39: Plastic-free Moisturising

So, I was looking round my bathroom the other day to see how many products I’m still buying in plastic packaging. There’s still too many. Then I went to my local chemist (drug store, for my American friends) to find alternatives for some of them.

One item bothered me a lot. I couldn’t find any moisturiser that didn’t come in a plastic tube or bottle. Even expensive glass-bottled ones had plastic caps or dispensers. Now, my skin is kind of dry…and I ain’t getting any younger either! I also live in an area with very hard water. Moisturiser is something I increasingly find myself using. So, what can I do?

Well, research is something I really enjoy, so I set about looking for alternatives that were natural, didn’t harm animals, and preferably saved me money. It took me no time at all to come across a solution that did all three. And the solution is….

OLIVE OIL! Yes, that’s right. Good old olive oil. The ancients in Egypt, Greece and Rome, used pure olive oil to anoint their skins with. Not just for ceremonies, but for everyday use. I tried it, and it’s fabulous! Not only that, but it works out so much cheaper than the beauty brands you find in the shops. It’s natural, not tested on animals, and if it’s good enough to put into your body, it’s certainly good enough to put on your skin!

IMPORTANT TIPS:
1. Use the best, extra virgin oil you can afford. The kind you use in cooking is fine. You don’t need to buy the small bottles you find in the pharmacy.
2. Use SPARINGLY! Too much, and you’ll end up smelling like a Greek salad.
3. For use on the face – pour a little on some cotton wool and massage into the skin until it’s well absorbed. You don’t need much.
4. For use on the body – pour a little into the palm of your hand and massage in well.
5. Of course, only buy your olive oil in a glass bottle or metal can.
6. Once the olive oil is massaged in, the aroma is gone. If you want to add fragrance, try adding some dried lavender to the bottle.

PRICE COMPARISON:
Just to give you an idea of how much you can save – the most expensive extra virgin olive oil I found in my local supermarket (and I mean, expensive, fairtrade, organic) costs £1.90 per 100ml. The absolute cheapest moisturiser (not cruelty free, basic, big brand) costs £2.00 per 100ml. (The most expensive branded moisturiser costs in the supermarket costs £40.00 per 100ml!) Even if you swap your dirt-cheap moisturiser for really, mega-expensive oil, you still save money. So, you’d be crazy not to, wouldn’t you?

Try it. You might never go back to using expensive moisturisers again. It’s healthy, it saves you money, and it’s perfect if you’re vegan and against animal cruelty. If it was good enough for Cleopatra, it’s good enough for me!

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38: Bake it, don’t buy it!

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Here’s a challenge, which hopefully should be more fun than fear!

Choose one thing from your weekly food shopping basket that normally comes in some form of plastic packaging. Select something that you buy often, rather than a luxury item, and choose something that has already been cooked or pre-prepared for you (i.e., not something like raw fruit or veg).

Remove that plastic-covered thing from your shopping basket, and find a recipe for how to make it instead. While you’re shopping, buy the ingredients that you need – preferably not also wrapped in plastic! – then take those ingredients home and learn how to make that food item yourself.

You might choose bread or biscuits or hoummos or pizza or pasta or pies or burgers (meat or vegetarian). Perhaps even butter or cheese (dairy or vegan) or tomato sauce.  There are lots and lots of suggestions, just make it something you buy ready-made on a regular basis. That way you’re making a real change. And there are literally millions of recipes online for just about every dish it’s possible to make. Alternatively, support a local bookshop and buy yourself a new cookbook…or ask for one for your birthday!

If you’re a parent or grandparent or aunt or uncle, get the children involved too. Teach them how to make something that they thought only came ready made. You’ll be giving them a real life-skill at the same time.

Just think: If you teach yourself how to make bread, and you normally buy two loaves a week wrapped in a plastic bag, that’s 104 plastic bags that you personally are not putting into landfill to pollute our planet this year. And you might just save money too.

Once you’ve mastered one recipe. Choose a second one, then a third. If you get really good at it, teach one friend and you instantly double the amount of plastic you’ve saved.

Happy recipe hunting!

37: What difference can one person make? Count it up…

This is the plastic question I get asked the most. ‘I’m only one person. What difference does it make if I stop using a bit of plastic?’ The truth is one person can make a huge difference. Try counting it up….

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Let’s take a look at just some of the ideas that have been posted on this blog so far and what happened when I personally made those changes:
1. Switching from liquid soap to bars of soap saved 2 plastic bottles a month (one in the bathroom, and one in the kitchen). That’s 24 bottles a year.
2. Switching from shower gel to bars of soap saved 1 plastic bottle a month. That’s 12 bottles a year.
3. Switching from laundry liquid to washing powder in a cardboard box saved one large plastic bottle a month. That’s 12 bottles a year.
4. Buying less fruit and veg in plastic bags and choosing loose options in the supermarket plus buying more fresh produce in markets saved at least 5 plastic bags a week. That’s at least 260 plastic bags a year.
5. Switching from liquid fabric softener to using white vinegar (in a glass bottle) saved one large plastic bottle a month. That’s 12 bottles a year.
6. Not buying bottled water any more, investing in a water filter jug at home and taking reusable bottles out with me saved at least 2 large plastic bottles a week. That’s at least 104 plastic bottles a year.
7. Saying ‘no’ to plastic carrier bags every time I do any kind of shopping and keeping a cloth bag with me or bags for life in the car saved at least 4 plastic carrier bags a week. That’s at least 208 plastic bags a year

24 + 12 + 12 + 260 + 12 + 104 + 208 = 632…at least!

These are just 7 of the changes I’ve made (I’ve made more) and all of them are simple, and none of them have cost me more than what I was previously spending. In fact, some of them have saved me money. But it means I have stopped at least 632 pieces of plastic from polluting the planet. Even if some of these could have been recycled (and not all of them can be) it is only possible to recycle plastic a handful of times. After that, it’s buried in the ground or ends up in the oceans. We’ve all seen on recent documentaries, just what this can cause.

If I’ve inspired just one person to make the simple changes above, then together we’ve stopped 1,264 more pieces of plastic getting out into the world. If I’ve inspired three people, then between us we’ve stopped 2,528 in one year.

Try the suggestions above for one month and then see how much emptier your plastic recycling bin is. Multiply that by 12 months to see the difference you can make in a year. Then encourage one friend and multiply that by 2….and one more friend…

Of course, the mountain of plastic continues to grow, and probably will do for some time. Do you want to be responsible for slowing that down, or for adding yet another plastic bottle to the top? And don’t wait for the corporations, the manufacturers, the supermarkets to make the change for us. They’re too slow. In any case, they will only sell us what we want to buy. That’s commerce. If we don’t buy it, they can’t sell it and, more importantly, can’t make money from it.

Still think one person can’t make a difference? So did the other 7 billion people who put their empty plastic water bottle on the mountain.

Do the maths.

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35: Loofahs ain’t just for baths. Who knew?

I’ll tell you who knew: my friend Mairead who shared this brilliant tip for plastic-free washing up with me. I shall share it now with you, and I’m keen to try this myself. I must just add that all the puns are her own and I can’t take any credit (or blame) for them!

(From Mairead) I read on a zero waste forum about using a loofah instead of a plastic sponge, and have finally taken the plunge (ba dum tish!).

I picked mine up for £1 in Wilkos, and used a bread knife to saw the bottom quarter off, as my sturdy kitchen scissors didn’t quite make the cut (tishshshsh) .

Then I used it for a week and a day. It has scrubbed roast ham off the roasting dish. Scrambled eggs off the frying pan. And solid porridge out of the baby bowl.
It’s not quite as sturdy as it was 8 days ago, but any fibres shed have been vegetable (it’s a type of gourd, really, Google it!) and it still did the dishes tonight. Popped into the microwave for 20 seconds whilst still damp, and it’s even disinfected.

And it will make another 3 scourers when I decide to replace this quarter.

Thrifty and plastic free ☺

Big thanks to Mairead, and all the other friends who are sending me tips and ideas. You will be shared soon too! 

34: Log the small successes – it will keep you going!

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Tip number 32 – ‘Be a rebel in the supermarket (Part One)’ was all about ignoring the plastic bags in the fruit and veg aisle and putting things that weren’t mushrooms in the paper bags provided for mushrooms. (“What? Are you crazy?!) Yep. I didn’t conform. It felt great! I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now, and I’ve even distributed the mushrooms bags to other shoppers I saw who were just about to put their loose leeks, tomatoes, courgettes, in single-use plastic bags. Without exception, they all said ‘thank you.’

Last week I was back in the same supermarket to do my weekly shop. I found myself back in the fruit and veg aisle because I needed some carrots (you don’t need to know that. I’m just filling in the back story!). Before I had a chance to head to the fungi selection to grab some paper bags, guess what I saw?….There were mushroom bags everywhere!!! Yes. In the little receptacles where the plastic bags usually are, there were piles of paper bags that said ‘mushrooms’ on them next to the tomatoes, the parsnips, the carrots….things that aren’t mushrooms at all! Sainsbury’s clearly has a rebel in the shelf stacking department.

Now, I can’t know for sure if I had anything to do with this. Maybe the manager saw me on CCTV giving out mushroom bags to strangers; maybe they saw me presenting random fruit and veg at the checkout in the same bags; maybe someone actually read this blog who lives in my local town and they decided to do the same – who knows? It doesn’t matter at all.

The fact is, a large supermarket has now thrown conformity out the window and is encouraging shoppers to put parsnips into bags that say ‘mushrooms.’ What next? Raspberries in rucksacks?….(Sorry, I got carried away at the end there.) There are still plastic bags where they used to be, but now at least shoppers like us have the option to not use them without walking all the way to the mushrooms.

Go on. Have a go. Move those mushroom bags, take your own containers, a friend of mine even uses the old plastic bags from loaves of bread to put her veggies in so that she can use them over and over again. Try it. Be a rebel for a day. It feels great!

33: Be a rebel in the Supermarket (Part 2)

Still so much food – way too much food – in the supermarket comes in single-use plastic packaging. Enough is enough! While you wait for the decision-makers in the supermarket to catch up, start doing something about it yourself and show them the way.

If you’re a vegan, you can do this at the deli counter (if your supermarket has one)
If you’re a vegetarian, you can do this at the cheese counter or the deli counter.
If you’re a pescatarian, you can do this at the fish counter, cheese or deli counter.
If you’re a meat eater, you can do this at the meat counter plus all the ones above.
We can all do this at the cake counter (if they have vegan cakes and bread too, that is).

So, here’s the idea: instead of buying your sausages, cheese, samosas, or whatever from the regular aisles – where the chances are they’ll all come wrapped in plastic – visit the fresh counters instead. Take a container with you; a foil one, if you have one, or a multi-use plastic container, select what you want and ask the assistant to put it in your container. Then they can stick the price on your container where it can be scanned at the checkout. When you get home, you can put it straight in the fridge without having to peel off the plastic that will end up in the bin. Simple. Do it enough times, and tell all your friends about it, and eventually the slow supermarkets will start to get the point.

I started doing this a couple of weeks ago in my local supermarket and I didn’t get arrested!

This could also be a great way to save a little money on your shop. You can buy as little or as much as you want, rather than having to buy the pre-packaged amount, and often the loose items are cheaper.

So, next time you go to the supermarket, slip a container into your bag for life so that you’re ready to go when you get there.

Even better than all of this, support your local deli, fish monger, butcher, and buy from them instead. You’ll be surprised in most places to find that they’re not necessarily more expensive. It just means making an extra trip into town. Surely the planet’s worth it?

32: Be a rebel in the supermarket (Part 1)

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If you can’t find it – create it!
Most of the big supermarkets in the UK are now promising to reduce single-use plastic, particularly around fresh produce. That’s great…but where is it? My local supermarkets still sell most of their fruit and veg wrapped in cellophane. Even bananas can still be bought in plastic bags. Why?! They already come in their own, perfect banana skin bag!!

There’s no need to just accept this. Go for loose fruit and veg wherever it’s available. It’s actually far more practical because you can buy only what you need, avoiding food waste. Sometimes you only need three carrots! Shocking, I know.

‘But I can’t just throw four tomatoes in my basket without a thin piece of plastic to protect them – that would be madness!’ I hear you cry. Well, there’s a solution for that too. Be a rebel and solve the problem yourself. If enough of us do it, the supermarkets will have to change and do what we want, instead of shoppers feeling they have no choice. Here’s how to start:

All of my local supermarkets sell loose mushrooms and provide paper (yes, paper!) bags to put them in. Yet other soft items like loose tomatoes only have plastic bags nearby. There is a simple way around this. The last time I went shopping, I took a paper bag from near the mushrooms, carried it to another aisle, and put my loose tomatoes in it, weighed them as normal, and put the price sticker on the paper bag. Do you know what? Nobody questioned it at the checkout, alarm bells didn’t go off in the salad aisle, and I wasn’t arrested! I then tried my luck and put some brocolli in a ‘mushroom’ bag. Now I felt like a proper desperado, and I liked it. Still nobody called the police!

I have no idea why it’s okay to put mushrooms in a paper bag and not okay to put tomatoes or grapes or anything else in them. The bags are only a means of conveying the fresh produce from the supermarket to my fridge. Once you’ve got them to the fridge, you can put them in whatever you like. Now I head straight for the mushrooms, grab a few paper bags, and put my other loose fruit and veg in them. Except for bananas, of course. They can fend for themselves!

With other, larger veg – leeks or carrots, for example – I just grab however many I need, pop them all on the scales and put the price sticker on one of them. They don’t need bags at all because I’m going to wash them before I eat them. Don’t you?

And even if your supermarket doesn’t provide paper bags for mushrooms, ask them for one of their empty cardboard boxes (they DO have them out the back because much of their produce is delivered in them!), put the box in the bottom of your trolley (or ‘cart’ for our American friends) and fill it up with your loose fruit and veg. Try to be helpful and weigh and sticker them as you go. You can put all the stickers on the side of the box so it’s simple at the checkout. Or if you really are a supermarket desperado, get them all weighed by the checkout assistant. Maybe then the shops will get the point.

Oh, and of course, this suggestion is totally vegan friendly. Although meat-eaters who occassionally eat veg can also get involved.

Try it. Be a rebel in the supermarket. It feels really good!

30: Aaah! The smell of plastic

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We’re talking about air fresheners! Many homes have them. If you have a pet, small child, or perhaps some digestive problems, you might need to use an air freshener regularly.

Use the choices that are available wisely. The next time you browse the supermarket shelves for some stink-masking fragrance, walk straight past the ones that come in plastic containers – please. There are many other options available:

• Many air fresheners of the spray kind come in metal containers. These are better than plastic because they can be recycled (at least the metal parts can) and they will biodegrade quicker, but they may still end up in landfill for a long time.
• Diffusers produce a more subtle, longer-lasting smell, and in the long run work out much cheaper. Choose the ones in glass bottles with wooden ‘sticks’. When the oil in them runs out, you don’t have to replace them with the slightly expensive refills. You can fill them with water and add a few drops of your favourite essential oil. It will last for ages and they’re perfect in a bathroom.
• While we’re on essential oils, there are lovely little ceramic options available that are made of porous stones that you can drip lovely-smelling oils onto. You’ll have to look around craft fairs and gift shops for these, but they’ll last for ever if you don’t drop them on the floor! This is an even more cost-effective way to keep your air fresh and they make lovely gifts.
• Scented candles are another way to go, and another lovely gift for friends, but make sure you keep them away from children and clumsy adults – obviously!
• If you prefer the scent of a 1960s hippy commune, (just kidding!) joss sticks come in many flavours – not just patchouli! Again, treat them with care, as you would a candle. They’re not expensive but, of course, they burn down as you use them so they’re not as cost-effective as re-usable options.
• Fresh herbs on a kitchen windowsill are perfect for those with green fingers, and you can eat most of them too. In days gone by, people used to dry lavender and hang it over doorways. It not only smells good, it keeps flies at bay too.
• A simple way to keep a dustbin fresh in the kitchen is to sprinkle a little baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) in the bottom of the bin. It’s amazing stuff!
• Pot-pourri (like your grandma used to have!) comes in lots of different kinds and doesn’t have to smell like an old lady’s handbag anymore!

These are just a few suggestions. I’ve heard that you can cut an onion in half and leave it in a room overnight to trap bad smells. I’ll leave you to have a go with that one. Or half a lemon will deodorize your fridge – that one really works.

Take your pick, just don’t pick up the plastic air freshener. Eventually, the manufacturers will get the point and stop producing them.

29: Watch your language!

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Since setting myself this challenge of finding 365 different ways to reduce our use of plastic, the world appears to have gone plastic crazy. It’s like when you get a new car and you suddenly start seeing them everywhere. There are no more of them than before, but your brain has started looking for them…and there they all are.

I look around the house, I go shopping, I go and meet a friend, and everywhere I look I see plastic. Why didn’t I see it all before? Simply because I wasn’t looking in the same way. Also, it’s because I wasn’t consciously naming it. I would go shopping and say ‘I need some shampoo.’ I didn’t say, ‘I need a plastic bottle with some shampoo in it.’ And that’s when I realised that I was making a difference in my behaviour because I had started to make it CONSCIOUS.

Try it for one day. Name everything you see made of plastic – at home, at work, at the shops, on a night out – out loud to yourself (or in your own head, if you think people might point and laugh!). You will be shocked at how many times you say the word ‘PLASTIC.’ Then think about the things you can replace with something that isn’t plastic and you’ll be away. It will start to become conscious and (hopefully) you’ll feeel that you have to do something about it.

And while we’re on the subject of words, let’s stop using a big one incorrectly. And that word is…DISPOSABLE! Most things we call ‘disposable’ simply aren’t: Disposable fork, disposable lighter, disposable nappies, disposable coffee cup…most of these things are not! All we do is dispose of them out of our sight and shift the problem somewhere else. In fact, plastic will never dispose at all, it will just move around the planet or get buried to reappear some other time. Unless you can put it in your compost heap, or use it again, it’s not disposable. So let’s stop calling it that.

Language is a hugely powerful thing. Think about what you call things. Is that what they truly are? Make it conscious and you’ve started making a big difference to your life, to others and to the planet.

And so endeth a bit of philosophy for today. This blog is getting deep!

 

28: Crafty little plastic!

This one is for all the hookers out there……and knitters! (What did you think I meant?) We’re talking about yarn. Summer will soon be coming to an end, and some of you out there will be getting your needles and your hooks out to knit or crochet some new winter woolies. Before you go and add to your stash, have a think about the type of yarn you choose.

Did you know that acrylic or nylon or polyester yarns are basically just another form of plastic? Of course you did. Their names sound much nicer than ‘plastic wool’ but they’re made from synthetic polymers and, like with other plastics, these are not biodegradable. So, whenever you see ‘acrylic’ on a label, just remember that the jumper you make out of it might fall to bits over time, but those polymers will sadly never leave the planet. Even worse, they could end up becoming small enough to enter the food chain. According to environmentalists, this is already happening.

This applies to clothing you buy too, but I’ll cover that in a future post.

Yes, acrylic yarn is cheap. Yes, it comes in lots and lots of colours because it’s easy to dye. Yes, it’s plentiful. But can you really stand to think of it being here forever? I can’t.

Well, there is an easy solution, and you’ve guessed it: stick to natural fibres that will biodegrade. These days there are masses of different yarns made of wool from sheep or mohair from goats or alpaca from…alpacas! Even silk from silkworms, if you can afford it. But please, please don’t buy angora as this comes from rabbits and is definitely NOT cruelty free. Look for Fairtrade brands and you’ll be helping people get a fair wage too.

And if you’re vegan, or simply prefer not to use products derived from animals, there is a fantastic selection of yarns out there made from cotton, bamboo and even soya. I’ve tried all three of these and can recommend them. I’ve also found yarn made from hemp and banana leaves, but I haven’t tried those yet. All of these animal-free alternatives are usually better for people with sensitive skin too, which is a bonus.

While we’re at it, next time you have to buy a new pair of knitting needles or a crochet hook, look for brands made of bamboo or metal rather than plastic. The bamboo kind are really lightweight, and the metal ones will last you a lifetime.

I’m even working on a couple of patterns to include here in the future so that you can replace some of your plastic-filled items with handmade ones. Watch this space, and give me a little time! Now, where did I put my bamboo crochet hook….?