Less Plastic...

I think by now most of us have seen the horrific video of a straw being pulled out of a turtles nose....We need to reduce the amount of plastic we use daily. It can seem like one of the hardest things to do but am hoping to show how making some small changes can have a big impact. 

Not only in reducing the amount of plastic but also our household waste.

Many of my followers, do so for different reasons. Some will follow just for my Vegan dishes, others my love for Vintage Caravans or for my reviews. Many are not Vegan, and I want to state for the record that am not trying to push this on my lovely followers but just share what I do. 

Even by just changing one meal a week to veggie or Vegan it can make a huge impact. I love when one of my followers asks for help in ditching dairy or how to seal a leak on their caravan. Through my blogs and videos I want to help others, share how I do things and give my self a way of looking back on our adventures.  

Am sure you will all agree, we need to start thinking more about our impact on the planet. When I was a child, we where taught 'save the planet for our children's, children....' Now we are being told we could lose our oceans, not in our Grand children's life times but OUR life times. Yes I may sound like a tree hugging hippy right now, but don't you want our beautiful planet to be around, even, dare I say thriving for our Grand childern? So what small thing can you change right now? 

Change just one thing, and the impact will still be BIG!

For me, I have always been a huge car fan and I feel like I have balanced out our big old car by not eating meat and dairy. If someone told me I could eat meat or drive a petrol car - am going to pick the car ;) So naturally, being more mindful about what we eat, has lead to me thinking more about what we buy and use. 

You know am from a long line of hoarders and love using old things. I love to buy second hand, love a boot fair or charity shop. So I started to think what else I can change to reduce my foot print. 

We have seen the signs at the beach, leave only your footprints and its so important. I don't want to be remembered for the amount of waste I left hundreds of years into the future but what I meant to my loved ones. 

Here are some scary figures:

A disposable nappy - 200-500 years
A plastic bag: 10-500 years.
A plastic straw: up to 200 years.
A plastic water bottle: 450 years.

Every day, Americans throw away 500 million plastic straws

My mother asked for a straw at a bar the other day, and was so happy to see it was a paper straw. The barman told her how when he handed people a paper, not plastic straw most shouted abuse at him! They wanted a plastic straw, so if the only thing you do from reading this blog has happily accept that paper straw I will be happy! Please support companies reducing their use of plastic. 

This is one of my lovely followers Steph: 

'Although I am a meat eater I follow alot of vegan blogs as I have learnt so much about our environment and ways we are harming it without even realising. What really brought this home for me was watching Blue Planet 2. With the pilot whale carrying her dead baby killed by plastic. Also The Russel Howard hour with a section on good deads where a girl volunteers her time to collect plastic from her local river. It made me stop and think, every day I make a packed lunch for my husband using 3 sandwich bags, every couple of months I'm throwing out plastic toothbrushes, plastic hair brushes, plastic everything! It's shocking to think my great grand children will die aged 100 before my plastic waste is almost gone from this world. Even then it isn't truely gone, just disintegrated small enough that we can't see it. I decided to make small changes little by little until I was living almost entirely plastic free, some immediate changes were super easy. I no longer use straws or sandwich bags, instead I use tin foil and tupperwear boxes. I have bags for life which I ensure I use for all shopping not just food. I've sourced biodegradable bin bags and a bamboo toothbrush for when I need to buy these. My next thing was my food shopping, everything is plastic wrapped usually in multiple layers of plastic so I thought OK let's go to my local green grocers and buy individual items. I thought this would be expensive but as it turns out it cost me the same as in the supermarket, but I have less waste and I chose individual items rather than buying a big bag of stuff and hoping they are all OK, I'm also supporting an independent shop which is always a great thing. Some items still came in plastic but as I said this is a journey to reduce my use to almost zero. This shop came to £30 but £5 of this was on treats for my pets, it will last us a week, myself, my husband and our three parrots who eat large qty of fruit and veg daily.

As it came 

Unwrapped

The only remaining plastic

It really wasn't hard at all to make this switch, it was simple required no planning, no effort and no extra cost, if everyone made the same effort imagine the impact this would have on our oceans and environment! Steph Suter, follower of Seaside housewife'

Thank you so much to Steph for sharing that, and like she said these things are easy to change with little thought. Also its supporting local smaller independent shops too, win win!

Here are some of the things you can change -

Washing Powder/Liquid - What do you currently use? Small plastic tabs, big boxes? I switched over to Soap Nuts years ago, its saved us huge amounts of money, so much better for our skin and the planet. Also has reduced our waste and use of plastic.  Click here for my review of Soap Nuts.

Plastic Sandwich bags - You can make or buy reusable sandwich bags. Not only helping the planet but pretty too! Am am working on a pattern I will share with you soon. Also think about the wrappers you have, the loaf of bread you brought, don't just throw that plastic bag away but reuse it! 

Plastic Straws - Do you really need that plastic straw? I m so used to drinking when out with a straw, if wearing lipstick it means it won't all come off on the glass. Am so used to it in fact I think I would spill a drink all down me if without one.....So how do we replace? You can buy paper straws, metal ones and I have even seen ones made from pasta!! I have just ordered some amazing metal straws to try out. Soon as I have used them for a while I will link the review here. 

Throw Away/Disposable Nappies - Cloth! Cloth is amazing, so much better for babies skin. It can take a moment to get your head around but once you do it becomes easy. Some makes hold their value you can resell them! Not only will you help the planet, your babies skin but also save a lot of money! There are lots of helpful cloth groups on Facebook to help you know what to do and where to get. Feel free to message me about this and I will try and get a blog post all about cloth!  

Shampoo Bottles - This was one I really hadn't thought of, till a follower mentioned it. We don't use much shampoo as am not a fan of over washing all the goodness out of my hair. Having said that, I thought, one less plastic bottle is a good thing so why not try a 'Shampoo Bar' Wow I LOVE it! Click here for my review of the Lush shampoo bar!

I will adding to this blog post very soon, quite a lot happening here at Seaside Housewife so there will be lots more to add!!







Clicks to where I got those scary facts from. 
'It will take 200 to 500 years for a disposable nappy to decompose, leaving a legacy to your children's grandchildren.' - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1287722.stm


ps://plasticgarbage.weebly.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-decompose.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/14/world/plastic-straws-ban-campaigns/index.html