How to reduce plastic waste

Plastic is piling up in the oceans, which is piling up in the fish, which is piling up in our bodies. Eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans every year. The fish eat it, and then we eat the fish. Shellfish lovers eat 11'000 pieces of microplastics every single year.

Governments are starting to enact policies to cut down on waste and some companies are also taking the plunge. We are starting to see plastic bag charges, bans on plastic microbeads in consumer beauty products and plastic bottle return programmes where you make a little money if you hand your bottles back in. When I was in Berlin recently I noticed a lot of people would leave plastic bottles by the bin rather than in them, to be collected. You would see homeless people returning bags and bags full of bottles for the money. I thought it was a truly fantastic thing and I wish they would implement something similar here in the UK.

How can you; as an individual, cut back on your plastic waste? Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Invest in some reusable shopping bags, and actually use them. Usually the trick with this is remember to bring the bags when you go shopping. The UK brought in a disposable plastic bag charge a few weeks but it took everybody a long time to remember to start using them. You can invest in cotton or canvas bags if you want to do away with the reusable plastic ones. Try to get into the habit of keeping a few in your car, in your home, maybe even one in any shoulder bags or backpacks you carry about with you during the day.

2. Consider buying a water filter instead of buying bottled water, and a carbonater if you like sparkling water/soda water. The water filter jug I have is made of plastic and there is plastic in the filters too, but one filter will filter a few weeks worth of water and I can use the jug for years to come. Compared to buying plastic bottles every day it makes a difference. I also prefer to have sparkling water so I bought a little carbonation unit so I can make sparkling water.

3. Learn to make your own sauces, salad dressings and other goodies. I am what you could refer to as a “hummusexual”. I am pretty much obsessed with the stuff. I have learned to make my own potato salad, guacamole, hummus and the like, partially because I felt guilty about all the plastic and partially because these things taste much better when you make them from scratch anyway. You get the added benefit of cutting down on sodium and additives too.

4. If you buy coffee at a Starbucks or anywhere like that, buy your own reusable cup to bring with you.

5. Choose cardboard over plastic...so if there is a choice of muesli or pasta or detergent in a box, always choose the box!

6. Avoid using drinking straws where possible. Straws are a massive source of plastic waste and I have seen some horrific injuries to turtles from drinking straws. You can invest in reusable steel straws which look very fancy, or paper straws, although disposable, are a much more eco friendly option.

7. Avoid beauty products with microbeads in them. There are plenty of natural alternatives to microbead exfoliators, including oats, coffee grounds, sugar and salt. It's best to avoid items with “polypropylene” or “polyethylene” on the ingredients list.

8. Instead of using a disposable razor, choose one with just a disposable head, or even consider using a safety razor. These are actually gaining popularity again because they last for years, look much more stylish in your bathroom than disposable razors, and are basically hipster AF. They are comparatively expensive to buy when you start but the blades last forever so they work out cheaper. They can be a little scary to begin with but there are plenty of Youtube videos out there to teach you how to use them. A lot of people find when used correctly, they actually nick and cut themselves much less with a safety razor than with the disposable plastic kind, because you can use less pressure and the blade stays super sharp for a longer time. It's also more hygienic as these types of razors are easy to clean and dry whereas the blades on the disposables go rusty pretty fast.

9. When storing food in the fridge or freezer consider non-plastic or at least reusable items. Glass jars can be used for fridge storage, reusable plastic tubs for the freezer, instead of zip lock bags, sandwich bags and other disposable plastic items.

10. Use a refillable lighter or matches, instead of a disposable bic type lighter.

The following video is a pretty sad watch which shows the effects of all our plastic waste on the world. It's not my intent to make anyone feel guilty over their lifestyle, but we only have this one earth to share with many other beings on it, and I feel if we all take little steps in our daily lives and let our government know we need better legislation, we can improve the state of this beautiful little blue globe we live on.