Plastic Free Money Saving Tips

Dozey_Dormouse88 · 19 July 2019 at 10:19AM

Hi all, I am new to the forum as I have been looking for further ways to reduce my single use plastic waste, and this forum popped up.

So far, I have re-usable cloth and fabric bags, (for shopping, which I do at the market for fruit and veg and bring my own reusable small cloth bags for these), a re-usable ceramic rubber lid cup for hot drinks, a glass water bottle for refilling while out and about. I have also switched (once finishing the last of my old products) to solid shampoo bars, solid soap and toothpaste which comes in a glass jar (as I've heard that both glass and metal are more recyclable than plastic, as the polymer chains break down after awhile from recycling, so the resultant product can be brittle)

I also try to reduce my other waste by opting for re-usable items such as cotton dish wash cloths (which can go in the washing machine) rather than disposable plastic sponges, and coconut scrubbies (which are compostable) for tough bits, and opting for soap nuts in a cloth bag in the washing machine, with some washing soda (comes in a cardboard box) to boost performance, and this cuts down my use of plastic laundry bottles. I have milk delivered in glass bottles, for reuse.

Next, I am going to try switching out my cleaning products for things like bicarbonate of soda, citric acid and white vinegar, (Pinterest lists things like 'Toilet Fizzers' which look fun to make!) and diluting Castile soap for washing up liquid (with tea tree and lemon essential oils) to reduce my plastic (but these do come in single use plastic bottle)

I think my biggest problem is plastic food packaging (I don't eat ready meals but things like yogurt pots, cheese wrappers, margarine tubs, ice cream tubs (though I reuse many of these), bags from frozen veg etc) I just can't get this any lower without serious changes to our lifestyle I'm doing what I can but we've got to eat! (Family of 4, two kids under 10) We don't eat much meat, either.

Does anyone else have any green, (and also money saving) plastic free or reusable tips for me?

Dozey_Dormouse88 · 19 July 2019 at 10:29AM

Found this report from Friends of the Earth, interesting reading:
cdn.friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/reducing-household-plastics_0.pdf

Glad · 8 August 2019 at 8:32PM

Hi and welcome to MSE

I've started making my own yoghurt, I take a reusable container with me when buying cheese (or ask them to use one of the paper bags they have on the deli counter for snacks), buy butter wrapped in paper, only buy loose veg,
it's easier because I go shopping most days, anything you are doing is better than nothing though

plastic bags from frozen veg is recyclable in the carrier bag recycling bins at most supermarkets

you can buy washing up bars online or at your local no waste shop, they last a long time

Ice cream I stopped buying but do make my own sometimes

Hexane · 9 August 2019 at 12:06AM

Glad wrote: »

I take a reusable container with me when buying cheese (or ask them to use one of the paper bags they have on the deli counter for snacks), buy butter wrapped in paper, only buy loose veg,

How do you dispose of the paper bags they have on the deli counter and the paper that they wrap your butter in?

Glad wrote: »

plastic bags from frozen veg is recyclable in the carrier bag recycling bins at most supermarkets

This is true, and people should make the effort to look and see what can be put in there, it's more than you think. I believe that the larger supermarkets are required to provide this facility (as well as recycling for CF bulbs and ordinary household batteries), even though some of them make it unreasonably difficult to find and use (so for example instead of taking a dirty fossil fuel vehicle to the supermarket just for my own shopping, I have it delivered in a green slot so that many people's shopping can come in one single van... I end up eventually with a large quantity of plastic bags even despite specifying none, sometimes too many to fit in their supermarket receptacle.)

Hexane · 9 August 2019 at 12:15AM

On this topic, one way to save a lot of plastic and also "save trees", is to adopt the non-European approach to anal hygiene, that is to say, using water instead of toilet paper. Most toilet paper is grown in sustainable forests anyway, but the plastic in which it is wrapped certainly takes some resources even if it is later recycled. (Be honest, how much of the plastic wrappers that your toilet paper comes in, has really been recycled?) Recent studies have shown that even sustainable forests used for paper and toilet paper have an adverse impact on carbon emissions, so this is a good way to make a change.

Give it a try and let us know how you get on!

Glad · 13 August 2019 at 10:33PM

Hexane wrote: »

How do you dispose of the paper bags they have on the deli counter and the paper that they wrap your butter in?

Anything that can't be kerbside recycled we take to the local recycling centre, hardly anything actually goes in the black bin, maybe one bin bag a fortnight

Hexane wrote: »

This is true, and people should make the effort to look and see what can be put in there, it's more than you think. I believe that the larger supermarkets are required to provide this facility (as well as recycling for CF bulbs and ordinary household batteries), even though some of them make it unreasonably difficult to find and use (so for example instead of taking a dirty fossil fuel vehicle to the supermarket just for my own shopping, I have it delivered in a green slot so that many people's shopping can come in one single van... I end up eventually with a large quantity of plastic bags even despite specifying none, sometimes too many to fit in their supermarket receptacle.)

it annoys me that some supermarkets don't have a list above the recycling bin to tell people what can and can't be put in it, the one at our local Morrisons id always full but with a lot of unsuitable plastic in it

Hexane · 13 August 2019 at 11:11PM

Glad wrote: »

Anything that can't be kerbside recycled we take to the local recycling centre, hardly anything actually goes in the black bin, maybe one bin bag a fortnight

That is good going. I have had some less positive results, taking polystyrene packaging (which is very widespread) directly to the local recycling centre, and pointing them to the numbers indicating which type of plastic it should be recyled as, only resulted in them telling me to put it in the landfill skip.

Glad wrote: »

some supermarkets don't have a list above the recycling bin to tell people what can and can't be put in it, the one at our local Morrisons id always full but with a lot of unsuitable plastic in it

If you feel up to it, please do challenge them on that lack of labelling. It won't help much, there are a certain sort of people who will happily shove entire 77" television packaging, cardboard and non-recyclable polystyrene both, into exactly all of the wrong bins. But at least if it's labelled as to what should go where, then either you or I can challenge some of the idiots as to what they are doing....

Plastic Free Money Saving Tips

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