First Steps for #PlasticFreeJuly
Low-Effort Ways to Kick Off the Challenge
Do a Trash Audit
I’m not telling you to weigh your trash (though you might remember I did that last week!) or painstakingly record everything you throw away. But get a general sense of what your family is throwing away. Your waste might include plastic bags, a few Gatorade bottles, a juice jug, a pizza box, cereal boxes, salad containers, toothpaste tubes, a handful of granola bar wrappers... and cookie wrappers... and candy wrappers... (Is your head spinning? Mine sure is!). You’ll use this general sense to start finding alternatives for some of your frequently used products.
+ Create a pain point to reduce your waste. Drop the size of your trash can significantly to encourage you to find landfill alternatives. Several years ago, we switched from a giant threatening to overtake our kitchen to a 2.6 gallon, hide-in-your-cabinet style trash bin (here's the one that worked for us)-- and that worked wonders.
Understand your Recycling Options
We can’t recycle our way out of the plastics crisis. More than one million plastic bottles are produced every minute (not to mention every other kind of single-use or generally throwaway plastic), and plastic recycling rates have fallen below 6%. But it’s helpful to know what your recycling options are— and to avoid “wish-cycling,” so your haphazardly disposed of plastic wrappers don’t contaminate an entire load of municipal recycling.
Here are some good categories to keep in mind:
Municipal Recycling-- Chances are, this is the kind of recycling you're already doing. Most cities will accept aluminum, cardboard/ paper products, and glass, as well as type #1 plastic (such as water bottles), type #2 plastic (think milk jugs)-- though some municipalities accept more, and others far less. Go ahead and double check what your city will pick up-- "wishcycling" (the practice of throwing things in the blue bin in the hopes that it's recyclable) does more harm than good by clogging recycling machines and contaminating recycling loads. (In some cities, glass recycling may be available only through drop-off, not curbside, but it’s likely still available).
Type #4 plastics-- Although we opt for reusable grocery bags to limit this packaging, some still inevitably makes its way in. These plastics are store drop-off recyclable at places like Walmart, Target, and Home Depot.
Terracycle-- Terracycle is a global leader in innovative recycling, and they've partnered with a number of corporations for free recycling programs-- some of the most used programs are Kids' Clothing (any brand), Brita Filters, and Oral Care Products.
Check out my comprehensive guide to re-homing "difficult to recycle" things here-- these are great resources when you're decluttering!
For years, my "recycling stations" were really just cardboard boxes and second-hand envelopes that lived under my kitchen sink, but I eventually transitioned to these wall-mounted and color-coded waste bins to make the system make sense for my family.
Focus first on low-effort, high-impact changes
Start with the easiest changes you can possibly make for an impact:
Reusable water bottles and grocery bags
Bringing your own containers for coffee or leftovers (and intercept well-meaning waiters before they bring you straws or plastic cutlery!)
Switching to low-waste cleaning (try Grove Co. for easy swaps) and hygiene supplies
Take a walk through local grocery stores, food co-ops, and farmer’s markets to see what low-packaging options are available. Some stores will offer loose green beans or Brussel sprouts, for example, or fruit in cardboard containers. It’s also worth asking, unfortunately, before jumping to purchase items in a refill bin— while my local food co-op is wonderful for many things, I paid an extreme premium for granola from a bulk bin on a few occasions before discovering that the co-op filled the bulk bin from plastic bags that they immediately trashed (in other words, no better than me buying granola in a package from the shelf).
Make product swaps away from plastic and towards aluminum or glass bottles— for example, you may be able to find returnable glass milk jugs, and you can almost certainly find staple products like mayonnaise and applesauce in glass containers (Thrive Market is a great resource if your local grocery store doesn’t carry these).
Spend a few days getting comfortable with these changes, and we will dive into some more challenging shifts over the next few weeks.
Reduce Advertising Noise
The exact same strategies that work to reduce impulsive spending and overconsumption also work to reduce the role of plastic in our lives. In fact, roughly 40% of all plastic produced is for packaging— both for consumable products like food or shampoo, and for products like clothing and kitchenware. You don’t have to spend July on a buy ban, but it does help to do a quick inbox edit to remove brands that are constantly directing you to impulse buys and pop-up sales.
Instead, spend the month making intentional purchases by buying second-hand, buying “for life” (in other words, the highest quality you can reasonably afford), and supporting companies that work to reduce plastic in their supply chain (especially for small businesses, you can also send a quick e-mail asking if they would be willing to ship plastic free— many are more than happy to accommodate).
One thing I was say in defense of those bulk bins: one very large single-use plastic bag to fill a whole milk bin still uses *less* plastic than a dozen individual single-use plastic bags. While eliminating all plaetic would be best, reduction is still good. I always remind myself and others: The perfect is the enemy of the good.
Great tips and plans to implement. We switched to a big hard-plastic drinking water dispenser years ago. Check your local water stores for deals, as many do reward repeat business. On the boat we flter tap water with an RV filter that lasts over 6 months. We carry water in stainless steel bottles for hikes, etc.