Best tips/products to reduce plastic usage

[Anonymous]

Love powdered Tide detergent in a cardboard box.
Mesh produce bags for veggies and fruits at the grocery store. (I am appalled by the shoppers using a separate plastic produce bag for every item, often tearing a dozen or more bags off the role and leaving half of them unused in their cart as they leave the store…)
I have some of those Stashers. I also have some beeswax bowl covers and some silicone ones, as well. I also use a lot of mason jars to store things instead of plastic. And glass ‘Tupperware’ containers.
I haven’t found a bar shampoo I like, but I use bar conditioner a lot — not every time, but maybe 50% of the time, which is still cutting down on plastic by a lot.
Use my Simple Modern thermos everywhere I go. Have one for home and one for work — no plastic water bottle usage. I use them at places like Panera, too — you can order a drink and use your own cup. I bought a reusable cup from Starbucks, too, which I keep in my car and use if I ever order from a coffee shop.

[Anonymous]

Looking at our trash and recycling, most of our plastic seems to come from food packaging.
We generally don't buy beverages except for milk and beer/wine. We always have powdered lemonade/Gatorade, hot cocoa, and loose tea/coffee beans on hand.
We try to bake a lot of things from scratch - bread, cookies, coffee cake, etc. We still buy some packaged things, but I think we have reduced it quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

Bathe less often (only after gardening, the gym, or before work.
No shampoo. Only conditioner.
Less toothpaste.
Absolutely no drinks other than water or tea made at home. I would put starburst VJ’s out if business.
Rare carry out
Fulfillery in Takoma Park.
Low inside temps in winter.
Bundled trips in hybrid car
Very minimal detergent in laundry and cleaning. I use bleach with hand soap in a ketchup squeeze bottle to clean the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bathe less often (only after gardening, the gym, or before work.
No shampoo. Only conditioner.
Less toothpaste.
Absolutely no drinks other than water or tea made at home. I would put starburst VJ’s out if business.
Rare carry out
Fulfillery in Takoma Park.
Low inside temps in winter.
Bundled trips in hybrid car
Very minimal detergent in laundry and cleaning. I use bleach with hand soap in a ketchup squeeze bottle to clean the kitchen.

Sorry. I meant Starbucks

[Anonymous]

Deodorant is now available in cardboard containers.
But several products might need to be repackaged in a different style to accommodate plastic free use. Toothpaste does not have to come in a tube. A box of powder should do just fine.

[Anonymous]

Don't buy bottled water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't buy bottled water.

I almost want to slap it out of people's hands when I see it.
I remember the first bottled water that I saw in vending machines back in the 80s. I thought that it was a dumb idea and would never sell....
Also, we need to develop an aversion to even seeing plastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Title says it all. Any good tips or products you've found helpful for reducing plastic usage? As a family, we'd like to do better. Thanks!

Always buy glass container products.
Repurpose glass containers.

PS - Aluminum containers are plastic lined now. Just an FYI in case you didn't know.

Microplastics are a MAJOR CONCERN now as most things are in contact with plastics, and many plastics are being recycled and made into clothing, etc.

[Anonymous]

"You will eat zeee plastics and be happy." WEF

On a serious note, most plastic exposure comes from food packaging, and household item sources gassing into the air.

Get a good HEPA filter and open the windows often. Buy in bulk, as less plastic per volume is used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Title says it all. Any good tips or products you've found helpful for reducing plastic usage? As a family, we'd like to do better. Thanks!

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Go back old school and use paper and cloth packaging, as well as glass.

Glass is the best packaging ever, inert and safe, and healthy, yet it is breakable and more costly, so corporations and government said no to glass and been pushing plastic and aluminum on the public ever since the 1980s with their "save a tree" propaganda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy silicone bags such as Stashers instead of Ziplock. They are an expensive up-front cost but it literally saves tons of plastic.

We use glass containers for food storage. The lids are plastic but we aren't throwing them away.

We save jars from olives, peanut butter, etc and use them for storage or use them when we take stuff like salad dressing along with a salad to a pot luck.

We buy powdered Gatorade instead of plastic bottles. (I don't love the stuff but my son is doing sports camps in the hot sun every day)

Thanks for this suggestion. I'd like to try the silicone bags, but I've seen mixed reviews on them.

DP. Stasher is always rated top; but they are very expensive. I've tried Home-Lux(?) and another brand that I liked but don't recall the name of - but they were very difficult to close. I recently started using Idea-Tech. They are very nice.
However, if you're also concerned about chemicals from plastics leaching into food, I also just learned different silicones have different chemical-safety and the ones with least chemical concern are also very pricey.
But I really like the Idea-tech bags and I LOVE not using all those plastic ziploc styles - sometimes hard to fully seal, zipper pull breaks, the ongoing expense....