Plastic Free (well as much as is possible these days)

After watching several progammes about the plastic in the oceans and in the landfills I am endeavouring to not intentionally buy any more plastic stuff that I can easily find an alternative for.

So far I am trying to use

Kitchen
washable kitchen scourers rather than a sponge.
washable kitchen cloths once the current j-cloths have been used
I like using paper towels (these probably have plastic in them too knowing my luck)
and once we run out of the current batch of plastic washing up brushes I will buy wooden handled ones.  I have source some online that only cost £1.25 so won't break the bank.  If I look hard enough maybe Wilcos have them in stock anyway.  We will see.

Bathroom
I have bought some bamboo toothbrushes.  I was sceptical that they would be any good as I prefer an electric toothbrush and since my mains one died I have been using the oral-b ones with a battery.  Do you know?  My teeth actually feel cleaner with the bamboo version although with muscle memory I find I can't stop cleaning until I have turned it off!  I am sure that will fade eventually.  The bristles are still plastic and you either snap the whole head off or pull the bristles out before disposing of the handle in the compost.

Toothpaste comes in a plastic tube - never really thought about that so I have bought some truthpaste (peppermint and wintergreen) which comes in a little jar like the miniature jam jars you get in hotels.  Works fine although I think it should come with a tiny wooden scoop / spoon.  You mustn't get it wet so poking your toothbrush in the jar is probably not a good idea.  Currently using a toothpick.

I have bought some dental floss - made of charcoal (don't ask me how this is possible!) which comes in a tiny glass dispenser you can then buy more floss to refill said dispenser.  This is actually better than the normal floss as it doesn't slip through your fingers.  Very pleased with this.

I bought a 5litre container of Castillian Soap a couple of months ago to reduce parabens blah blah which is the basis of most other soaps shampoos etc and am currently using it for washing my hair and hands, also in the washing machine.  My hair is squeaky clean.  I still have plenty of bars of soap to use up before I am solely on this but getting there.  I can then reuse the 5 litre container in the compost toilet on the boat!  Sweet.

On the boat I have plenty of the various shower gels etc received as christmas gifts over the years to get through before I can go completely plastic free in this area.  At least I wasn't the one doing the buying.

For when I go travelling I have bought some soap in a bar that is also a shampoo.  That will reduce the 100ml problem.  Not used this yet so can't comment.  I will make a little bag for it out of that plastic mesh you buy some vegetables / oranges in so that I am at least reusing the damn stuff and it doubles up as a scrub and you hang it up and the soap dries.  Win Win.

Teabags
We tried to dispense with bags but we drink so much tea that I am afraid we have slipped in this department.  We are not perfect!  This is not a Royal We there are two of us.  One of us is embracing this ethos more than the other!

Shopping
Loose vegetables and fruit where possible. 
Would prefer supermarkets to have paper bags by the loose rolls section and while I am quite happy for my carrots to be handled by checkout staff for some reason I am not keen on them handling my bread.  And no I do not wash the carrots when I get home so no real reason for this phobia!
Starting in October himself has promised to only buy meat from the butchers rather than the supermarket so we can take our own containers and reduce some of the plastic entering the house.  Less of a problem for me as I could easily be vegetarian, but I am not.
I have made a couple of shopping bags out of an old sheet.  Plenty of king sized sheet left to make more so each time the plastic long life shopping bags die we will not be swopping them in for replacement ones, just returning them to be recycled.  I jazzed up the shopping bags using scraps of more colourful material left over from dismantled shirts etc.

If we buy water in a bottle then we reuse it for as long as possible before finally putting it in the recycling.  I know there are problems with plastic water bottles but we very rarely have to do this, so the risk is fairly low.

So there it is.  Me trying to do my bit to reduce the amount of plastic that I potentially send to the oceans/landfill.

Don't get me wrong we have loads of plastic lidded containers etc that we will continue to use, the point being that we might still buy plastic but we want to reduce the stuff we throw away because we have no use for it. The unwanted packaging.

Lets see how this pans out.