Zero Waste Lifestyle

lucy_lemon · 26 January 2018 at 6:05PM

Hi!

I thought this board would be the perfect place for a zero waste thread. Since there's been so much in the news lately about how plastics are taking over the oceans, I've been inspired to try and cut down on waste, particularly plastic. It would be great to see if there are others in this forum too!

So far I've

bought metal straws to use when out and about
bought some cutlery from a charity shop to take out with me - no more soup with a nasty plastic spoon!
got some muslin to make produce bags
tried to source fruit and veg as unpackaged as possible

tori.k · 26 January 2018 at 6:49PM

There is a minimise plastic thread and a love food hate waste thread that you may find helpful
Good luck with your journey

kacie · 27 January 2018 at 9:30AM

I've tried to cut down, I use a ecoffee cup, made from bamboo, when out. I have water bottles that I can refill when needed.
I try to get produce loose, and put it in my bag loose.

However it's more the household items I struggle with rather than food, the shampoo, toothpaste and all that.

Tink_04 · 27 January 2018 at 10:06AM

Itsems have so much packaging on them now! I do try but find it hard as most of the veg at the supermarket is pre packed and with work and kids I can’t always get to a local fruit and veg shop, even then these are not great and lots are bagged up still?

Wig · 27 January 2018 at 12:04PM

Good idea to minimise waste. There was an article on BBC R4 the other day. They suggested buying from the deli counter....but I was thinking that's not perfect either...

The counter staff will pick up everything onto a plastic sheet and then put that into a bag....in Tesco the bag is plastic, in Sainsburys it looks like a brown paper bag but if you look at it closely it is non recylable mixed material paper lined with plastic.

They should just use paper but then they will use bleached paper which is not good either.

tori.k · 27 January 2018 at 1:13PM

Wig wrote: »

Good idea to minimise waste. There was an article on BBC R4 the other day. They suggested buying from the deli counter....but I was thinking that's not perfect either...

The counter staff will pick up everything onto a plastic sheet and then put that into a bag....in Tesco the bag is plastic, in Sainsburys it looks like a brown paper bag but if you look at it closely it is non recylable mixed material paper lined with plastic.

They should just use paper but then they will use bleached paper which is not good either.

Just take your own container in, I do this at my local butcher I still have the plastic weighing sheet to deal with but not the bag, I couldn't get my local Morrison's counter to do this but others have had success with there local supermarkets.

niceyl · 18 July 2018 at 9:44PM

Hello,

I am posting this on your forum in the hope that Martin or one of the team will read it. I put together an e-mail to send to MSE, but then I realized that I can't e-mail them. Your forum looked like an appropriate one to post it on. Thanks

Martin, please denounce the senseless use of plastic!

Firstly, I really like your moneysavingexpert.com website, I use it a lot! It has been very useful over the years. It is a really good, well laid out and an informative website.

One day when I was peeling unnecessary cling film from around some broccoli bought in a shop, I thought it would be really good if there was a more centralised way that consumers could bring ideas together to discourage one use plastics and find alternatives to the senseless use of plastic by manufacturers/supermarkets. Anyway, at that point I thought that the format of your website would be a pretty good way of bringing ideas together, showing alternatives and encouraging consumer campaigns.

I hate rubbish and I always have done. I did a few art projects at school about rubbish and that was when plastic was actually much less of a problem. I am not a head banger environmentalist, but I really think it would be great to provide a platform for consumers to encourage manufacturers to start to think about the impact they are having on the environment and make it easy for people to consume in a more sustainable way.

I see there have been references to living a plastic free lifestyle on your website and some related forums. There are also some other websites that give people ideas for living a plastic free life, but it is not easy to be plastic free and I think a dedicated section on your website to encourage a change in our throw away consumerist lifestyle could help plastic free options to become more mainstream.

There have been various small campaigns for people to leave the unnecessary rubbish in the supermarkets days. If people were encouraged to do this on a more regular basis and supermarkets had to pay to dispose of unnecessary the rubbish, then eventually they would get the message. It does not really make economic sense that supermarkets often make it cheaper to buy fruit and vegetables in plastic packaging, given that the supermarkets must actually pay more to pay for the fruit and vegetables to be packaged.

I suspect that many of the people who sign up to your current website would be interested in a plastic free focused website or a section attached to your current website.

Some ideas:

As you currently show good bank accounts for ethics/ interest rates, you could list shops/supermarkets that put efforts into produce less waste. Feedback from readers in forums would help to compile/update lists.
Show a list of organisations / companies that are looking to provide sustainable alternatives to plastic.
Have a section to show the impact of plastic. This could be made up of links to other websites, e.g. information for the Blue Planet series.
Promote campaigns to encourage consumers to change how they shop to demand less plastic, e.g. leave unnecessary rubbish with the supermarkets.
Provide links to other websites that encourage a plastic free lifestyle.
Promote forums for reader discussions, e.g. how to live a plastic free lifestyle, exchanging thoughts on companies etc.
Have a section specifically for children to encourage them to think about the impact of plastic, ideas for children to live a plastic free life and forums for children to come up with ideas on how to achieve their goals. For example, there could be an educational section, so that children and teachers can do some projects at school about living a plastic free life. Maybe some educational resources could be provided on the website.
There could be a section on any government initiatives / changes in the law (if any) that promote the production of less harmful plastics. This may vary between different parts of the UK.

This list is just providing some ideas, it can be extended!

Ideas for the name of the website/section of your website:

plasticfreeexpert
plasticsavingexpert

Martin - you could become a planetsavingexpert!