A Plastic-Free Life: Getting Started

After watching A Plastic Ocean on Netflix, I felt compelled to take a pledge to reduce my use of single-use plastic. But when I started looking around my house, I felt overwhelmed with the amount of items that were plastic: toothpaste, beauty product containers, Tupperware, the list goes on and on.

So, I started doing some research and asking friends for suggestions on how to reduce my reliance on plastic.

I decided to focus on finding plastic-free items for each room, one at a time.

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Kitchen:

• Dish soap:
  • Cleancult Liquid Dish Soap refill (lemongrass)

  • Zero Waste Dish Washing Block® Free of Dyes and Fragrance – Vegan Dish Soap Bar

• Hand soap:
  • Three Sisters Apothecary bar soups (I’m obsessed with all of them!)

• House Cleaning Products
  • CleanCult All-Purpose Cleaner refill 

• Towels
  •  Small cleaning clothes to replace paper towels (paper towels are sold wrapped in plastic)

• Sponges
  • Eney Plastic-Free Natural Sponges sold on Amazon

  • nSponge – 2 pack – zero waste reusable sponges, 100% cotton and plastic free

• Trash bags
  • Plastic-free biodegradable trash bags sold on Amazon

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Bathroom:

• Sunscreen:
  • Raw Elements Face + Body SPF 30 in a tin
  • Butter Me Up Organics Natural Sunscreen SPF 45+ in a glass jar

• Deodorant:
  • Schmidt’s deodorant glass jar (my favorite is the lavender + sage)

• Toothpaste
  • Natural toothpaste in a glass jar (spearmint)
  • Plastic-free Mint Tooth Tabs

• Dental floss:
  • Plastic-free refillable container

• Mouthwash
  • Humankind mouthwash

• Cotton swaps
  • Humankind bamboo cotton-swabs: Bamboo and cotton form a durable swab that’s 100% biodegradable, without single-use plastic. Contains 225 swabs.

  • Bamboo Cotton Buds, Biodegradable and Plastic Free. Contains 200 swabs.

• Makeup Removal Pads
  • Hemp and cotton reusable makeup removal pads

• Razors
  • Leaf Shave

• Shampoo bars
  • Hello Hibar Plastic-Free Moisturize Shampoo 

• Conditioner
  • Humankind Conditioning Bar: Conditioner in bar form to eliminate single-use plastic waste from your hair care routine. Clean hair, clean planet.

• Other
  • 35% of Lush’s products are packaging-free, or “naked” including solid shampoo bars, conditioners, soaps, scrubs, massage bars, bath oils and more!

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Sports Related 

• Rapha Chamois cream for cycling
• Ocean Lube, a natural anti-chafing cream for open water swimming, surfing and triathlon

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Other:

• Laundry Detergent:
  • Drops Stain & Odor Laundry Detergent Pods (lavender eucalyptus) in compostable packages

• Doggie poop bags
  • 100% Biodegradable plant-based bags sold on Amazon

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Here are some helpful books:

• Plastic Free: how I kicked the plastic habit and how you can too by Beth Terry
• F**k Plastic: 101 to free yourself from plastic and save the world by

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Have a favorite plastic-free product? Let me know below. I will continuously update this page as I learn about new products and options for going plastic-free.