My personal plastic-free journey
First, I’ll start with how I personally became interested in the plastic-free journey. To be honest, I didn’t start with any real eco friendly goals in mind or even by contemplating how to live plastic-free. It began from learning about alternatives to single-use plastics. At the time I had some awareness of the problems caused by plastic in the environment. That knowledge made me want to reduce my plastic usage, but I still wasn’t very committed.
The real change occurred when I started discovering there were plastic alternatives. Realizing there were options is when my mindset shifted. I would suddenly become aware of, and bothered by, how much plastic I was throwing out. Even now, that’s still my driving force, there’s something in me that cringes at being wasteful. But only if I have a reasonable alternative; otherwise, I’d get too bogged down with frustration and guilt.
If you’re reading this article, I’m assuming you want to cut down on the plastic waste in your life and gain more insights on how to live plastic-free. The title says ‘plastic free’, but the process can apply to other eco friendly lifestyles. Chemical-free and zero-waste lifestyles can easily follow the same route from what I’ve seen. While there isn’t a set process on how to live plastic-free, it does appear that most people follow a similar course.
To really cover the topic, I’m going to break that process down into several articles. Today’s article focuses on – where to begin? Then I’ll cover next steps and this year’s goals in another article.
Please share your thoughts on how to live plastic-free
I would just like to clarify that the plastic-free process I’m about to describe is purely subjective. It is based on my personal experiences as well as what I’ve observed others do. I’m also only about midway though my own plastic-free journey. Or, I should say midway to where I would like to be on my plastic-free journey. Goals are very personal and dynamic. So, the things I find relevant may or may not be that helpful to others. Please feel free to use, or not use, and tips that apply to you.
This is why I’m going to put a survey on my site so people can share their own plastic-free journey and plastic-free interests. This will help me gain a broader perspective on this topic and to provide more useful information to you all on how to live plastic-free. (The survey will hopefully be up by next week).
How to live plastic-free – where most people start
Typically, when people begin to live a plastic-free lifestyle it begins with product swaps or reusable items. I use the term ‘product swaps’ to refer to changing out disposable plastics for their plastic-free/reduced plastic counterparts. I’m using the ‘reusable’ term to refer to being consistent about reusable items such as metal water bottles, reusable bags for shopping, bringing your own mug to the coffee shop, etc.
Product Swaps
Personally, I always preferred using a reusable water bottle and bringing my own bags to the store. But I would say my journey really began with product swaps. To me, that was when I really started being intentional and proactive about cutting down on my plastic waste. Many of the people I’ve talked to say they would love to do product swaps but the cost is a major hinderance for them. So, I want to talk a bit about the cost of plastic alternatives.
Whether the cost of product swaps will be prohibitive to you depends on what you already buy. If you buy the cheapest hand soap you can find at the store then yes, plastic-free alternatives will probably be more expensive. However, if you usually buy the all-natural hand soaps, then it’s going to be about the same price after you get the reusable soap dispenser.
How to budget for product swaps
On that note, because of the higher price that usually (but not always) comes with product swaps all I can recommend is to budget for them. When I started doing product swaps, I made a line item in my budget to cover 1 new product per month (this ended up being around $50 a month). This budget line included the new equipment and the ongoing refills I would need.
Some months it took the whole budget line, some months it was under. And that covered a lot of the basics like – hand soap, dish soap, shampoo bars, laundry tablets, toilet tablets, cleaning tablets, plus the occasional plastic-free alternate like beeswax wrap. Keep in mind, with the product swaps you’ll be rotating the refills you need to buy each month. Once you get the rotation figured out the budget stays fairly consistent.
After about 4 years of doing a monthly product swap, I had swapped out quite a few things. In the meantime, I also learned how to make quite a few things (like knitted dish scrubbers) that also helped me cut down on plastic waste. These days my shopping habits have changed quite a bit thanks to going plastic-free. So, I need to re-evaluate how my budget line is now compared to before because now it’s become part of the grocery line. But for starting out, I would say be prepared to spend about $40-$50 a month if you want to steadily swap out a plastic item each month and buy refills.
More on shopping habits later
I would really like to cover more about how your shopping habits will change when you start to go plastic-free. Specifically about how your budget and habits will be shaped by what’s available to you. I also want to talk more about where you can find the product swap options I’m talking about. But unfortunately, I’m running out of writing time today so I’ll have to cover more about plastic-free shopping in another article.
How to live plastic-free – reusable items
Now that we’ve covered the product swaps, let’s talk a bit about the reusable items category. Reusable items are the other starting point for a lot of people. For example, after learning about all the damage plastic bags do in the environment you likely feel much more motivated to remember your reusable shopping bags. Like the product swaps, reusables require you to be more intentional about your habits. However, I find the swaps to be more about shopping habits, whereas the reusables are more about daily habits.
To get into the habit of using reusable items requires conscious and consistent effort on your part. I remember when I decided to be better about using my reusable shopping bags. Before, I would always leave them in the car and then just use the plastic grocery bags if I forgot them. To change that habit, I’d make myself leave my grocery cart and go back out to the car to get the bags if I forgot them.
As you can imagine, after a few times of having to keep going back out to the car, it became so much easier for me to remember to bring the bags. Once my brain realized forgetting the bags was no longer an option, it started to cooperate and make the task easier.
Don’t be thwarted by guilt and perfection
I can’t really say whether product swaps or reusable items is the more difficult one. They both require conscious decisions and an actionable game plan to succeed. And by success I don’t mean getting it right 100% of the time. Real success is creating a habit, routine, or structure in place that is usually pretty reliable.
Remember the goal is to our improve habits. It’s impossible to get things right every time, especially at the beginning. Be kind to yourself and make sure to celebrate the wins (big or small) and learn from the difficult days. As the saying goes, “don’t let perfection be the enemy of good enough”. Good enough is the real goal here.
How to live plastic-free – Next steps
The swaps and reusables are where most people start on their plastic-free journey. But how do you live plastic-free beyond that? I mentioned earlier how being aware of plastic-free alternatives compelled me to start reducing plastic in my life, and that’s what continues to drive me. So, after about 2+ years of product swaps and improving my reusable item habits, I really wanted to take things a step farther.
There are still quite a few ways I can reduce my plastic waste but they require an even greater commitment than the swaps or reusables. And to reach that next level of plastic-free living will require significant changes to my habits and routines. That’s why I started this blog. I wanted to keep myself accountable to my plastic-free challenges and to share any insights I learn along the way.
I will save the next step details for my next article. And please remember, these steps are specific to my own journey for how to live plastic-free. Your own starting point and next steps might differ based on what your current habits. But I’ll give you a hint as to the next level of plastic-free we’ll be discussing, it revolves around food and cooking.
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