Plastic Free July Pointers

 

Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash

It's that time of year again! Join us in our #PlasticFreeJuly efforts this month by taking on the challenge yourself where you can! This month on the blog we will keep you in the loop on some great plastic-free hacks you may not have considered before. In this post, Alex provides some fantastic pointers on simple and easy changes you can choose to make a big difference in your plastic consumption.

Plastic Free July offers the perfect opportunity to explore what waste-free options work for you, and allows you to set up some good eco habits to carry with you throughout the rest of the year. Here is my list of tips to add to our other blog posts on the topic to help you if you're embarking on the challenge!

• Shop at local markets and shops that stock unpackaged fruit and veg - in Manchester, there are several shops along the Curry Mile (e.g. WorldWide) and also in Longsight (e.g. Manchester Superstore) that do this!
• If you don't have any markets near you, take reusable bags to the supermarket and fill them with loose fruit and veg instead of using the single-use plastic offered to you!
• When buying packaged veg is unavoidable, keep the bags! I find that zip-up frozen pea bags are excellent sandwich bag replacements, or for leftovers that don't fit nicely in Tupperware.
• Get your milk delivered in glass bottles - call me old-fashioned but this is a great one! You can find your nearest delivery service here. Of course, home-delivery poses its own problems with vehicle pollution, but you would be supporting a small local business with this choice too. It's all about balance and personal choice as to which environmental issues you prioritise!
• Alternatively, simply switch to cardboard milk cartons in supermarkets as opposed to plastic bottles.
• Swap your teabags for loose-leaf tea - or opt for plastic-free tea bags! At Want Not Waste, we stock a variety of zero-waste loose-leaf tea leaves. While we're closed for summer, you can also investigate here to find which brands and supermarkets are making their tea more sustainable,
• Switch up your chewing gum - why chew plastic gum when you can have it au naturale? Glee Gum and Chewsy are popular plastic-free brands that provide lots of jazzy flavours. Both brands also offer vegan hum, opting for plant-based alternatives to the beeswax and resinous glaze that is often used to make gum look shiny.
• Make your decorations more eco - with crafting having become much more popular over the last year or so, make sure to celebrate in style with handmade decorations this summer! Disposable decorations such as single-use bunting can be replaced with cute crafts made from scrap paper.
• Sparkle in style with plastic-free glitter - top off the perfect festival outfit with an alternative that's much more friendly to the environment like Eco Glitter! Microplastics are a really prevalent problem for our waterways, and this glitter biodegrades within a month or less in natural water conditions, compost or soil. This reduces damage to natural habitats and contamination of our water supply.
• Invest in an anti-microplastic laundry bag - whenever we wash clothes made from synthetic fabrics, microplastics are released into our waterways from the small fibres that shed during each laundry cycle. To prevent this, washing your synthetically-made clothes in special washing bags is designed to filter out these microfibres.
• Rethink delivery packaging - with the various lockdowns over the past year, many of us have seen a big increase in our home deliveries, which I'm sure you'll agree usually also means a lot of useless packaging. You can keep leftover plastic parcel bags or bubble wrap to reuse in future for gift wrapping or future deliveries. I found leftover packaging especially useful when moving out of student accommodation!
• Prepare for being out and about - it's often easy to forget that your consumption has an impact outside of your household too. When you're travelling or out for the day this summer, make sure to carry reusable so that you can (kindly) refuse disposable items such as plastic water cups and cutlery. This means your waste can be reduced in the home and outside too!
• Plan your time when eating out - scheduling meals and drinks out is another great way to reduce plastic outside the home as it removes the need for disposable takeaway boxes which are often unrecyclable.
• If a takeaway coffee is unavoidable on the go, invest in a reusable coffee mug! Most small and large businesses are once again re-introducing their reusable coffee cup schemes along with restrictions easing, meaning you can save waste and often earn a small discount!
• Most importantly... USE WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE! - If you already have plastic containers or chewing gum or teabags, use them! Buying new 'eco' products when you already own their less-friendly equivalent at home may seem tempting but it just essentially over-consumption, which defeats the point of reducing waste in the long run - and your wallet doesn't appreciate it either! Handily this is also the quickest & easiest tip to follow from this list!

I hope these tips start you off on the right foot for reducing your plastic waste! This is of course not an exhaustive list, and there will always be things that don't work for you and that is also fine. Finding the balance that suits you best is going to be the most sustainable way to reduce your plastic consumption in the long term, so prioritise things that work well for you and your lifestyle. 

Happy summer, and here's to a Plastic Free July!

Author: Alex

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