Almost three years ago I made a commitment to reduce my plastic use for 2019 Plastic-Free July. I took a good look at all my plastic use, but focussed primarily on the kitchen and bathroom. You can read about that HERE. Then I reviewed my approach in January 2020 with another push to further reduce my plastic use (that update is HERE). I recently did this again to see what other plastic bits and pieces I could get rid of, focussing again mostly on the bottles and tubes in the bathroom, and packaging in the kitchen.

In my last update, I had just decided to give Ecostore bathroom products a go. I started out with the refillable bottles of shampoo and body wash, using either GoodFor or New World’s refillery to replenish. I also started using these in the kitchen and laundry too. They’ve been very successful.

In April 2021 I changed my gym routine (i.e. I stopped going…story for another time) and decided to switch from body wash to soap. One less bottle! And then more recently I discovered that Ecostore also sold shampoo bars, so I switched to those. All that remained was the face wash and the toothpaste tube. I switched to tooth tabs from GoodFor and stopped using face wash. So now I use NO plastic in my bathroom. The only plastic “beauty product” I use is moisturiser / sunscreen for my face.

The next change I plan to make is to get rid of the pump bottles of hand wash in the guest bathroom and kitchen and replace these with soap bars – I’m just using up what I have first.

In the kitchen I’ve expanded my use of bulk bins for the basics – rice, lentils, nuts, dried fruit, sugar, cereal, spices etc. It encourages me to eat healthier – less refined food, less sugar. A recent addition to the house was a bread maker – this means no plastic bread bags, and we know exactly what is going into each loaf.

There is always more to do, but I am pretty happy with my progress.