Are you trying to go plastic free this July? Reducing your plastic waste by avoiding single use plastic and turning to plastic free products is a great way to teach and challenge yourself to live life a little more sustainably. It helps you to think more about the purchasing power you have and helps the planet too!
Becoming entirely plastic free can be difficult as we are surrounded by plastic products and packaging when it comes to buying food, beauty products and even ordering clothes online in the current lockdown situation. Although a lot of it can be recycled, most plastic unfortunately end up in landfills and can take around 1,000 years to decompose. This means that single use items like plastic coffee cup lids or even reusable plastic items like toothbrushes are still sitting and filling up landfills.
Fortunately, there are ways you can help...
How To Reduce Plastic Use - The Simple Steps You Can Take To Reduce Your Single Use Plastic Intake
There are some easy ways to reduce your single plastic use, and to help you stay plastic free this July!
1. Invest in a reusable travel mug. With many places beginning to reopen this month, and a few cafes already offering takeaway services, this is a great time to invest in a reusable cup, or dust off the one you bought a while ago and never had the chance to use! It means that you can have your favourite coffee in your own cup, and you can stay away from disposable coffee cups that just end up in the bin. Some places even offer a discount if you bring your own cup so it is a win win!
2. Try avoiding unnecessary plastic during your food shop. We encounter a lot of plastic when it comes to our food, but in some cases it can be easy to avoid. When buying loose fruit and vegetables don’t use one of the small plastic bags that are normally on offer. They’ll be fine on their own, or if you really want - why not bring your own bag from home? You can get great netted or cotton bags that you can pop your loose items into instead.
3. Take your own bags with you when out and about. Whether you are heading out to grab groceries or venturing back into recently opened shops, it is a great idea to take your own bags so you can avoid plastic. You can find great tote bags that are sturdy enough to carry your shopping, and look a lot more stylish than plastic bags! Everybody has the bag of bags somewhere in their house, so consider splitting your collection in two and leaving half of them in the car. That way when you head to the shops you won’t forget to grab them from the cupboard!
4. Why not try out some plastic free products like a bamboo toothbrush? These are really inexpensive and last just as long as your regular toothbrush, but rather than 1,000 years to decompose bamboo is actually biodegradable. Whilst it can still take a couple of years to decompose fully, it still makes for a much more environmentally friendly option than plastic.
5. Lastly, remember to ask for no straws when eating or drinking outside of your home. A lot of places are now offering paper straws which is great, but just take a few minutes to think about if you really need one with your drink. If you prefer drinking with a straw, then why not try a reusable straw? You can get these from a wide range of shops and websites, and they are usually inexpensive, come in a multi pack and include a handy straw cleaner so you can reuse them again and again.
Evolve’s Plastic Use
Reducing waste is something that is important to us at Evolve. We know that we are not perfect but that is something that we are constantly working on and trying to improve.
At Evolve Beauty, we choose to use recycled packaging for all of our products. When it comes to housing our skincare we try to use glass bottles and jars made from fully recycled glass. However, in the cases when we do use plastic, we opt for 75% to 100% recycled PET plastic, which (unlike PVC) is fully recyclable and if it is put into landfill, it doesn't leach any chemicals into the soil. We use plastic bottles for our products such as shampoos, conditioners, hand and body washes as these are usually housed in bathrooms and would be considered a safety hazard if they were in glass. We also offer pumpless options so our customers can reuse their own pumps and help to reduce waste!
We are always on the lookout for new ways to reduce the plastic we use here at Evolve, from utilizing large, refillable water cooler bottles through to recycling every element of plastic we can both in our offices and on our production line. We are always open to suggestions for ways we can lessen our reliance on plastic further though, so if you have any ideas on how we can do this please let us know.
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