Plastic Free July in Our House

I'm a bit late with this post... We are already a week into July. I can barely believe it! Since Plastic Free July is such a great initiative, however, I want to share what our family is up to this month.

I have previously posted about how to use less cling wrap. That is a very simple and easy thing to stop using around the home. Our family already takes our own re-usable shopping bags into the shops (well, most of the time!), doesn't use straws, and uses re-usable water bottles. These items are good ones to start out with when you are beginning to cut back the plastic in your life.

My glass re-usable water bottle. Sure it cost more upfront but I love drinking out of it.

This month I am challenging our family to reduce single-use plastic even further by:

• Buying more bulk products, such as oats, beans, lentils, sultanas, & cleaning products, by bringing my own containers to be refilled.

• I have bought myself a reusable takeaway coffee cup (at last!). I rarely buy take away coffee since I feel too guilty about the waste. This is a very exciting purchase since I am now able to indulge on the run.

• I am saving all of the single-use plastic packets that we finish throughout the month in a (re-usable!) shopping bag.  I will review these products each week to see if I can find ways to reduce or eliminate more plastic from our lives.

• I have spoken to my child care centre about trialling using cloth nappies for Turtle on the day that she goes there each week. They have agreed to trial them this week. If it goes well then we will continue to use cloth at child care in future.

Have you already heard of Plastic Free July? Are you inspired to try and reduce your single-use plastic this month? Please share any tips and ideas below.

Would you like to use less cling wrap?

Here are a few simple things you can do to quickly reduce your cling wrap use:

Managing leftovers

Cover up bowls or plates with plates or bowls instead of cling wrap. This is very quick way to cover up your food before popping it into the fridge.  It also uses things that you already have (at no cost) so that is always a bonus.

Plate and bowl food covers

I do find bowls and plates can take up a bit of space if left for a few days in the fridge.  For some items it is definitely more practical to use a resealable plastic or glass container.  I recommend stocking up on a few different sizes of re-usable container.  They are easy to find at the supermarket or general household stores.  It may end up being a bit of an outlay to do this but having the right containers on hand makes it easy to store things as you need to.  If you don't want to buy new things then look for alternatives - op shops might have something or empty jars could be used.  If you buy or find a reusable container each week for a couple of months I'm sure you will quickly have enough to manage with little or no need for cling wrap.

A few of the containers that are currently in my fridge

Using the microwave

Basically the same rules apply here as for leftovers.  Use a re-usable plastic (the stronger or more rigid the plastic the lower the likelihood that chemicals may leach from the material into your food) or glass container.  Or simply cover a bowl with a plate and pop it in to cook.  The best part about using alternatives to cling wrap is that you won't have it melting in your food, further reducing the potential for chemicals leaching and entering your body.

Packing lunch

This is not rocket science - re-usable containers come into their element here, especially the flat plastic containers that you get when you order take away meals.  They are the perfect size for a sandwich to fit and not fall apart (that's right - put the sandwich in UNWRAPPED).  Play around with whatever items you like to take.  I tended to take a sandwich and crackers to work most days which fit perfectly in the flatter take away style container.  If I was taking fresh fruit then I would use a taller container (yes, the sandwich was still UNWRAPPED).

Small containers are great for snacks like nuts or sultanas, which are a great pick me up in the afternoon.

For kids lunches you can use the same approach above or if you're worried about things getting messy (since your child might not take the same care that you would) then buy a compartmentalised lunch box for your child.

You can also buy reusable sandwich holders if you can't handle the idea of a naked sandwich.  However, these can become expensive if your dear little one has a habit of losing things.  For those of you that are thrifty (or have loved ones that are) here is a link to a tutorial prepared by the Eco Faeries on how to make your own sandwich wraps at very low cost.

Storing odds and ends in the fridge

I think this is a big saver of cling wrap that you probably don't even think about using.  Do you automatically reach for the wrap when you have used half a tomato or avocado? Or any other vegetable or fruit? Why not put them all (separately or together) into a reusable container? It's faster and more convenient when you are making your next meal since they are all stored in one container for you to grab out.

The vegetable drawer in our fridge

Are you convinced? Can you imagine life without cling wrap? 

I am so used to doing all of the above things that when a visitor pulls cling wrap out of my cupboard I am always surprised to see it there.  If you do want to try some of these ideas then I would love to hear how it goes.