It’s not that difficult to cut down plastic personallyDate: 2/15/2022 About three years ago I wrote a story about how my wife and I were trying to eliminate as much plastic packaging in our lives, because recycling doesn’t work.
Now we dutifully wash and recycle the plastic in our lives, but it seems fairly pointless when the EPA announced in 2021 that only 8.7 percent of the plastic that is discarded is actually reused. The rest of it winds up in landfills or incinerators or worse, the environment.
The issue is no longer about recycling plastic, but rather eliminating it from one’s life. And in many cases, it’s easier that we thought.
Come on, admit it: using recyclable bags at the grocery store or buying a paper bag is not big deal. You can apply those principles to other habits.
So, my wife and I started actively seeking ways to address plastic consumption as best as we could on a private basis. In the three years or so we’ve developed habits, which I thought might be worthy of sharing. It’s relatively easy to cut down on plastic use if you do a little research and think about your lifestyle.
There are some products and containers that are indeed difficult to replace, and there are still some products that we’ve not replaced as yet. Toothpaste is one of them. For a while I was brushing with straight baking soda out of a box, but I really didn’t care for it. We’ve been looking for a toothpaste that does not come in plastic, so far unsuccessfully.
We will continue our hunt.
We also used beeswax-coated cloths to try to replace plastic and aluminum wrap, but found that we would have to tie the cloth in place with a string, which was not very effective. We try to use reusable containers for leftovers instead.
We use toothbrushes with bamboo handles, instead of plastic, which clean just fine. The bamboo can be composted. By the way, we’ve found bamboo thread floss, as well. Bamboo can be used in a variety of products – we use bamboo towels instead of paper towels that can be washed and reused, as well as toilet paper made from bamboo and sugar cane.
The bamboo toothbrushes and towels can be found online at various retailers. The toilet paper is found locally at the Big Y and at Price-Rite at prices competitive with standard toilet paper.
I’ve switched to a razor with a bamboo handle and to razor blades that come packaged in cardboard. These I found at www.grove.co. They work well and are not expensive.
I’ve stopped getting shaving cream in aerosol cans or plastic tubes. I’ve gone old school. I go to the Big Y and pick up Williams Shaving Soap at less than a $1.50. I put that circular bar of soap in my shaving mug – any mug will do but I’m lucky to have my grandfather’s mug – and with a little hot water whisk up a warm lather with my shaving brush. The most expensive thing is the
brush, and I’ve had mine for at least 30 years.
Shaving is now a welcomed activity. There is nothing like a warm shave. The soap comes in a cardboard box. I get an effective shave and no plastic is involved.
I buy shampoo bars instead of liquid shampoo in plastic. J.R. Liggett’s (https://jrliggett.com/) up the road a piece in Cornish, NH, has been making them for years. I’ve found a bar lasts around a month. My wife likes the ones from Grove.co that come with a solid conditioning bar. They come wrapped in paper.
We still use plastic storage bags for food but have picked up a number of heavy silicone bags that do the same thing but are washable. We’ve cut down on the amount of plastic bags that way.
We’ve replaced certain cleaning products in plastic with glass containers. We discovered https://masonjars.com, which sells a number of products that can convert a standard mason jar into a spray or pump bottle. We then buy natural but effective liquid cleaners from www.cleancult.com and dispense them from the mason jars.
Grove.co sells its own glass spray and pump bottles and sell natural-based glass cleaning concentrates in little glass bottles.
We buy liquid hand soap and dishwasher fluid from Grove.co and those come in aluminum refill containers, which are definitely recycled.
Although we may be discouraged that very little of the plastic, we put in that blue bin doesn’t get transformed into another product, at least we are trying a different solution to the problem.
I’m hoping more people would consider doing so.
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