How to live without plastic packaging?
So we understand that all this overuse of plastic is having such a negative effect on our environment and have decided enough is enough. Maybe we have seen or taken part in a ‘Plastic Attack’ and are wondering what we can do now to help the environment. How then do we go about making the changes in our lives in order to live without plastic waste, reduce our plastic footprint and go about our lives in a way as to create as little non-organic waste as possible?
This is where it really starts to get interesting!
It all begins with some simple changes we can make in our basic approach to life in general that can be summed up within the three ‘R’s and no, not the ones you were supposed to be learning in school, but the ones that they should have been teaching you as well!
Reduce!
Next time your out and about and get that feeling that you want something, be it food, drink or material possession just stop and think for a moment and ask yourself three questions..
- Do I really need it?
- Can I make do without it?
- If I definitely do need it then how can I make a choice which will cause the minimum impact to the environment?
So we decide to go out to visit a friend who lives in a small town about 45mins drive away so we can meet for lunch. We start driving and after a while realise we are low on fuel so pull in to fill up with some petrol. When we go in to pay the thought suddenly crosses our mind ‘ I’m thirsty and need a drink’.
Our usual action would be to grab a drink in a plastic bottle, consume this in a few minutes in the car and be left with another plastic bottle that needs to be disposed of.
Reuse!
So we know that ‘Single-use’ plastics are bad, well, there it is in a nutshell….
WE NEED TO STOP USING STUFF ONCE AND THEN THROWING IT AWAY!!
It really is that easy, by adopting this simple statement and utilising it in our lives we can really start to reduce our plastic footprint.
So if we don’t use things once then that means we need to find RE-USABLE products to replace these every day single-use items we have become so accustomed to. We are in luck as there are now many companies which started as grass root startups which are now producing viable alternatives to single-use plastics. As governments start to move towards a total ban on these items then people will have to look for these alternatives.
Bags, cups, bottles, even straws and packaging can all be washed and reused its all about forming new habits.
There is one revolutionary change we can make right now which will make this new way of life much much easier for us to implement.
START CARRYING A BAG!!
Just by taking a bag with you when you leave the house is a one-way ticket to going plastic free, You can carry your reusable cup, straw, lunch or takeaway box, knife and fork and a couple of cloth bags for shopping and your pretty much good to go.
However it’s not all about buying something new, we need to look at what we already have. I’m sure that lurking in a cupboard somewhere you have a cup which is reusable, a flask you can carry water or soup in, a plastic lunch box or a seal-able container you can put a meal in to eat on the go. You must have a knife and fork at least?
Then there is the whole world of buying things nearly new or secondhand.
I always used to buy secondhand vehicles to use for work (and still do now), the best of these purchases was an old beaten up Nissan Cabstar that I bought from a farmer which had been abandoned in their yard. I paid £400 for it, put a couple of new tires and a battery in it and it went straight through the MOT test. I then drove it and used it daily for work for the next 3 years. That van didn’t let me down once! I eventually sold it as I needed something a bit bigger. How much did I get for it?…. £450!
In today’s world of eBay, Facebook marketplace, freecycle and gumtree to name but a few, its easy as anything to find what you need at a fraction of a price that it sells for brand new. When you buy something and eventually have enough of it, just sell it again and you’ll be surprised how little money you lose by buying and selling in this way.
Look at it as though you are hiring the item for a while, the only difference being that the hire contract is as long as you want it to be and the charge per day is fractional!
Great things to buy second hand are Cars, Bikes, Pushchairs, toys, exercise equipment, musical instruments etc etc.
Also in today’s economy when the interest rate on savings is so low we can utilise our money in a way which also brings us enjoyment.
For example, you play guitar and own a cheap guitar, but are getting better and fancy a new one.
You have some savings but they really aren’t earning much interest in the bank.
You have your eye on a guitar that you think is good enough but its no Fender or Gibson.
If you go down this road and buy new the outcome will be that as soon as you play the guitar it will probably decrease in value by a third instantly, and after a year or so you may again find yourself drooling over that guitar that Eric Clapton is playing and thinking about buying another.
The solution? well, its simple invest in a high-quality guitar from the start and you may just find that in a few years time that guitar is worth more now than it was when you bought it, not forgetting the years of enjoyment you had playing it.
Its a WIN WIN!
Maybe its time to stop buying cheap crap that breaks easily and ends up in the bin and instead buy stuff that will last that has parts that can be repaired or replaced should they go wrong and retains its value in the second-hand market.
In the long run, you’ll be saving money and the planet!
Recycle!
So believe it or not governments and local councils are trying to implement recycling schemes aimed at stopping all this waste. To dispose of waste at landfill cost lots of money, in the UK it is estimated that roughly a third of your council tax bill will go towards collecting and processing waste.
What can we do? Well apart from minimising the amount of waste we produce through our own consumption, we can make sure that the waste we do produce goes straight into the correct channels for recycling as provided by the council.
Take a minute to read the guidelines provided, learn about the different types of waste and how to correctly recycle them.
If you do end up with waste when you are out and there’s no recycling bin around then put it in your bag and take it home.
It also really goes without saying but I will say it any way…
“KEEP BRITAIN TIDY”
A crisp wrapper, a straw, a plastic bag, these things get dropped and then start on their journey. Often blown into rivers and streams or even straight into the ocean where they will stay and cause untold devastation for years to come.
I say we need to bring back the old ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ TV adverts and signs that were once commonplace in our society. All it takes is a little reminder to do something now and then. Advertising works, it must do, how many people ‘Enjoy a Coke’?
Large companies spend millions on it and reap the rewards. We all need to join in and advertise in a positive way to try and wake people up to the impact that this throwaway culture is having on our planet before its too late.
Run a shop? just a couple of ‘Please re-cycle your waste’ signs outside may just help.
Here is great example of people taking the problem of litter into their own hands near where I live:
There is a quiet residential country lane where teenagers park up at the weekends in the evenings, every morning you would find discarded drinks bottles and cigarette packets lying around on the floor. Then one day a local resident had enough of all the litter and decided to do something about it.
Her solution wasn’t to confront the perpetrators or call the police. She did something revolutionary and positive…
She bought a bin and promptly installed it next to the layby so the kids would at least have the opportunity to make the correct decision.
Now that’s the type of positive action we can all learn from!
