Planning for Project Plastic
In 2018 my husband and I have come to the decision to very consciously reduce our use of plastics, especially every day disposable ones. We watch a lot of natural history documentaries and one dominant theme arising over the past few years has been the damage plastics are doing. From a whale with its stomach full of plastic bags (source) to an albatross with bottle caps and a cigarette lighter inside her (source), plastic is doing damage. And then there's those plankton which are eating plastic too (source). These are the bottom of the food chain, so plastic works it way up, potentially to the fish we eat.
So, it's time my household did our bit.
Our Current Use
I'm already very aware of plastic use. We homestead, so food from the garden (eggs, veggies, poultry meat) come without all that horrible packaging. I always buy loose vegetables if I can. If we buy ready meals, I use the plastic tubs in the garden. BUT there is way more I could be, and should be, doing.
2018 Plan
I think it's unrealistic to attempt to eradicate plastic from my life. So I'm going to start gently and hope the new lifestyle will snowball. So I'm already researching areas where I can get rid of plastic.
- Veggies
- Continue growing a lot more food. Harvesting produce and turning into meals ahead of schedule for freezing; it's those ready meal desires that cause problems here. Having something you can quickly defrost could be a game changer.
- Continue growing a lot more food. Harvesting produce and turning into meals ahead of schedule for freezing; it's those ready meal desires that cause problems here. Having something you can quickly defrost could be a game changer.
- Bread/Cake
- Make a conscious effort to home bake more often; once a week perhaps. This will eradicate bread packaging....that cardboard under tea cakes, for example, is covered in a film of plastic.
- Milk
- I don't yet have space for a goat or cow. Instead I'm desperately searching for someone local I might be able to get milk from. If not, convert from hard plastic milk cartons to cartons or reusable milk bags. These do still contain plastic, but less of it.
- I don't yet have space for a goat or cow. Instead I'm desperately searching for someone local I might be able to get milk from. If not, convert from hard plastic milk cartons to cartons or reusable milk bags. These do still contain plastic, but less of it.
- Tea
- I LOVE tea and can't do without it. But that foil wrapping around the groups of tea bags? Actually plastic. So, it's loose leaf and finding a chic new teapot!
- I LOVE tea and can't do without it. But that foil wrapping around the groups of tea bags? Actually plastic. So, it's loose leaf and finding a chic new teapot!
- Teeth
- Buying bamboo toothbrushes and a charcoal based toothpaste that is teeth whitening, flouride free and comes in a metal tin.
- Buying bamboo toothbrushes and a charcoal based toothpaste that is teeth whitening, flouride free and comes in a metal tin.
- Hygiene
- Swapping shampoos and shower gels for organic castile soap that can be bought in bulk and decanted into glass dispensers. Using handmade soaps which don't normally come wrapped in shiny plastic covered paper.
- Swapping shampoos and shower gels for organic castile soap that can be bought in bulk and decanted into glass dispensers. Using handmade soaps which don't normally come wrapped in shiny plastic covered paper.
- Wrapping Paper
- Wrapping paper is FULL of plastic. Shiny = plastic. Glitter = plastic. Embossed shapes and patterns = plastic! So, I'm going to move to brown parcel paper and, possibly, I'll wrap gifts in homemade knitted products like scarves.
That's as far as I've got so far. There's still some regular disposables I need to work out - moist cat food (my kitty can't eat biscuits), toilet paper which comes in plastic wrapping, washing up/laundry products - trying soap nuts and washing bars, for example.
So that's a few of my ideas for Project Plastic. Any tips or ideas?
Thanks for reading,
Geoff
You can find me on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Patreon
I commend you guys and your desire to change to help the environment. Every piece of plastic that comes into the house gets recycled. I make most of my own shampoo and conditioner, I have tried soap. I use Baking Soda for brushing teeth, I already grow lots of my own food. I support local farmers and buy my meats and eggs from them. Way to go Guys.
Oh, awesome! You're doing so much already. I hadn't thought of Baking Soda for teeth. How well does that work? I need something to tackle stains as I drink a lot of tea!
Yes plastic is a big issue, and a growing one for me too.
It has become so much part of our everyday lives that you almost don't notice it ... until you start looking.
One small idea for the tea. Switch to herb teas from the garden - nettle and mint is my favourite.
But I need my caffeiiiinnnnneeeee! Might be a good idea to cut down though. ;) homegrown herb teas could be ideal.
You're doing a great. Our current world makes it really difficult to live without plastics. Using only plastics that can be recycled or composted would be a great step as well. I hope to get rid of my garbage services one day sooner rather than later. All of our paper is used for composting or for the wood stove and all of our food "waste" is composted. So really, the only thing we need to figure out is the plastics. Best of luck!
Plastics are just so hard to deal with. Even the majority of 'recyclable' plastics actually take centuries to break down - which isn't good enough in my eyes! There's a lot of things I should be doing already so concerted effort needed next year.
It's so hard too completely avoid plastics, isn't it? I wish more companies would start changing to compostable plastics.
Did you know that many teabags contain plastic too? I only recently heard about it and was amazed. You wouldn't expect it in the actual tea bag! Then can you get loose leaf without plastic? Maybe you could look into growing it one day when you move to your land.
I had no idea about that! What a pain. Good thing about loose leaf though I do need to look into because I need to find a product that has plastic free packaging....even many of the loose leaf that comes in tins still has a plastic surround inside.
Nice, it is hard to get rid of plastic for sure. Sounds like you have a good plan!
For us this year, we did away will all plastic containers, and slowly switched them out for glass and pyrex (though the pyrex still has a plastic cover.
We have glass milk bottles (though they have a plastic cap) and we get milk locally...
Bread is a tough one...we make our own bread, but how to store it so it stays fresh? I am thinking waxed paper if I can find bread bag sized...or possibly making a waxed canvas bag. It gets really humid in here, so I need to keep the bread in a dry spot...
Aside from that, I use plastic baggies for alot of my work...so have been contemplating how to get around it.
For veggies and things, we use baskets and bins...herbs in mason jars (and we use a stainless and glass Bodum coffee pot to make tea :) It works great!)
You're doing amazing already! Lots for me to follow there. I wrap my bread - when I actually make it - in a tea towel. It keeps it fresh for about 4 days which isn't too bad and then I toast the staler bits.
When you start investigating, SO much has plastic in it!
THESE are awesome goals on the homestead!
I am so happy to see other people wanting to cut back on waste and re-use things that can be re-used versus always just buying new.
(plus you know I love homemade things; whether health and beauty, cleaning products, etc)
GREAT post!
Thanks! It's so easy to fall back into bad practices - we've been buying ready meals and just accumulating plastic packaging...all of which fuels the creation of more plastic. Argh!
The other nice side effect is that I'll hopefully end up supporting artisan creators when buying homemade soaps etc.
Yes.. so easy to fall back into the old habits. I have done it in the past- immediately regret it- pull myself back to reality and gt back to it.
Great work! We are doing the same. We know it sounds crazy to most people, but there are times where we just won't buy something because it is wrapped in plastic. If we can go without it, we will! And many times, we will spend more on the unwrapped veggies in bulk rather than the packaged ones. We are so excited to get to where you guys are and be able to grow most of our veggies!
I've got a long way to go until we're totally self sufficient - but getting there on the veggie front! My major thing next year will be finding biodegradeable packaging for excess veggies - salads, micro greens etc. I REALLY can't align myself with putting them in a plastic clam boxes.
I'm the same as you - I'll often refuse a product if it's got plastic. I just need to do it with more consistency.
This has been on my mind a lot lately! It's definitely one of those things that will take time because it's so easy to fall back into those "plastic" traps... I love your plan and have very similar plans of my own (to include the dairy cow which I really hope to get someday!!).
I always try to purchase items that are in glass containers or jars and then when the contents of those items are gone, I reuse the jars for whatever else I might be able to store in them (homemade goodies perhaps) to avoid using the plastic baggies. I really wish milk came in glass jars... It's really annoying to walk into the store(s) now and everything is wrapped in plastic! :(
I know. Where are the good old days with pints of milk in glass jars?! Wonderful!
It really is easy to fall into that trap again...that's why we're going to take it slow and steady and, hopefully, build on successes. I think it'll become easier as our mindset changes.
As soon as I found out (recently) that our beloved teabags had a bit of plastic in them I made the switch to loose-leaf tea. I had wondered why the bags weren't breaking down in the compost! Luckily, my elder daughter had just bought some lovely tea diffusers & herbal teas in tins for us. I can now use the spent tea leaves on the garden quite happily.
I would be interested in how others have frozen food without using plastic containers. I think glassware would become very expensive. I have found that doing a bulk cook and freezing meal-size portions, or cooking extra each night and freezing the excess can feel almost as if you have acesss to those takeaway meals; and simply pulling them out to reheat feels like a night off cooking.
Do you have a bulk drygoods store nearby? Sometimes they encourage people to bring their own containers to put the produce into.
Do you already use enviro-friendly shopping bags?
Good on you guys for what you are trying to achieve. :)
That's a point - haven't thought about non-plastic freezing containers! Will have to mull that one over. Cloth, perhaps for non runny goods - ie veg, meat etc.
I have a couple of plastic bags but they're long life ones that we reuse time and time again. When they run out, we'll use cloth bags but I don't want to throw stuff out just because it's plastic. I'll use it until it falls apart and then replace with non. ;)
Yes, reusing what has already been bought is far better than simply chucking it (although I put as much into our recycling bin as possible).
I read a good post recently promoting a reuseable product which (if memory serves) consisted of beeswax-covered cloth, for wrapping food. I would imagine this stuff could be used to wrap certain frozen foods too.
One of our big supermarket chains had a recent survey done asking its customers whether they'd rather be charged for their shopping bags (and the money going to charity), as part of an idea to reduce the use of the plastic bags; but then looking around the shop at the HUGE amount of plastic wrapping used on products, not to mention the screeds of paper wasted on printing long till receipts (most of which taken up with advertising!) it all feels so pointless unless changes are implemented across the board. A bit like trying to walk against a very strong wind, but I know a small step forward is better than none at all. :)
I sew up cloth bags in Christmas material and put gifts in those. They can be recycled by the gift recipient. We drink mostly herbal teas made from herbs grown in our garden. Our coffee comes from a friend that grows coffee. We don't do take out food. We prefer making our food at home where we know what goes into it. We don't drink anything that comes in a plastic bottle. We also make all our bread and baked goods. If we must shop in super markets, we take our own cloth bags to bring the goods home. So, we have reduced a lot, but we aren't perfect. There is still room for improvement...
That's awesome!! Great idea about the cloth bags. You're doing so much already. Very inspiring.
Thank you. Like I said, there is always room for improvement.