I’ve covered this before, funnily enough in July!  I was very good, I avoided all sorts of plastic I otherwise took for granted but then as the year wore on I fell off the bandwagon.  So I thought I would assess how much I had managed to stick to.  I was pleasantly surprised.

 

• Stainless steel straws.  I have struggled to get the girls on board with this but small steps.  If I go out I take my own straw.

 

 

• Glass coffee cup.  I don’t have takeaway cups anymore.

 

• Stainless steel water bottle.

 

• Stainless steel lunch box

 

• Bamboo cutlery, none of that nasty and easily snapped plastic rubbish thank you 🙂

 

• Enameled mugs, plates and bowls for picnics.

 

• Portable BBQ, we have a lot of BBQs on holidays and now we don’t need to buy disposable ones.  We even have our own flint but that is a bit hardcore!

• Beeswax food wrap.  I made my own, but you can easily buy it now.
• Leftovers always go in a bowl not in foil or cling film
• Stainless steel wineglasses.  We still have glass ones, but these are the every day ones.  Less broken glass.  Also much nicer for picnics.

• Onya vegetable bags rather than plastic bags at the greengrocer/supermarket.  This has caused a bit of a stir at some tills, but so far nobody other than a chap in Romania has actually refused to let me use them.
• Who gives a crap bamboo loo roll and kitchen paper.  It comes wrapped in paper not plastic  (which makes excellent wrapping paper for people who don’t mind the words!)  Also they donate 50% of profits towards building loos in the Developing World.  So win win.  I also have reusable kitchen roll which is fab.  It is sadly in a plastic box because all the metal ones were HUGELY overpriced.  I’m still looking.

• I keep all my paper bags.  Very useful for ripening fruit and vegetables and storing mushrooms.
• I think it goes without saying that I never travel without my parachute Onya shopping bag.  No plastic bags thank you.
• We rarely drink fizzy drinks but we do drink a lot of fizzy water.  I have a Sodastream now.
• I mainly drink loose leaf tea and make my own herbal teas.  Most (not all) teabags contain plastic.
• I bulk buy and refill wherever possible.  Sadly much that I bulk buy still comes in plastic (washing liquids, oils in particular)  I’m working on that.
• Compost, compost, compost.  We had to build a new compost bin so I am starting from scratch and it will be a year or so before I have my own compost supply, but when I do I will not need big plastic bags of compost.

 

Where I have not done so well.

• Animal feed.  All bar the chicken pellets come in big plastic sacks.
• Even bulk buying liquids means I have to buy in plastic even if I am buying less plastic than if I bought individually.
• I tried a bamboo toothbrush and still use it for travelling but I couldn’t give up my non-compostable electric one.
• All toothpaste comes in plastic whether it is paste or powder.
• We can’t get milk in glass or waxed card containers.
• I have fallen up on buying pre-packed food (meat, vegetables, cheese, deli produce) I need to get back on the wagon again.
• I stopped making my own bread, yoghurt, kefir on a regular basis.
• I haven’t been very good at keeping cardboard boxes and so have often used plastic postage envelopes for parcels.

Still not bad, plenty of room for improvement but now I can see where I have to work.

Why don’t you give it a go too  Plastic Free July.