Six ways to reduce your plastic consumption
It’s the single use disposable plastics that we can all try harder to refuse and replace with something else. We implement small steps at a time and get into the habit before taking on something else. This seems to be more sustainable for us than trying to change everything at once!
Here are six easy swaps to inspire you:
♥ Use Smelly Bags
How awesome is this product! We talked about this on Facebook one day and many of you said you liked getting plastic bags from the supermarket for dirty nappies, wet clothes etc. Well, Cindy came up with this fabulous idea to replace plastic bags for all of things like dirty nappies and wet clothes. She sent me a couple to try out and I love them!
The bag is reusable and environmentally friendly and you can whack it in the washing machine. Cindy has also added a name tag and strap and made them really durable and strong. No messy leaks either. Genius! It takes a mum to come up with these things!
Get Smelly Bags straight from Cindy at her website.
♥ Use a bamboo spork
I have been wanting one of these for ages and finally got one for myself to put in my handbag. When I eat out, I no longer have to use plastic cutlery. I feel like such an eco-warrior using this! The spork is lightweight, comes in the mesh bag and it’s made from sustainably harvested bamboo.
♥ Use stainless steel straws
Another thing that had been on my list, I grabbed a 4 pack of these from Biome on my recent trip to Brisbane. They also sell the little brushes to clean them with as well. No toxic plastic leaching into drinks now! The kids think they are fabulous and I like them using straws for drinking apple cider vinegar or juices.
Check out the stainless steel straws.
♥ Use stainless steel cups
These cups are on my wish list and the next thing I want to swap over. When we entertain, it feels easier to use disposable plastics but my heart sinks when I clean up and see all that waste! Washing these up really doesn’t take that long and I can lose the eco-guilt.
Get stainless steel cups here.
♥ Use produce bags
This is one change I made last year. They are a fantastic reusable alternative to all those plastic bags for your fruit and veges. They weigh virtually nothing and are easy to wash.
Get reusable produc bags here.
♥ Use food covers and wraps
I talk about these products all the time (can you tell I love them?) because they are so darn good. I have a whole collection of these and they have saved me from using plastic wrap. I just don’t buy it anymore and don’t even miss it.
These products just make it so easy to swap over. They are incredibly durable and have been through many washes and are still in perfect condition. I recommend them to anyone who will listen!
Get reusable food covers and wraps here.
What do you think? Are you keen to make some swaps?
(parts of this post are sponsored)
We reuse a lot of envelopes received in the mail in a few ways as there are so many of them arriving each week!
Great comp and I love those stainless steel cups!
One eco-friendly thing we all do around the house is turn off all deviced at the wall. Hope I win!
I have been coveting those straws for a while…! One thing I’m about to do is make some new heavy curtains for our family room. They’ll help with heat transfer in both winter and summer. We installed exterior blinds a few summers ago. Maybe one day we can replace the huge windows we love so much due to the light they let in with double glazed ones.
Thanks for another great comp/giveaway!
Great ideas and I can say I use all of these except the spork and smelly bags – will be next on the list – my fave eco warrior thing in my house is my collection of glass jars x
Wow, so many cool products I’d never heard of before! I’d never thought of having my own cutlery with me, either. This year we stopped using spray and wipe and started using microfibre cloths instead. I don’t miss the cleaning products smell AT ALL!
Being a family of 6 who loves our fruit and vegies, there are a lot offpeelings left over so we feed these to our chookies who in return, give us yummy freshly laid eggs, plus they help to keep our gardens rid of snails and slugs!
We save up all our plastic drink bottles and take them in to be recycled.
One thing I do around my house that is extremely Eco friendly is we give all our old produce to our pet pig! (Yes I said pig). I also use old shredded papers, magazines and letters for her litter area plus old towels, sheets and blankets for her bedding 🙂
I have Liked Biome and Lime Tree Kids on Facebook.
I have Subscribed to Natural New Age Mum blog .
We Use only CFL light bulbs. They are very energy efficient and reduce our electricity bill as well.
Where do you purchase CFL light bulbs?
I soak citrus peel in white vinegar for about two weeks, before straining it into a spray bottle and using it as an all purpose cleaner. It’s so amazing! I use it for everything, and was the only thing that got the aftermath of some explosive kombucha of my ceiling!
What a fabulous giveaway!
One thing we do is pack lunch, bento style – in tupperware-like containers so they get washed each night instead of throwing out a heap of plastic wrap
I save fruit and vegetable scraps to go in the compost for mulch in the garden.
I water all my pot plants and some veggies, with the excess water from the shower – the water you normally waste when you are waiting for the hot water to come through!
I love these ideas!!
We do a lot of juicing in our house, I give my neighbors all of our veggie pulp that’s left for their compost. Usually a full bucket a day. Also with my business I use recycled unclassified Army documents that were kindly donated to us by the 25RCU in the postal boxes instead of packing peanuts.
I use old plastic bag for putting all the scraps in for composting. Also I have bought a silicone mat to bake on, instead of using paper or sprays
I’ve got rid of plastic water bottles and use stainless steel instead.
Love the stainless steel straws (love recycling and reusing!!) and love the bamboo spork (so getting one for my handbag now!!). Funny enough have been subscribing to biome for years, shows how new products are coming out all the time. Thanks for this heads up x
Whoops should’ve said I’ve been using Onya bag products for years too instead of plastic shopping bags, plastic fruit/veg bags etc. Cut down the plastic bags in our house for ages 🙂
Love those straws and cups. Used to have some bags I made myself but they seem to have disappeared.
One thing we do is cloth nappies. Saves on plastic AND money!
When it comes to flushing: “If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down”.
Great tips and great comp! I save and reuse glass jars. Saving me from using plastic wrap or zip lock bags. Month by month I am cutting down my plastic use!
I’ve used natural fibre cloth nappies with both of my children; helping the environment was just one if the reasons I made that decision. In the process of slowly building my glass jar collection, and about to set up a worm farm for vegetable and fruit scraps! Having so much fun learning about all these alternatives, and teaching my toddlers too!
It’s wonderful to feel like you are doing something good for the environment, however, I feel most of these products are not needed as you can find things around your home already eg: buying a special bamboo fork is unnecessary when I’m sure you have a fork at home. Having less impact on the environment is buying less. Consuming less.
We recently completed house renovations. We put in two very large water tanks with filters and we use the water for the washing machine and toilets. Saves a massive amount of water and the washing water gets pumped back onto the lawn as we use biodegradable detergent.
I like Biome and Lime Tree Kids on Facebook
and subscribe to your blog.
Our household is a great at composting. We have cut down on avoidable food waste when shopping and cooking by menu planning and any unavoidable waste is either composted for fed to the dog or chickens.
At our place we limit the amount of chemicals and soaps we use in the home and make our own products from everyday pantry foods.
Have recently had solar electricity and hot water (and gate opener) installed. On a smaller scale, we don’t use plastic or packaging in our lunch boxes, make our own citrus peel and vinegar cleaner and feed the chooks our food scraps.
Love the stainless steel cups. Off to order some 🙂
Cloth nappies & training pants for my little one & cloth pads for me 🙂
I use the back of paper & envelopes to write out my shopping lists etc. I never buy note paper.
We use our soapy bath water to flush out the toilet.
We use all glass/bpa reusable containers for lunches etc.
Clean stuff with lovely eucalyptus oil 🙂
Great competition! We do as much as we can in our household. Our latest mission is to shop ethically looking for products that are organic or earth friendly as possible, banning products containing palm oil and its derivatives as well as making sure products are fair trade. Here’s hoping orangutans will be around for our baby girl to show her grandchildren! I really hope we win! 🙂
Fabulous compilation indeed. Eco warriors – watch out world!
I have been growing my recycled jar collection and using our lunch wraps to cut down on our plastic consumption. Also have been using microfibre cloths and water for a while now for cleaning. Awesome giveaway.
I clean and reuse all of our glass jars, and have been trying to use less plastic wrap
We have a worm farm so uses our scrapes and in turn we use the end product from the worm farm in the garden.
I have some very very old metal cups that where my mum’s we use in the car instead of plastics hey came in a leather sleeve lol very old..
We use reusable food pouches (bought from limetree kids)for puréed fruit when our boy started eating solids instead of those single use expensive sachets you can buy in the supermarket. He’s nearly two now and we still use them for yoghurt!
Showering with my toddlers to reduce water consumption, using grey water friendly household products, composting and inspired to get rid of more plastic from your last posting on it!
We use the 4myearth pockets and wraps. My kids love them. I hated fighting with plastic wrap making school lunches, these are just so easy to use and clean!
We use Bi-carb soda and vinegar for cleaning in our home. Most of our waste goes to our ‘pet’ worms and it looks like they will be joined by some ‘pet’ chickens very soon. Can’t wait. Thanks for the opportunity. Such a great website and great source of information xo
Only use BPA-free plastics but are in the process of transitioning to even less plastic. Always on the look out to find easy ways to substitute plastic products – love this article. Thank you
I miss being home in Australia with all this easy access to a good healthy eco life! I’m travelling Europe and it is really hard to find good things, mostly because I don’t understand all these non English sites and I’m stuck on this beautiful little island with fresh and local produce tho (or so I keep hearing) 🙂 I miss my thermie, my home cooking of natural raw food, I miss my tree hugging bird sweet cats and all my recycling fun that I started to love before leaving! But mostly I miss my Eco Sisters XO
I take a collapsible cup with me in my bag. It means no buying drinks when out. We reuse glass jars for leftovers or storing bulk pantry items.
We feed all our food scraps to our chooks and then put the chook pooh on the garden which helps promote good soil and healthy vegetables.
I liked Biome and Lime Tree Kids on Facebook and subscribed to your blog. Thank you.
We compost all of our food scraps for our little suburban backyard Vege patch. My glass bottle collection is also starting to outgrow my cupboard space. 🙂
I love to try and cut plastic out of our home. I cut waste by feeding scraps to the chickens and worms, and also trying to become as self sufficient as possible…. Very slow process though.
We Leave a Bucket in the Shower to Collect Water than Runs Down to Water the Garden.
Thanks for the Great Competition 🙂
Great ideas! I’m really working on cutting down my single use plastic. I am having most groceries delivered and using local markets where possible. I’ve ordered some sandwich wraps from someone similar to you. I have coffee cups for the car and mugs for coffee and tea at work. I have chooks and am planning on re-doing the backyard vege patch. But, I’m forgetful! Happy to sign up for the blog – these are great reminders! I’ve also ordered a container that will keep lunches warm. Can’t wait to get it! Hoping it is the parcel at the post office today! Thanks for the comp. Great ideas. Great products.
I felt pretty darn cool when i first bought the sadwich wraps. Should have explained it to master 5 who threw it in the bin :/
We try to turn off all power points at the wall as soon as we’ve finished with them. This was a great blog, some fantastic ideas and items that will really help to get more eco-friendly 🙂 Thanks
Presently throwing out all our plastic kiddies plates and mugs and replacing them all with stainless steel ones for when they come to visit. They love them and thing they are very special. Thanks for the great post.
Hi Sonia, Thanks for the great plug on Biome’s stainless steel straws, we can’t wait to see who will win the 4 set of the straws!
I just wanted to add one product that we have found to be a great alternative to plastic wrap which is hemp reusable food wraps and covers. They are handmade in Australia from a unique combination of unbleached hemp fabric, certified organic beeswax, natural tree resin straight from the source and pure jojoba oil. You get a set of 3 containing a small, medium and large wrap for just $34.95
check out the hemp reusable food wraps
I am slowly but surely replacing all my plastic storage containers with glass containers. Love all the ideas. 🙂
Turn our clothes inside out when they get dirty so that we don’t have to wash them as much!
We use all natural cleaners, no chemicals, in our house. so much cheaper and better for the environment.
Oh, I love the bamboo spork!
Great ideas Sonia 🙂
We like to re-use glass jars in our pantry. It’s cheaper than fancy tupperware and better for our planet 🙂 xo
awesome competition. one ec0-friendly thing that our household has been doing is keeping jars from sauces and jams etc and now use them as glasses instead of plastic cups!
I love getting new ideas like these! We use natural cleaning prducts like vinegar, avoid plastic (still have a few containers but gradually replacing them with glass and steel), take our stainless steel water bottles everywhere (and usually my thermos for tea or my Cheeki stainless steel coffee cup), make as much food from scratch as possible, buy organic and shop at the local farmers market. Always more to do but it’s a family effort!
In our house we don’t use a dryer but have clothes airers and lines under our verandah and i have changed our washing liquid to a more sustainable one. Have really enjoyed reading the comments others have posted for more ideas to use in our home, thanks!
At our house we compost and I have herbs and lots of greens growing by my back door where I can nip out and grab whatever I need and throw it in my cooking. We also keep free range hens that supply us and many thankful friends with lovely fresh googy eggs everyday 🙂
Am loving the idea of the SPORK !
Having little children we go through a lot of batteries in our toys. We have a box for new batteries and a box for used batteries and when it’s full we take then to be recycled so that they don’t end up in landfill.
🙂
Cloth nappy wipes:)
I don’t recycle the letters straight away, instead, I use letter paper which has blank to make my notes or let my kids draw on it. then recycle them.
What an awesome blog and so many amazing eco-friendly products available these days.
I certainly need to get me some of those F&V bags!!
I have the reusable grocery bags, but when i do forget them and are given the plastic bags i take them to our preschool/day care for the staff to use for nappies and undie accidents.
Reducing energy consumption in our house – it’s better for our environment and the family budget – win, win!
I’m just at the beginning of my clean and green journey. We do quite a few good things, but my favourite at the moment is using cloth nappies.
We recycle and compost food scraps. We also use food covers and glass to store a lot of our food/ produce in.
We are big fans of the 4myEarth products and glass storage. I would love to add stainless steel straws to our collection. Thank you for another great giveaway Sonia. Bianca
Thanks to my resourceful 4 year old, we make craft with almost everything that would normally end up in the recycling bin! Yay for upcycling!
We save the water from hot water bottles for the plants, recycle boxes from parcels and reuse, compost everything …. every little thing everyone does sure adds up … so great work everyone 🙂
We use a bucket to catch water while shower is heating up and also before doing dishes then pour into the washing machine if the plants don’t need it.
I use bicarb and vinegar for pretty much all cleaning. Easy and effective. Oh and Clove oil for mould. Great giveaway. Thanks Natalie
I do a lot of these things but one I’m most proud of is switching to diva cup and Luna pads. 😉
Number of disposable pads, tampons and applcators added to landfills annually in North America alone – 20 Billion!!
Every month my small family and I make one change to a more eco lifestyle. Chemical free house and minimal water use is priority number one for us. The most eco friendly thing we do is make everything from fresh produce that doesn’t come from packaging and not from a supermarket.
If my kids insist on their carrots being peeled, our dog gets the skins. Pretty sure that’s why her coat is so thick and shiny!
I have been using 4myearth products as my daughter started prep this year and they r great. Next on the list are the covers… I have been slowly changing over all my plastic containers to glass, even looked into glass straws but they seemed too dangerous for me for kids but I really like the look of the stainless steel ones as sadly plastic straws are still used lots in my house as the kids love em but I think they would love them too 🙂
What great products ! I only use Natural cleaning products around the house, white vinegar etc. and only natural soaps, shampoos , skin care etc. to keep my little people’s skins a bit safer I hope!
We love to give all our food scraps to the ‘buck bucks’ (chickens according to my 2-year-old), and the food that doesn’t go the the chickens ends up in the compost where the worms get to eat it :).
We recycle everything we can and put all our food scraps into the compost for our veggie garden 🙂
We use cloth nappies, flush the toilet when needed, re-use parcel bags for other postage, LED downlights, cold water washing etc etc.
We have only one car. Public transport is great in our area so we use this whenever we need.
Great Giveaway Sonia!!! We try make our food and cleaning products from scratch to reduce our waste and impact on the environment.
We use cloth nappies, washers and reusable wipes and tea towels instead of paper kitchen towelling (among many other things) 🙂
Loving the prizes! Just one Eco friendly thing we do is have both my boys in cloth nappies full time.
We make any waste paper & junk mail (yes even with a sign on our letterbox it stilla sneaks in!) into kindling for our wood heater. Simply twist eg. Aldi catalogue into a stick shape & place in a basket beside the fire & voila, kindling is ready! 🙂
We give scraps to our guinea pigs, Rosie & Yoyo. We put other scraps in the compost. Cold water washing. Snuggle up to hubby rather than electric blanket 😉 wash and reuse clip lock bags.
We composte food scrapes for our worm farm and vegetable patch which has overtaken the flower garden and shred all paper products to mulch the vegetable garden. I have also started making homemade baby wipes. I love all these products especially the 4 My Earth food wraps and covers.
We do lots of Eco-friendly things around our home. One thing is we have our own veggie garden and compost all our scraps (I guess that’s two things!).
We buy organic where possible, shop in a co-op to avoid supermarkets where possible, and grow our own veg x
I always take my own enviro shopping bags to supermarket. Awesome comp and thanks for some great ideas.
We use cloth nappies! The amount of plastic that ends up in landfill due to disposal nappies is disgusting! Some great tips shared here about other ways to reduce plastic use – thanks!
Just received my re-usable food pouches – Sinchies! Loving them for yoghurt and soups…
We grow our own veg and fruit, buy organic as much as is available, wash our clothes with soap nuts (surprisingly effective) and reuse jars for storing food.
Enviro friendly stuff in our home? ….. My youngest daughter has a fabric pouch for her sandwich instead of plastic wrap, our food scraps go to our chookies, we recycle as much as we can which isn’t easy as we live out of town so we have to take it into town as we have no garbage pick up at home, we use the friendly light globes and I get inspired by your blogs to do more. Thanks for the great ideas.
We use eucalyptus oil/vinegar/bicarb for our cleaning products as much as we can and we use the brilliant 4My Earth sandwich & snack pockets. We try to buy organic fruit & veg and grass fed/free range meat and buy at local markets as much as we can. We grow our own fruit & veg too – as best we can!
I love your cloth bags for the fruit and veg. Did you post a while back about washing produce? I haven’t been able to find it. Thanks.
fantastic!
They all look great but I love the stainless steel straws for my children!!