Consider how much plastic you encounter each and every day. In the products you use, in the packaging those products come in, and even the bags you use to take that packaging to the garbage can. If you live in North America or Western Europe you typically consume 220 pounds of plastic each year and all this plastic ends up in our streets, or landfills, or oceans and this plastic can take centuries to decompose if it does at all. Knowing the challenges of plastic, what are some ways you can minimize your plastic use and move towards a plastic-free life? The best way to go plastic-free is to look at the products you use in your home one by one and find plastic free alternatives for them.
Plastic-Free Shampoo & Conditioner:
Each year in America about 552 million shampoo bottles (enough to fill 1,164 football fields) are tossed in the garbage ending up in landfills. Seek Bamboo offers a wide range of All-Natural Shampoo Bars which come in plastic-free packaging. Currently SeekBamboo offers 8 varieties including green tea, charcoal, lavender, and honey. This variety means that there is a shampoo bar with your particular hair type or hair challenge in mind. And shampoo bars are only the start! Other offerings include vegan conditioner bars which come in varieties such as green tea, seaweed, citrus, and coconut and natural bar soaps.
Plastic-Free Oral Care:
Consider how much plastic a traditional oral health routine contains from plastic toothbrushes, to plastic containers of floss, to plastic wrapped toothpaste. To go plastic-free consider switching to a bamboo toothbrush, zero-waste dental floss (including silk and charcoal varieties) which is packaged in glass containers, and tooth powder, tooth tablets, or charcoal powder toothpaste as alternatives to traditional toothpaste. These products allow you to take your entire oral care program plastic free. Our goal is to help bring sustainable smiles to your face!
Plastic-Free Straws:
As many as 500 million plastic straws are used in the US every day or 182.5 billion straws a year or about 73,000 metric tons of plastic straws per year. Did you know there are some amazing plastic-free alternatives? You might consider stainless steel, bamboo, grass, or wheat alternatives to the traditional plastic straw. These eco-friendly straws give you the benefits of being reusable while also being biodegradable and not ending up in the waste stream.
Plastic-Free Kitchen:
Sometimes we need single use cutlery in our lives, for times when we are hosting an event, for times we do not have the mental bandwidth to do dishes, for times it would be a pain to lug around dirty cutlery when we are on the move. The good news is bamboo cutlery makes for a great biodegradable alternative to single use plastic cutlery. Bamboo cutlery is affordable, durable, reusable, stain, and odor resistant. Bamboo cutlery is a way to be gentle on ourselves when we want to go plastic-free but need the convenience of traditional products.
Plastic-Free Laundry Cleaning:
Most traditional cleaning products are harsh on our bodies and on the planet. These products come in plastic bottles and containers. There are many plastic free alternatives such as Wool Dryer Balls which can replace chemical heavy traditional fabric softeners. There are all natural laundry detergents which come in biodegradable pods and which arrive in compostable packaging. There are also plastic free dish soap alternatives such as a zero-waste dishwashing block from Seek Bamboo which arrive in plastic free packaging and can be utilized for dishes, cleaning sinks, cleaning floors, or taking stains out of clothes or carpet. Finally there are alternatives to traditional sponges which are made up of plastic such as our Konjac Sponges which allow you to keep your home and yourself clean without using plastic.
Breaking Free From Plastic
If we do not take the time to do a deep plastic review of our homes and our lives we will tend to forget exactly how much plastic we use each and every day. While this can feel overwhelming the good news is there are plastic-free alternatives for all these products which combine the durability of plastic with environmental positive products which are biodegradable and sustainable. Consider what plastic products are cluttering up your bathroom, your kitchen, or your cleaning closet. As an added bonus most plastic free products take up less space in your home than traditional plastic packaging which means going plastic free can help you organize your home and find what sparks joy. So feel good about yourself, feel you are taking positive action in your life, and take the first steps towards a plastic-free lifestyle today.
