There are so many everyday items in our homes that are single-use plastic I wanted to dedicate a post to sustainable replacements in the Saying No to Plastic series. It feels we’re finally at a turning-point moment against the plastic lifestyle and there are new options popping up everywhere for Saying No to Plastic!
What’s Wrong with Plastic?
Plastic is non-biodegradable and it can leech toxic chemicals. While it is possible to recycle and up-cycle plastic there are limits – not all plastic is recyclable ( your straws, plastic cups and plastic bags can not be recycled) and the same piece of plastic can only be recycled 2-3 times before its quality decreases and can no longer be used. Recycling plants across the country are overwhelmed and many have closed because they aren’t financially sustainable. It’s not an exaggeration to say that plastic is suffocating our planet – landfills are overflowing with toxins leaching into our soil, plastic particles from our clothing are drained into our water supply when we do a load of laundry, fish are ingesting our plastic and then we’re eating the plastic in our fish. This blog series Saying No to Plastic will focus on choices we can make to replace anything we use that is plastic or packaged in plastic.
Replace Single Use Plastic with Sustainable Solutions
Concentrated Dish-Soap in a Glass Dispenser is Ecological, Economical and Effective:
These biodegradable pods by etee are filled with concentrated dish-soap. Just rip the pod open over a jar or dispenser and squeeze into 12 ounces of water.
The pods & soap are plant-based & biodegradable, you can dispose the pods in your houseplants or compost! My only (small) gripe is that they’re unscented. I’d love to see botanical scents added to the line (lemon/Thyme or Green-tea/Mint anyone??). Using these saves our household 4 plastic bottles a year. Update note – these pods are now offered in a lemongrass scent option!
Concentrated All-Purpose Cleaner, Glass Cleaner and Laundry Soap in Glass Dispensers:
Grove Collaborative offers a variety of glass dispensers with a non-BPA silicon safety base and their concentrated all-purpose, laundry and glass cleaners are non-toxic and botanically derived. These would be even better if the concentrates were packaged in something biodegradable, but they still use much less plastic than a 16 + ounce bottle. Using these saves our household 10 plastic bottles a year. Update: Grove Collaborative now sells their concentrates in glass (whoot!)
Invest in One Beautiful Razor, Instead of Endless Packs of Cheap, Polluting Disposables:
Upgrade to a stainless steel razor and save money as well as hundreds of plastic disposables a year, and it feels so much nicer! You can buy these new but the great thing about stainless steel is that a vintage one is going to be in new-like condition too and they’re a lot less expensive. My husband found this 1972 adjustable Gillette at our local treasure-trove Bahoukas Antique Mall.
Yes, You Can Live Without Cling-Wrap and Zip-Locks:
Living without cling-wrap & zip-locks is easy! I use dish-cloths to wrap & chill dough or cover large bowls in the refrigerator; cloth draw-string bags are great to store produce; use wax-wraps for sandwiches & small pieces of produce like half a lemon or avocado.
The company etee has a great selection of wax wraps and bags; MightyNest and Grove Collaborative sell wax wraps as well as multi-use silicon bags; I use a Charles Viancin silicon lid for air-tight storage too, which is available in different sizes.
Another Shout-out for Bar Shampoo
This year we’ll use 12 less plastic bottles by switching over to bar shampoo and conditioner. If you’re interested check out last weeks’ post:
Bar Shampoo and Saying No to Plastic
Does Reducing Single-Use Plastic Save the World?
Saying no to disposable or single-use plastic, if we all do it, can save our planet from being suffocated by plastic. Making the switches outlined above save our household 26 plastic bottles, several packs of disposable razors, hundreds of zip-lock bags and yards of plastic cling-wrap a year. Think about the impact if 329 million Americans made these choices!
Every time we say no to a piece of single-use plastic we are making a difference – for less polluted soil and less polluted water. And with every purchase we make with a company producing sustainable replacements for single-use plastic we’re empowering ingenuity and entrepreneurship that helps us live healthier lives.
I also think, and this may be a little out there for some, that each time we make a conscious choice for the greater good we’re more enthusiastic and able to make more conscious choices for the greater good – like a rolling snowball, our choices just get bigger and more impactful the more of them we make. I hope I’ve offered some food for thought and I look forward to hearing from you about your fixes for reducing your plastic-footprint!
We LOVE our bee’s wax wraps. Not sure if you’ve made the switch but we use wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets to help reduce single use waste. My clothes even dry faster!
Megan I’ve just started using the dryer balls too, thanks to my MightyNest membership 🙂 It may be my imagination but I think they make our clothes softer (we don’t use softeners ). I’m also a fan of the wax wraps, Johnny’s sandwich goes into one every day – I haven’t tried the wax bags yet because the wraps seem more versatile.