Many people are now jumping on the "Plastic Free July" bandwagon. Though I would love to go "Plastic Free" in our house it is just plain impossible. However, we are doing our bit to reduce waste and limit down the single use plastic that we buy. Below I will go into the ways in which our house have made small swaps in order to make big changes.
Why Plastic Free?
The world around us is consumed by plastic. Everywhere we go there is single use, disposable products made from unnecessary plastic. When we go to the shops especially- or even a cafe- there is unnecessary wastage! When did we get so consumed with being disposable?
To give you an insight to the impact we are having on the world I will give you some facts from Greener State:
One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in oceans.
More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year.
Plastic constitutes approximately 90 percent of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.
- https://greenerstate.com/the-stem/10-reasons-why-you-should-rethink-plastic-and-5-ways-to-reduce-plastic-waste/
This is just unacceptable to me! We shouldn't live in a world that will be overrun by the waste in which we produce. These figures are horrifying! The following one should make you feel sick too:
A recent study found that people who regularly eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic each year.
Why would we want to create a mess like this to eat pieces of plastic each year?! It makes me feel so angry knowing that the environment is getting destroyed like this.
Ways we are reducing waste and single use plastic in our home
Each week we are finding small swaps we can make in order to reduce the amount of waste we produce, and eco-friendly alternatives to limit the plastic we are using.
Baby Alternatives
When it comes to baby products, the amount of plastic is endless! The nappies, bottles, wipes, lotions and soaps... The products go on and on.
When I had my daughter I needed a cheaper and environmentally friendly alternative to nappies. I switched to MCN and fell in love. I decided to use them again with my son. I would love to use cloth wipes, but find we use very little anyway so we use the ECO by Naty brand which are Eco-friendly wipes anyway. For spit ups and messes I use my DIY burping bibs and wipes. I am constantly trying to find eco friendly ways to cut down the plastic I use with bubs.
Shopping
One of the first swaps I made was the reusable shopping bag. Woolworths and Coles in the past few years have taken out their single use plastic bags making that the consumers have to bring their own bag when shopping. At first I didn't think that would work, but I am one of those people who made the swap.
We now are proud owners of a large pile of reusable shopping bags. (My aim? To get a stack of bags all the same!)
When shopping at Coles I also found these amazing reusable produce bags. These are great for limiting the amount of plastic as what do you put your bunch of bananas in? A plastic bag that you throw out as soon as you get home. I have also seen people using the produce bags for taking snacks out for the day. Something I would love to give a go at!
Coffee and drinks
Those people who know me well know that I love my coffee! I only have one coffee a day but I love that coffee! When I sat down and thought about how many disposable coffee cups, plastic water bottles and plastic straws I use per week.... I needed to change this!
I bought a keep cup from Big W which was quite cheap, but we were finding cafes were having difficulty with the lid, and they weren't working well. I found the amazing glass keep cup in the photo from Target on sale for only $2.50! MJL got one too!
There is something I need to admit, I have a drink bottle obsession! We have quite a few drink bottles. I have a 1L drink bottle that stays at home, and then smaller bottles for taking out. My favourite one is the metal drink bottle shown that I was given as a gift from teaching. It keeps the drink cold and fits into drink bottle holder (especially on the pram!)
I sometimes like to have iced coffees instead of hot coffees and found I was using a plastic cup and straw whenever I wanted one. I found the sparkly drink cup from Kmart for roughly $5 and it is the perfect size for an iced coffee! Plus it looks so girlie!
I went looking for a non plastic straw set ages ago, it was one of the first swaps I made for plastic free. I wanted some to take to the club which we do quite often as a family, and we have glasses of water there. I disliked that we were using so many plastic straws! I found the metal straws from Kmart which is totally amazing to see! When I can I want to get some silicone ones though, so we can use them for iced drinks or juices when out. The metal ones are too hard to clean and transport when dirty.
Cleaning products
I love that I have made a swap in the cleaning of our house. The cupboard under the sink has been so full of cleaning products that are in plastic bottles! Every single product has a huge amount of chemicals and nasty things in them. I wanted a natural, chemical free product that would clean our house and leave it smelling nice.
I found a recipe for making my own cleaning spray. Check out my other blog post for the ingredients.
I made my own unpaper towel which I am selling too! They are so easy to use and are reusable. Simple place them in the wash and dry. Viola use again!
My essential oils are my go to lately. I have been using them with everything. Eucalyptus is my favourite! In cleaning, the diffuser, and even to wipe out the nappy pail to make it smell nicer. They are amazing!
Food Pouches
These products will probably be used a lot more as time goes by. I got a packet of reusable food pouches from the baby store. I wanted to use them for yogurt for OJ and myself. However, we haven't been having a lot of yogurt being so cold. Though I can see them being used quite often for bubs when he begins to have solids more frequently, and can hold the pouch himself!
The reusable pouches are from Coles. I love the idea of food pouches we can wash and reuse again! I have been using them for snacks for OJ whilst out, or for myself. I want to start OJ using them for school lunches.
I would love to update the food pouches and get a few more as we have been using them so much and running out of them!
Toiletries
One of my favourite areas for swaps has been the bathroom area. Plus it is the biggest area for plastic products (next to cleaning products!)
I have made several swaps which were a little tricky to begin with but have been working fantastically!
One of the first swaps was reusable washable makeup wipes. I don't wear makeup a lot, but when I go to remove the makeup I tend to go towards disposable makeup remover wipes. I made myself some makeup pads and they have been working great! (I sell these too!)
I swapped the shampoo and conditioner bottles (which I swear never run out at the same time!) and got a shampoo bar from Shampoo with a purpose. Check them out here https://www.shampoowithapurpose.com/ I got the sample pack and once they have run out I will be getting the full shampoo bar for the family. OJ has even been using it!
Another swap I made was for a natural soap bar. This was a huge deal for me as I have always used bottles of body wash. Always. So swapping to a soap bar is a huge deal for me! I got a soap bar from Peach and Grey and they are awesome! https://peachandgrey.com.au/ Their soaps are all made from natural products and are vegan friendly. Plus they smell amazing! MJL has been using their Ocaso Bar soap with charcoal in it for his beard. I can confidently say it has been working great!
A small swap I made was for a bamboo toothbrush instead of my throw away plastic ones. I normally use an electric toothbrush with a removal head. They need to invent a plastic free electric toothbrush! I found this cheap version of a bamboo toothbrush in coles and have started recently to use it. It is easy to use and soft my gums. However, I would like to upgrade to a good quality bamboo toothbrush when I can.
Lastly, the swap I have absolutely loved in swapping to a safety razor!! Check out my blog on safety razors for more information! I found this one of MJLs in the cupboard in amazing condition and decided to give it a try. I am in love with it and will not be going back to throw away plastic razors!
All of the swap I have made may seem small, but I am constantly trying to find ways to reduce the amount of plastic and waste in our house.
Some other small swaps we have made:
- We have a small compost bin in the kitchen from Aldi's that we are now putting our food scraps in to put into our green bin. Similar to the Frogo bin.
- We have reduced down the waste in our kitchen by putting labels on everything and only re-stocking things once a week as we need it.
- I have been trying to buy things that have little to no plastic wrappings
- I very recently bought a beeswax wrap to try and I want to buy some more to use instead of cling wrap. Though we don't use a lot of cling wrap we do use snaplock bags a lot.
- I recently got some reusable liners and pads. I am looking forward to reviewing them later on my blog.
- We have been eating more at home. Seems silly right? But it means we use less plastic when we eat at home where we can use a plate rather than a plastic container.
Some swaps I want to make
There are still some swaps I really want to make. Some of them are going to be easy but some are going to more difficult to convince the household to do.
Plastic free dishwashing alternative
Make my own laundry detergent
Reduce down the amount of plastic when eating out.
Have no plastic when buying meat and vegetables! We use frozen vegetables a lot so I don't know how we could reduce that down. But meat is definitely an option there.
If you are wanting more information on anything in this post please comment below and I am more than happy to discuss it. If you want any of the details for the products I have used and the companies that supply them please contact me, too.
Disclaimer: All products and companies mentioned in this post are not sponsered. I have not been paid to make this post. All products have been personally researched and bought with my own money.
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