War on pointless plastic (Part 2)
How to reduce single-use plastic?
Tips to help you to reduce the use of single-use plastic in your home:
Buy fruits and vegetables by the piece and not sold in plastic bags. Better yet, buy directly from farms. Products are often much cheaper (cutting out the middlemen and the outrageous margins made by supermarkets) and much nicer (because they are more likely to be picked when ripe, as opposed to green and travelling thousands of miles to your plate, where it is not in season).
Buy tea sold in plastic-free tea bags (check the label)
Make your own milk (e.g. oat, nut or coconut milk) and store it in glass bottles
Make your own mouthwash (distilled water, baking soda, a few drops of tea tree and peppermint essential oils) and toothpaste (using coconut oil, baking soda and a few leaves of fresh mint or drops of peppermint essential oil). Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is a well-known teeth whitening agent that is cheap and safe to use.
Make your own shampoo, soap, etc. or buy bars rather than bottled alternatives.
Buy in bulk. I buy 5-10 litre bottles for almost every single detergent, fabric conditioner, toilet cleaner, and vinegar, and use to store my own homemade detergents, etc., which in the long run dramatically reduces the cost of buying smaller bottles (1 bottle of vinegar is sold over £1 per 500 ml, 10 litres of spirit vinegar is sold at around £10 or less). I use vinegar to clean windows, bath partitions, mirrors and all kitchen and bathroom surfaces, including the toilet seat. I add a few drops of organic orange, lemon, thyme and rosemary essential oil for their antibacterial properties. It adds a beautiful, clean scent to the rooms. A fabric conditioner gallon bottle (166-200 washes = 1 year's worth!!!) is sold for under £9, while I would have to pay £5.10 for 900 ml (or 60 washes). Better yet, add vinegar to the fabric conditioner compartment of your washing machine (with a few drops of your favourite essential oil) and preserve your clothes on a budget. There is no need to use highly toxic substances packaged in a plastic bottle ever!
By being more responsible consumers, you could also save over £20 a week on your grocery, household products and cosmetics, by buying in bulk and/or making your own.
For a large family on a budget, this is not negligible. That could be money well spent on a family holiday on a plastic-free beach.
It is time to make a change and make a change for good and shame big stores and supermarkets for their direct implication in polluting our rivers and our oceans and damaging our health and killing nature at a faster pace than ever in the history of mankind.
The proposed new On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) is much clearer and so less confusing.
What the changes mean:
To achieve the ‘recycle’ mark, material must be collected by over 50% of councils, be able to be processed and have a market.
PVC and PS are now classified as non-recyclable
cPET and coloured aPET/rPET are now classified as recyclable
Near Infra-Red (NIR) detectability is critical for plastics – non-detectable polymers are now classified as non-recyclable (e.g. polypropylene-made tea bags)
Tolerance levels for barrier coatings on card are now reduced to 15 per cent and to 10 per cent from January 2023 (applicable to sandwich packaging, although it is not clear if the plastic can be separated from paper)
Coffee cups now have a Specialist label
(source: https://www.oprl.org.uk/our-latest-initiative)
Under the previous system, packaging was divided into three subgroups: ‘widely recycled’ (collected by 75% or more of councils at the kerbside); ‘check local recycling’; and, ‘not currently recycled’ (collected by less than 20%).
Anti-incineration campaigner and national co-ordinator of the UK Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), Schlomo Dowen, described the new system as “terrible”. Explaining:
“It is not clear exactly how this is going to promote recycling. There are items which for example can be recycled by 45% of authorities which will be marked as not recyclable and will end up in the wrong bin.
He concluded: “There is a danger that local authorities will reduce rather than extend the range of material they collect based on this arbitrary system.”
As always, it seems that there is good and bad in every initiative but it is at us — consumers — to make a difference by buying more responsibly and avoiding single-use plastic as best as possible.
But we must do more.
Phil Hadfield, environmental projects officer at Newark & Sherwood district council, raised concerns that the new OPRL labelling scheme could increase contamination. Because most households do not rinse single-use plastic or polystyrene food trays and so contaminate an entire load of recyclable materials in their recycling bin. Multiplied by thousands of collections, vast amounts of contaminated or otherwise recyclable material are either sent to landfill or incinerated, polluting the environment — also a major contributor to CO2 emissions.
Phil Hadfield commented on the OPRL new labelling scheme: “We have a problem with contamination generally and if people think they can put mixed trays in then our contamination rates will go up.”
Did you know that in Switzerland you must "clean" your recyclable waste?
If material is found to be contaminated, waste is not collected and you may be fined. After the third attempt, local authorities will no longer collect your waste. Period!
Do you think the UK and other countries should follow suit?
I will leave you with this quote:
“The average shopping basket of around £70.00 results in about 107 single-use plastic items. ”
2022 Update
OPRL is adding crisp packets, salad bags and metallised snack and chocolate wrappers to its in-store recycling labelling, building on earlier announcements to include polypropylene* (PP) films. The labelling extension does not apply to packaging materials constructed of aluminium foil laminates such as pet food pouches, which should continue to be labelled ‘Don’t Recycle’.
Do not place this type of plastic in your recycling bin. Instead, bring them to your larger supermarkets, or to the driver (e.g., Ocado).
* Polypropylene is a hydrocarbon polymer made from propene (or propylene) obtained from petroleum.