Plastic Free July 🌍

 

Better late than never! A family blog post sharing our thoughts about plastic free July, and being more mindful generally about our use of single use plastic.

Plastic was created as a means of making life easy; because it can be used and then discarded. Sounded like a good idea right? Until we realised that every piece of plastic ever thrown away still exists on our planet somewhere. Some plastics can be recycled but between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans. Plastic free July is a global movement designed to raise awareness of the damage plastic is causing to our oceans and marine life, the challenge is whether we can go plastic free for a month?

Respecting our planet is such an important part of Gooseberry Fool's ethos, and as such, encouraging less use of single use plastic is crucial. So what can I as a brand, and us as consumers do to reduce our use? There are plenty of ways in which we can do this, and the following suggestions are ideas we as a family have thought about together and either put into practice or are beginning to incorporate into our daily lives.

- As a brand, I am constantly striving to ensure that there is no plastic in my production process. All your orders are sent out in recycled paper packaging, with card tags and I request that all my yarn is sent to me without any plastic packaging. 

- As a family, we use refill shops. If you have one locally, please go and discover it, this has been one of the biggest and best changes we have mad. We are fortunate to have a greengrocer locally who has a huge selection of plastic free items and products available as a refill. We take our reusable containers and refill with hand soap, washing up liquid, washing detergent, shampoo, shower gel and conditioner. As a family of six, this has made a huge impact on the reduction in the amount of plastic we dispose of.

- We have used a milkman for many years now, it started off for convenience reasons and to support our local dairy, but again, as a large family who gets through huge quantities of milk, it is far more satisfying putting our glass bottles out to be reused rather than filling our recycling bin with plastic.

- Beeswax wraps are a further way in which we have made the switch to using less plastic. They are easily washable, keep food fresh whilst looking pretty and reducing use of plastic!

- We enjoy spending time outside and are also big tea and coffee drinkers, so we ensure that wherever we go we also take our bamboo reusable coffee cups with us, and the same goes for water containers, we purchased stainless steel water carriers at Be Lifestyle and use them daily.

- Sanitary items. I made the switch some time ago to using a moon cup, and it has been revolutionary. I have to admit to being a little apprehensive initially but am now a complete convert. The amount of plastic contained within some sanitary products is quite shocking! Period pants are another option available and our teenage daughter has found these a particularly good alternative to sanitary towels.

- Face wipes and baby wipes are another switch we have made. I have crocheted washable face wipes for all the family to use. There are also similar products available as replacements to baby wipes.

- Our children have all well and truly outgrown the nappy phase (sadly!) however, when they were in nappies we used washable nappies. I know some people might think they are a pain, but honestly, nappies are one of the worst culprits for filling landfill and take one of the longest amounts of time to break down.There are various brands available, we used bambino mio and recommend them.

- Plastic cotton buds have also been replaced with paper cotton buds and I know that many brands are now phasing out the production of plastic ones which is great.

- Bamboo toothbrushes are a further switch we have made, meaning when they are disposed off they break down far more quickly than plastic ones. The same goes for plastic drinking straws, we have a supply of both bamboo and stainless steel ones which can be reused again and again, but I particularly love these Liewood design silicone ones from Mama and Max

 

- One of the things we are keen to switch is razors, so if anyone can recommend  a good plastic free alternative then please do let us know!

 

We honestly believe that if every household can make a couple of substitutions, we can help to protect our planet and our oceans for future generations to come.What will your substitution be?

 

 

The Campbell's xx