Solutions that are working for me:
Milk delivery in bottles
Making my own apple cider vinegar from apple scraps - I use this for conditioner and cleaning
Shampoo bars - I use ‘friendly soap, travel soap, 4 in 1’ which seems to be one of the cheapest shampoo bars available and I use it for shaving, shampoo and some bathroom cleaning.
Reusable toothbrush and toothpaste tablets (so admittedly this is annoying, they have fluoride in them but my teeth are so crap that my dentist has prescribed me extra high dose fluoride toothpaste in plastic tubes)
Single blade steel razor - saves so much in replacing razors. Blades cost literally pennies each, and cause less skin damage I reckon.
Using reusable produce bags and growing some of my own produce. I meet issues with sustainable options e.g organic bananas being in a plastic bag, and the ordinary produce being loose. Which issue matters more . . . ?
Composting (my worms manage to cope with onions and citrus so I just give them a mix of everything just with plenty of paper waste also)
My problems currently though:
Instant coffee - doesn’t seem to be a plastic free option and I should probably just cut down. But I find that hard . . .
Oatmilk - I want to not drink so much milk but the oatmilk comes in tetrapak containers. I haven’t found homemade oat milk to be a decent milk alternative - i find it is a bit bitter and watery.
Interesting that other people have this issue too - my partner. He approves of the plastic reducing, but is not invested in it himself. I don’t want to constantly nag him anytime he buys himself something plastic coated, or worse, a treat for me that comes in plastic i.e. a bunch of flowers.
Presents - I’d managed to convince my close family I don’t want plastic stuff to some extent, but like my boyfriend they’re not particularly invested in this and might see nothing wrong in buying me clothes that are polyester for instance. Worse, I now have to sum up the courage to talk to my boyfriend’s gift-giving but slightly scary mum and family who keep buying me a ton of plastic coated gifts. I especially have so many fluffy socks, hats, scarves and clothes that are made of plastic.
Work - having a boss who is not invested in caring for the environment because he’s trying to scrape enough money together to keep running profitably as an independent business. The amount of waste is so depressing it might be enough for me to change jobs. It’s frustrating as he actually cares for his staff and it’s a nice place to work in other ways.
Health issues - I’m inclined to make allowances for the specialist inhalers and eczema creams I use, and I think the change probably needs to come from government and pharmaceutical companies.
