office for National Statistics recorded 18.9 million families in the UK. If only 50% of these families use liquid detergent then, by my maths, that is around 104 million bottles of detergent that we use and discard every year.
20 years from now that is a stack of over 2 billion bottles!
And that is just the UK.
This is such an easy fix that I am a little annoyed that it took me so long to think of it, simply switch to powder forms which come in cardboard and can be easily recycled.
There are other super waste-free and chemical-free alternatives that I came across after I discovered the harm and pollution that our usual fragrance filled detergents might causing, its pretty eye-opening and you can read about these here.
Swap: Pre-packaged fish and meat for the counter
The plastic trays which line the shelves are yet another example of single use plastics, designed to display and package our meat and fish, only to be discarded as soon as the contents are taken out to be cooked. It is highly convenient, provides a surface on which to display product information and it keeps the food fresh and free of contamination.
So why ditch it?
Because it really isn’t all that necessary. Unless you do all of you shopping online and never frequent a physical supermarket, it is entirely possible, and pretty easy too, to take your own containers and use the butchers counter or fish mongers section in the supermarket. If you are afraid of a bit of meat juice leakage, take a plastic bag with you to wrap your containers in and just re-use it each time you go.
The only type of meat you are likely to have trouble sourcing in this way is chicken, probably the most popular type of meat on the shelf. In this case, try to opt for clear plastic trays over black. The black trays are not recyclable and so will end up in a landfill or contaminating a good batch of recycling.
Plastic packaged takeaway meals, try metallic oven baked options
On the same note of black vs clear plastic, takeaway meals have become a nightmare for plastic waste. It would seem from browsing the supermarket shelves that black plastic has earned a reputation for looking upmarket. Poor old clear plastic has found itself burdened with the value meal branding, whilst it’s difficult to recycle cousin has risen up the ranks to the status of upmarket and premium.
It’s true, that eye-catching meal looks way more delectable when its colours are made to stand out against a sleek black background. It catches the eye, looks premium and so we are swayed to opt for this over the other options available. The problem is that black plastic cannot currently be recycled in most centres, and even if it could be, the products from it have so little value that for many companies it isn’t worth it.
So, next time you are choosing a ready meal, first check out the prepared food counter. Many of these have options for takeaway meals and like the fish and the meat, you can even bring your own containers. For those of you that can’t, try to opt for the oven bake options in metal trays first and if there is still no luck, choose the clear stuff.
Breaded/prepared meat and fish – Try frozen
Again on the topic of takeaway food and meats, this swap focuses on the fish and meat options that might come pre-prepared, for example in breadcrumbs. I for one can’t resist a deliciously garlic chicken kiev at times, in fact there is one in the oven right now, and recently I have realised that if I don’t have the time to make them from scratch (a seriously time-consuming task) I can buy them frozen and the only packaging is a cardboard box. The same goes for lots of types of fish too and a range of other meals once you start looking.
Frozen foods – Choose cardboard
As above – can you find a cardboard alternative.
It is the beauty of frozen, everything is pretty much solid and so isn’t quite so reliant on being contained in a plastic prison. You won’t be able to swap everything in plastic for cardboard, but there is definitely room to make some swaps. Personally, I see it as a great reward that by championing cardboard over plastic, I get to eat potato smileys and waffles. Who wouldn’t want that!?
Even better – try and opt to buy fresh over frozen, lots of veggies can be frozen at home if need be and things like chips and wedges are actually really easy to make from scratch.
Fruit and veg – Go loose
This is quite simply about opting for fruit and veg that isn’t wrapped up in plastic. It isn’t always possible and often depends on the size of the supermarket. I have found that the smaller and more local supermarkets tend to have fewer loose options unfortunately. It is often cheaper to buy loose, just look at the price per kg section to check this. Even when it might appear cheaper by the kg, look at the quantity. Are you going to end up throwing some away? Is it possible to freeze the ones you don’t need? Depending on the answers to those questions, the price per kg might not actually be applicable.
Carrots are a good example. Sometimes you can find a value bag that is cheaper per kg than the loose option. They last a pretty long time in the fridge, so you might think a large back between two of you will be fine. I used to do this quite a lot and I would always end up with some left over slimy carrots still sitting in the bag and headed for the bin. Factoring this into account, it costs about the same to buy loose, I only buy what I need, so I don’t get lots of food waste, I have more room in the fridge and I there is no single use plastic.
The other thing to note here is that when you are buying loose fruit and veg, skip the plastic carrier bags they provide! You don’t need them. The vegetables won’t contaminate one another and I am fairly certain that they won’t see it as an opportunity to escape the trolley either. The only reason you might need a bag is for the smaller veg like mushrooms, which you can use your handy, brown paper bags for!
You may face a bit of resistance at the checkout with this method. I remember when my mum phoned to tell me she had binned the plastic vegetable bags, only to be met with a grumpy checkout worker who seemed offended by the fact that she now had to make the effort of handling loose fruit and veg. My mum simply explained why she was doing it, which I’m not sure did much to impress the worker, but I would advise anyone else who is met with this attitude to do the same.
The biscuit barrel – Scrap the wrapped
Who doesn’t love a good biscuit!? They go perfect with a cup of tea and are a staple in most lunch boxes. They’re also packaged in plastic that isn’t easily recycled and so can end up in the bin. Because of how light they are and because they’re eaten on the go so often, they are also a terrible culprit, along with sweet wrappers, for littering the streets and inevitably the oceans.
My first argument would be to make your own, I can whip up a batch of cookies these days in less than 20 mins! That means you can even do it in the advert breaks. It is cheaper and they’re far tastier, plus it is loads of fun too! Cookies and ginger biscuits are my go to biscuits because not only are they tasty, they last ages too.
Of course, I did insist that you didn’t need to do anything different to complete these simple swaps, so for those of you who really wouldn’t find this practical, I would instead suggest look at the shelves to see which biscuit options use the least amount of packaging.
Most will be packaged in an outer layer of plastic, this is almost unavoidable as far as I can tell, but what is on the inside differs greatly. Try to avoid biscuits that are seated in black plastic trays, these are more difficult to recycle and could contaminate a batch of recycling if you try, or end up in landfill.
If you can, avoid biscuits which are individually wrapped in plastic too, there are biscuit options that use foil and paper instead (KitKats for example) and so I would recommend opting for these instead.
Better yet, for the traditional biscuit barrel, aim for those that aside from the outer plastic packaging, have nothing but simple biscuity goodness within.
Sweet treats – Go pick ‘n’ mix
This just a fantastic opportunity to go old school and pick out all your faves whilst feeling extra good about the fact that you are also helping the environment. Plastic sweet wrappers, like biscuit wrappers, get everywhere. Unfortunately, due to the fact that they are made up of a mix of materials, they aren’t currently recycled due the difficulty and expense in obtaining the useful bits. They are also low in volume compared to the likes of larger paper and plastic items, making them pretty invaluable on an industrial scale. So instead they end up in landfill sights, blowing in the wind and drifting on rivers and oceans. This includes the wrappers that feel a lot like paper – so don’t be fooled. Best bet is to opt for cardboard tubes and boxes of sweets or use a paper bag for your favourite pick ‘n’ mix.
Good news is that some people out there are trying to help solve the issues I have mentioned above. RES Polyflow has been successful in designing technology that removes the need for sorting mixed materials, and as a result can turn much of what would currently go to landfill into fuel. Unfortunately the end product in this case results in the burning of said fuels and the release of carbon dioxide in the process, however as we currently rely heavily on fossil fuels for energy (we will cut them out eventually!), this is at least an alternative to newly drilled for oil.
Other solutions have come from people looking to up-cycle these plastic items instead of seeing them go to waste. There are companies out there that are using items such as candy wrappers to make bags, purses, wallets and jewellery, so it might be worth browsing the web to support these ventures too.
Bread – Buy fresh
This may not always be a solution, as some supermarkets have now opted to put even fresh loaves in plastic, but have a look and see what you can find. It might mean a swap to bread buns instead of the sliced stuff, just pop them in bag that you can bring along yourself.
Ask Yourself – Is there a plastic free version?
This piece of advice applies to plenty of items, just ask yourself the above question when you pick something off the shelf.
Examples of where this might be possible include:
Pastas and rice– look for cardboard packaged options
Table sauces and spreads – choose glass
Butter – buy a dish and get the foil wrapped versions
Beans and pulses – get them in a tin
Plastic drinks bottles – do they come in glass or cans?
Buying tins/cans? – Make sure they’re not packaged in plastic!
This was something I hadn’t picked up on at first, but so often you will find that multi-packs of the tinned items come wrapped in plastic to keep them as a set. This can be wrapped around the entire pack of tins, or maybe it is just the turtle strangling plastic loops that sit around the necks of beer cans. Either way, they’re not necessary and completely defeat the objective to reduce plastic waste. Even more frustratingly, it often means spending more for the sake of buying the tins individually, which not everyone can or will want to do.
So what do you do?
Look for multi-packs that are cased in cardboard instead. There are plenty of options and hopefully some of these will also allow you to get a good deal on your purchases.
I have also found that in some cases the amount of food in each can is actually greater when you buy them individually, which means that the good deal you think you are getting from a multi-pack might not actually be as good as you think. This is especially true of items that require draining of liquid, so always check the drained weight on the side of the can.
Another option is to choose value/own brand good if you don’t already. Sure your kidney beans might be a little rough around the edges but seriously, who’s looking? These usually come in cheaper than the multi-packs, even when they’re on offer, so it’s a win win if you can find them.
It won’t be possible to swap out every item for a plastic free alternative, but hopefully this has provided some simple swaps that require little effort and will make a huge difference if we get more and more people to make them.
Practically Plastic Free 