Plastic Free July

I decided to take part in Plastic Free July this year for several reasons. Cutting down on single-use plastic has been an ongoing journey for me for a few years, and I felt that really focusing on a few key areas at home would allow us as a family to go a little deeper into that journey.

I had already used cloth nappies and washable wipes when my (now 5yr old) son was a baby. A couple of years ago I made the switch to CSP. I changed to shampoo and conditioner bars, block deodorant and bar soap a couple of years ago too. But the thing about this journey is there’s always further to go. You don’t have to be totally zero waste, just aiming to lower your consumption of single-use plastic and waste generally.

So this year, I focused my efforts on a few key areas – pet food packaging and snack packaging. We have a cat who likes a brand of catfood that doesn’t come in tins. Our Green/Labour council surprisingly hardly recycles any plastics (bottles only), so a sizeable amount of our weekly rubbish was full of the plastic sachets from his food. Likewise with snacks – crisp packets and the wrappers from Nakd bars, which my kids (and I!) love. We discovered a weekly market stall in Brighton called the Green Centre – they recycle TONS of things it’d be hard to recycle anywhere else locally, from contact lens packaging to pet food wrappers, crisp packets to old phones and glasses. We have started making a weekly trip down there with a canvas bag full of this stuff, which is keeping our weekly bin half as full as it was last month.

Whilst they do recycle crisp packets, they don’t do Nakd bar wrappers. As these are so popular in my house, I decided to experiment with making some of our own. I used this recipe as a template, and they have been a hit! Making them ourselves is cheaper, produces less waste and provides a nice opportunity for some kitchen bonding time! It just requires a little forward planning, but nothing major as they don’t need to be baked – it’s literally just putting 4 ingredients in the food processor and pressing it down in the tin.

I also experimented with making homemade vegan cashew yoghurt. I love Dreena Burton’s Plant Powered Families book, but this recipe was from her website. Really yummy! My children are a bit skeptical, but even if it’s just me eating it, it’s reducing the amount of plastic yoghurt pots we get through.

Another change we made was buying bamboo toothbrushes. The lovely Green Centre mentioned above actually recycles toothpaste tubes and old plastic toothbrushes, but now we’ve made the switch to bamboo which are biodegradable and just feel nicer in your hand.

I feel that we have made some significant changes this July, and whilst our annual (or even monthly!) household waste certainly won’t fit into a single jar, any step you take is a step in the right direction. What simple step could you take today to reduce the amount of waste you produce?