The War against plastic waste

Katiehound

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

The logistics of bringing all that glass back to a depot, checking it for chips, cracks etc then washing* it to food grade standards etc... No matter how many people use glass it'll never be as cheap as plastic. !

No, but not sooo many years ago with the milkman that was the norm, there were no other choices.(Unless you went to the farm and collected milk in a jug!) The glass bottles were washed , put on the doorstep and collected by him, then taken to the depot. I lived across the road from one- very very noisy. Many of those bottles must have been used for many years.
Sadly plastic has taken over with it's accompanying downsides.

ailz95

Katiehound wrote: »

No, but not sooo many years ago with the milkman that was the norm, there were no other choices.(Unless you went to the farm and collected milk in a jug!) The glass bottles were washed , put on the doorstep and collected by him, then taken to the depot. I lived across the road from one- very very noisy. Many of those bottles must have been used for many years.
Sadly plastic has taken over with it's accompanying downsides.

We have a milkman and return bottles to him. I started buying cream from him as it comes in a glass bottle, but he doesn't take those bottles back. Hopefully it'll be recycled in the glass recycling. Unfortunately buying from a milkman is a lot more expensive than buying in the supermarket. We're lucky and can afford to but it would be prohibitive for a lot of people

lykkelig

Anything over 1 pint is delivered in glass bottles via our local dairy. Should I need to feed dairy to a family I would be delivered a four pinter in a plastic container by default. I could, if I needed, call and ask for four 1 pint glass bottles but at a considerable expense compared to the offering that tries to, but fails, compete with the supermarket

All this is moot as we don't eat much dairy but consume a pint for tea and coffee so get a glass bottle a week.

PipneyJane

JuliaP wrote: »

I've done away with loo roll for wee altogether - I use 'family cloth), for me this is very old linen napkins, far too tatty for original use, which are washed, dried and reused ad infinitum. Similarly, I use cut up old towels/tea towels/sheets etc for reusable kitchen roll (or unpaper towel). Have yet to find an alternative to loo roll for solids

The green thing here is to only buy toilet paper that is made from recycled paper. Not only does it utilise a product that is often “to grey” for printing purposes, it leaves virgin wood pulp for good quality paper. (Incidentally, the wood used to make paper pulp usually comes from the branches shaved off logs before they’re split to make furniture.)

- Pip

Plasticfreemama

As a family of three, we sometimes struggle to get all the plastic out. I think the whole point is to really try. Our best efforts to live a low plastic life:
-use reusable bags (both shopping bags and produce bags)
-natural deodorants in aluminum tin
-bamboo toothbrush
-reusable nappies and wipes for the little one
-solid soap and shampoo bar
-recycled toilet papers
-reuse cloths and old t-shirt to make kitchen reusable towels
-beeswax wraps instead of cling film
-no linen rubbish bag (we compost and recycle as much as possible, so only dry rubbish goes in the bin)
-natural toothpaste
-try and avoid plastic packaging whenever possible
-always carry reusable bottles

I also buy eco-products from small family businesses

Any other things we can do?


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Plasticfreemama

I love soapnuts too. I get them as my daughter has eczema and they work really well for her skin. I also use them to make natural washing liquid and shampoo.

never_too_old

Plasticfreemama wrote: »

As a family of three, we sometimes struggle to get all the plastic out. I think the whole point is to really try. Our best efforts to live a low plastic life:
-use reusable bags (both shopping bags and produce bags)
-natural deodorants in aluminum tin
-bamboo toothbrush
-reusable nappies and wipes for the little one
-solid soap and shampoo bar
-recycled toilet papers
-reuse cloths and old t-shirt to make kitchen reusable towels
-beeswax wraps instead of cling film
-no linen rubbish bag (we compost and recycle as much as possible, so only dry rubbish goes in the bin)
-natural toothpaste
-try and avoid plastic packaging whenever possible
-always carry reusable bottles

I also buy eco-products from small family businesses

Any other things we can do?


-

Do you have any zero packaging?fill your own shops near you?
I also use a site called Olio that you can list any excess food you have or know you wont get around to using up.:D

Plasticfreemama

We used to live in London and used Olio, loved it but now moved to a smaller town and they don't have any options for it sadly! Yeah will check zero waste shops near us!

KxMx

I finally used up my open shower gels a few weeks ago and started using Dove beauty bar instead. Honestly my skin has never looked or felt so good.
We've also used up the liquid soaps and are using it in place of those.

Next on the list is washing up liquid. Not been impressed with Fairy lately, you have to use a lot for it to last. Once that runs out I have a couple of refill shops so I'm going to try 100ml of the SESI washing up liquid (into an old plastic water bottle, I now use stainless steel which is so much better) and see how that goes. If I like it the unopened Fairy can be donated.

I'm also considering using up the cleaning wipes and getting a refill of the e-cover all purpose cleaner as a test. I do prefer wipes but ready to test an alternative.

KxMx

So I got the refills of e-cover all-purpose cleaner and SESI washing up liquid.

Really impressed by the SESI and I'll definitely use that from now on. No chemical smell, lots of bubbles, cut through the grime and didn't dissapear too much after greasy pans.

The e-cover liquid isn't as effective as wipes and I don't like the smell, which also lingers too long after use. I do feel it's a better option though and will persist in the hope I get used to the smell. Perhaps I also need to be less sparing with the spray and practice my technique because I've been using wipes for years.
After that bottle has been used I may try the other refill places to see what multipurpose cleaner they offer if I'm still disliking the smell.