Reducing plastic waste

I've been trying to reduce mine for ages too, it's hard work with all the shops geared around convenience. Often when shopping and seeing someone unbox stuff I've noticed something that's not in plastic has been in plastic to be transported to the shop then unboxed from the plastic to display to customers, most supermarkets use big cages when moving stuff by truck that they wrap in cling film for no noticeable reason. The worst I find are multipacks that are then inside individually wrapped so I try to buy bigger single thing and just portion it out myself(crisps and chocolates do this all the time). Bags I just use panniers or my rucksack, shop little and often(barely use our fridge, if it wasn't for flatmates could do away with it). I think another thing is planning how you will use stuff being able to plan across a few days to get down both food waste and plastic waste, convenience is the enemy lots of the time.

This thread has prompted me to get a water filter on the kitchen tap as OP suggested he will be doing. I pretty much only drink water and it's all bottled. The tap water tastes like some jabroni has been swimming in it so it results in piles of plastic bottles in the recycle bin.

Turns out I'll be saving loads even buying new filters every six months so good on the dollar too

Excellent.

My mother and hers before save every plastic vessel - wash it out and reuse (or just stash it away cos you never know etc). I cleared out her old caravan in Wales and there were butter tubs/yogurt pots -
crap that she had actually taken down there years previously and she insisted should be brought back home again. A lot of my generation and my kids consider this as some sort of mental 'wartime mentality'. That 'if you are not actively seen to be spending/consuming in quantities' then you are a loser/poor mindset.
See my guzzling big car third world cyclist.

So is the thread about being more responsible with plastic waste, or cutting down on purchasing items made of/ with plastic?

Yes

a lot of that comes from experiencing some sort of poverty, forcing you to be resourceful and make the most of what you have. I've noticed this quite a lot with my friends my age where we were kids in 1992, interest rates were sky high, mortgages were super expensive and all our parents were hella broke. a lot of us behave the same with our stuff (hoard/penny pinch) in the same sort of way war time people do/did.

it's markedly different to people I work with born in the 90s or have never experienced a point of literally having no money to live off. they simply don't do it and think it's crazy.

if anyone needs some lolly sticks, just let me know. got boxes full of them

I think we may be slipping into the 'avocado toast' and millennial bullshit here but the idea that being able to waste as a signal of wealth pisses me off.

I could have arranged a swap of my granddad's neatly folded plastic carrier bag collection for your lolly sticks (wooden ?)
:)

Are you in the UK?
I can't imagine drinking bottled water at home.

Yeah in Uk. I don't drink Evian it's just Tescos 2ltr 18p spring water. The tap water here is pretty rough and the chlorine is quite high and was having an affect.

Most water just needs to be left in a jug and the chlorine evaporates.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/01/should-i-stop-drinking-bottled-water

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2120077.stm

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/jul/31/tapwatertastetest

"Concerns that tap water contains oestrogens from contraceptive pills being peed out or that it has passed through the kidneys of 10 people are not valid, says Younger"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42564948

Did anyone see that Hugh F-W thing on TV maybe a year or two ago where he had a whole segment on current takeaway coffee cups being basically impossible to recycle due to the way they're bonded with the plastic? A guy had invented one that could easily be recycled but nobody was having it because it cost slightly more so it wasn't getting off the ground. You would think that maybe the slight hit in costs from that would be evened out by the potential moral high ground profits to be had.

This is the one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGcd5aNBr4c

started noticing this stuff in a few coffee shops / lunch places

https://www.vegware.com/

Mostly good for "greenwashing " or "ecowashing" - these can only be composted at industrial recycling facilities. Chuck it in a normal council bin and nothing will happen to it. Good idea, but need to be more transparent and get councils on board

The whole war on waste can be expanded to include anything that could be re-used instead of binned.

I have just fitted a new fan basket and drive belt to my 22 year old tumble dryer....more cost effective
to me (£15 parts and 1 hours work), and more cost effective to the environment as well.

Coffee cups seem to be the 'flavor' of the day/week. Where has the 25p latte-levy suddenly appeared from?, who is going to pay this?

IMO the loading should be on the cups manufacturers/coffee shops to come up with easy to recycle cups.

I'd assumed teabags were fully biodegradable by now.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/28/pg-tips-announces-switch-to-plastic-free-fully-biodegradable-teabags

On a related-ish note, what do I replace sprayon deodorant with. For the days when I can't be arsed to shower. An ex partner had a deodorant stone. Seemed crazy.

Just cancelled by monthly subscription to shavekit and gone for a double edge razor. Should save me money too, the handle was £24 and blades are around a £1 each. Expect multiple trips to A&E. Those things are darned sharp :)

You'll probably not be surprised to find out that we already have a thread for that.
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/135689

I really like Feather blades. Go very, very easy at first though!

Heard this morning on R4 about the supermarket in Amsterdam with plastic free aisle. Looks and feels like plastic but biodegradable. Sounds promising

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/28/worlds-first-plastic-free-aisle-opens-in-netherlands-supermarket

The known unknowns of plastic pollution
https://www.economist.com/news/international/21737498-so-far-it-seems-less-bad-other-kinds-pollution-about-which-less-fuss-made

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-43559636