According to Greenpeace, about 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since the 1950s – the weight of roughly a billion elephants or 47 million blue whales. Only about 9% of this plastic has been recycled, 12% has been burned, and the remaining 79% has ended up in landfills or the environment. The equivalent of a truckload of plastic enters the oceans every minute.Â
That’s an amount we can not even imagine, right!? But what we know is that it is too much, and it is threatening our planet, nature, and wildlife; it’s poisoning the water and makes people all around the world sick with its toxins.
We can all be part of changing this global issue that is destroying our world. We can make simple changes in our everyday life to reduce our plastic waste. This blog post gives you ideas for 8 easy swaps to go plastic free this year and be part of the change to a more beautiful world.
Switch to soap bars and shower plastic free
Our number one super easy swap to go plastic free are soap bars. Most shower creams and shampoos are sold in plastic bottles. As well as facial cleansers and many more. Soap bars are such a great alternative to go plastic free in the bathroom, and there are many great options. We use soap bars to shower, for cleaning our face. And Stefan uses soap bars for shampoo and shaving soaps too.
Get some cotton bags for bulk-shopping
Our favorite way of grocery shopping is by going to the markets to buy fresh veggies and fruits and going to a Bulk-Store to buy all kinds of things like rice, quinoa, granola, nuts, and more plastic free instead of going to a usual supermarket. That’s why our cotton bags and mesh bags are essential for us. Also, it’s great to have some glass jars, containers, and glass bottles depending on what you want to buy in the zero waste shop.
Bring a bag when grocery shopping
The smallest and easiest swap to go plastic free is to bring your own bag when you go grocery shopping. We love cotton bags that are super light and can be put in our backpacks or handbag. So we always have them with us. This saves many plastic bags, and a cool cotton shopping bag like this one from Pureosophy definitely looks better than plastic as well, right!?
Wash plastic free with laundry strips
One of the recent finds that we love is the laundry strips from Tru Earth. Finally, a laundry soap that has a plastic free packaging is sensitive to the skin and has no harmful ingredients for the environment. Besides they are great to travel with because they don’t use a lot of space in your luggage. Just put one strip to every laundry. The smell is great, as well!
Invest in a good water bottle
We all need to drink water every day and wherever we are. But there are 1 Million plastic bottles thrown away every minute, and over 60 Million of these are ending up in landfills every single day. That is why getting a reusable water bottle is such an impactful swap.
We use a self-cleaning filter bottle from LARQ, which is great for us to travel because it allows us to drink water from the tap everywhere in the world. It has an inbuilt water purification system that uses UV-light to eliminate 99.9999% of harmful bacteria and viruses in 60 seconds. We are thrilled with this choice for our own health and for the health of our beautiful planet.
Use a bamboo toothbrush
Toothbrushes, as well as Toothpaste and Dental floss, are products that usually generate a lot of plastic waste. We were looking for the best alternatives to go plastic free in the bathroom and are using now the beautiful bamboo toothbrushes from the Truthbrush.
They are available in soft and medium and have plant-based bristles too, which a lot of wooden toothbrushes don’t have. The dental floss we use is from Georganics which is a brand that offers amazing zero waste products for your dental care as well. From toothbrushes, and different kinds of dental floss to toothpaste tablets which are amazing for traveling, and mouthwash in recyclable aluminum bottles.
Get a safety razor
Another super easy swap to go plastic free is to invest in a safety razor instead of disposable razors. The benefits besides making no plastic waste with this razor are that you will save money because the blades last longer, and you won’t have any irritations on your skin because it cuts way better. Our friends from Kappi are selling very beautiful safety razors. If you purchase from Kappi, use the Code SUNCHASING10 at check-out to get 10% off.
Use stretch lids or beeswax wraps to store food
Stretch lids and beeswax wraps like these from Pureosophy are our household essentials. Because whether you use plastic folie or aluminum folie to cover your foods both aren’t good for the environment. We love our stretch lids from Pureosophy because they fit overall sizes of jars, cups, bowls, and containers and keep your foods fresh. Another great option for example to wrap your sandwich you want to take with you for lunch is beeswax wraps which are washable and biodegradable.
Go plastic free – conclusion
To go plastic free is not that easy; we know that, and it does not happen overnight. But we think it’s a great start if we make some small and easy changes and get more conscious about the plastic waste we make.
Looking into alternatives and doing some swaps from time to time was our journey, too, so don’t worry if you struggle initially. This blog gives you some easy ideas you can start with, and even some of these swaps are an investment at first but will save you money in the long term.
We are not 100% there yet either, especially when we travel; it gets very tricky in some places. But we can constantly learn and grow into it, and every day we made it to live plastic free is an achievement for us.
