Part 4 of 5
Take Time to Change – We really are the Solution!
I have a confession to share with you – since March 23, 2020 I am a touch obsessive.
Actually, I probably always was obsessive but I didn’t have time to thoroughly indulge my obsessions.
Take Aphids, in 2020 I :-
- filmed them
- studied their predators
- watched parasitic wasps bend their bodies 190 degrees and use their ovipositors to pierce the Aphids juicy sap filled, plump bodies to lay eggs
- witnessed a sunshine sparkling drop of honeydew being flicked from a calix, and
- calculated the total number of daughters a single aphid would produce in one calendar year. The Bo answer was 35,184,372,088,832,000,000,000,000,000 clones.
Currently I am obsessed with the issue of Plastic Pollution.
My Personal Challenge
For years I have railed against the nameless, faceless giant corporations responsible for producing the tons of plastics swirling around the great garbage patches in the southern pacific ocean and all those ignorant people who mindlessly and carelessly toss away plastics which choke sea turtles and tangle around baby whales.
Then I stopped seeking to blame other humans and challenged my own contribution to the plastic pollution issue.
I considered how I could change MY shopping habits and play an active role in the solution to this problem.
The thing is, when we start this odyssey to remove single use plastic packaging from our lives, we quickly realise that an absolute tsunami of fossil fuel derivatives have by stealth invaded our lives and covered a multitude of items in our homes – even at times when it is not necessary.
Ethical Sourcing
In addition to removing as much single use plastic from my home, I also wanted the products to be ethically sourced.
- No more felled virgin rain forests
- No more dead Orangutans
It’s complicated!
To achieve a plastic-free packaging life it also becomes very personal …….
- No more single use Plastic – ideally no plastic at all!
- Palm Oil Free – complicated but important
- Ethical sourcing – complicated but a moral imperative
- Limiting compromise – it is r e a l l y complicated!
So I wish to share with you my five year journey to create a ‘Single Use Plastic-Free Footprint’ on planet Earth
Dental Floss
This is the easiest swap ever. Georganics. Endlessly reusable glass and aluminium container. Plant-based floss and totally compostable packaging.
Did you know that easily recyclable plastic items less than 4 cm in size fail in the plastic waste sorting process and are never actually recycled.
Shampoo
I saved the last plastic shampoo bottle before I started a personal campaign to reduce my plastic waste footprint on this planet.
Brought at expense because I value my hair, the bottle today weighs 31.69 g
Though over 4 years old, the remaining content still smells the same as the day I first opened it.
According to Forge Recycling it will take 450 years for the bottle to decompose.
I discovered a brand called Ethique. They sold a solid shampoo bar which I loved!
They also sold:-
- Wonderbar – solid hair conditioner – was very good!
- Solid Body Wash
- Concentrated Hand wash
- Solid Body Butter
- Solid Body Crème Stick
- Gentle Body wash concentrate
For a moment I thought ‘this plastic-free life is going to be easy!’
The principles and ethos of Ethique included:
- Sustainable and Naturally derived ingredients
- Living Wage Employer
- Certified B Corporation
- Compostable packaging
- Cruelty Free International
- Vegan
- Orangutan Alliance Certified Palm Oil Free
- Climate Positive
Perfect! Bathroom products sorted! ………..
…….. Until my operating authority pointed out the country of origin
‘Made in New Zealand’
International shipping is a major source of air pollution
As much as I liked the product and ethical business Ethique was not the answer in my quest for an alternative shampoo.
There are lots of solid shampoo bars on the market and they vary in quality and price. Currently I use an offering from one of the leading brands. I will return to this choice later.
Face Wash
After decades of using the same brand’s face wash, I was super pleased to find that they also offered a plastic-free face wash bar which was simple to use and was kind on my skin.
Reading Ingredients:
When I started my collection of children, I also started obsessively reading the ingredients lists in the food I was feeding them.
On the side of the box containing my leading global brand face wash bar was a list of ingredients. The text was so small, I had to take a photo and enlarge it. Sure enough it contained palm oil derivatives.
So I emailed the brand. This is their Blah, Blah, Blah response…….
I continue to use this leading global brands product and I will explain why later…..
Shower Gel
Finding a plastic free ‘Shower Gel’ was quite a challenge. Even the nomenclature is a minefield!
Having used shower gel for years, I was not in a hurry to return to bars of soap for a number of reasons.
Finally I discovered Milly and Sissy and I really liked their products including the Passion Fruit fragrance ‘Shower Crème’
The instructions tell you to:
….. mix the powder inside the fully compostable package with 400 ml of tepid tap water and “leave overnight for all the ingredients to ‘make friends’”……
I collected the empty packets ………. ……as you do…..
10 of these weighed 114.47g and would fully decompose in the ground within a year.
Then into the Dragons Den, competition arrived …. Snoap.
Included in the positive points Snoap lists
- Less than 10% carbon footprint of liquid soap
- Cleaner waste water – better for rivers & oceans
This product is currently being tested dans chez moi.
Household – Cleaning Up with Smol
Smol dishwasher tablets were one of the first plastic-free household cleaning products I started buying online as a real alternative to the then mainstream supermarket offering. Their Dishwasher tablets come in packs of 30 and are delivered by post directly through your letterbox. 100% plastic free this product cleans up nicely with no acrid smelling residue of the supermarket offerings. Smol allow consumers to create their own online account. From here account holders can manage their ‘Plan’, adjusting the delivery schedule to accommodate changing needs
Smol have a growing product range which includes:
- Washing up liquid
- Fabric Conditioner
- Multi Purpose, Bathroom & Glass spray
- Laundry Capsules
- Hand Wash
BLEACH
One of the hardest swaps turned out to be incredibly easy.
BLEACH
- ‘Kills All Known Germs Dead’, also
- “Very toxic to aquatic life”, also
- “Toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects”
There is a plastic free alternative to chlorine bleach
PERCARBONATE OF SODA
This product is made from natural raw materials
- Salt
- Water
- Chalk
Leaves your home fresh, clean and germ-free. And fishes and frogs Happy!
https://www.ecoliving.co.uk/natural-bleach.html
Toilet Paper
A strong and persistent Social Media campaign seems to have worked for a company who named their product
‘Who gives a Crap’
Originally a D2C business, this product is now sold in Waitrose.
Ethics is a strong driver behind many new businesses and in this case 50% of all profits go towards clean water projects. Since starting trading in 2013, the company has donated nearly £10,000,000.00 to projects to install toilets and clean sanitation in developing countries.
So, will Y O U V O T E ?
So, with so many plastic packaging free products available the question is will YOU spend YOUR TIME looking for plastic free options?
We can all make small changes.
In store and online – VOTE with your shopping basket!
We are all global influencers!
So, will YOU take time to buy less plastic? That is a really good question.
NEXT…… Plastics which are kind to our Planet Earth
A narrated video version of these posts, less the chemistry, is available on YouTube
Claudia Bow 
1 thought on “Plastic Pollution 4 – We are the Solution”