Top tips for reducing plastic use in your home

5 Top Tips for Reducing Plastic use in your Home

As consumers, we use considerable amounts of plastic each year, ranging from the packaging on our food and household items to the straws in our drinks. Yet over the past year there has been an increasing focus on the need to reduce the amount of plastic we rely on. We can see this in the Evening Standard’s campaign to encourage London bars and restaurants to remove plastic straws and from Sky Ocean Rescue’s #PassOnPlastic campaign which demonstrates small changes you can make to help save our oceans.

The Government has finally caught onto this grassroots activism by announcing plans for a plastic desposit return scheme to help reduce the amount of pollution generated by leftover plastic. While we understand that the burden to reduce needless plastic use lies on the product manufacturers, there are small steps you can take to help reduce your plastic consumption. In this article, we’ll give you five easy ways to cut down the amount you use every day.

1. Start with the little things
Small items such as plastic cotton bud sticks, microbeads in face wash and plastic straws all add up. Buy cardboard cotton bud sticks, face washes with natural kernels like apricot and carry a bamboo or metal straw to make an instant cut in the amount of plastic you use.

2. Do you really need that packaging?
From plastic supermarket bags to plastic coverings on bananas, we often find unnecessary packaging has become such a part of our daily lives that we don’t question it. Yet buying loose fruit or bringing a foldaway canvas tote bag can really make a difference – plus, if shops see less of a demand for plastic then they’ll end up cutting down too.

3. Choose glass bottles – or a can!
From water to fizzy drinks, the majority of on-the-go beverages in supermarkets are held in plastic bottles. Vote with your wallet by buying canned or glass bottled drinks wherever possible. Coca Cola tastes better from a glass bottle anyway right?

4. Switch to bars
Shower gel, shampoo and conditioner all tend to come in plastic bottles, yet the bar variety is just as effective and can even last longer. Stores such as Lush have offered shampoo and conditioner bars for years, and as you have to work to create lather, you’re less tempted to use too much product. Plus, they aren’t included in your flight liquids allowance – making your holiday hand luggage trip a whole lot easier.

5. Grab a reusable thermos for your takeaways
Coffee cups and water bottles are one of the most common causes of needless plastic waste. You can avoid these by carrying a reusable thermos suitable for hot and cold drinks. Some companies will even give you a discount for bringing your own mug – saving the planet and you money at the same time!

While it may seem difficult at first, by taking a few simple steps to assess where you can reduce plastic waste in your home you can make a massive difference to the environment. Got a great tip for reducing plastic waste? Let us know via our Twitter.

*The opinions and views expressed in the above articles are those of the author only and are for guidance purposes only. The authors disclaim any liability for reliance upon those opinions and would encourage readers to rely upon more than one source before making a decision based on the information.