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Plastic Free Tape

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Plastic Free Tape ⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Why Try This Alternative? Presents are a big part of Christmas, a celebration of love and gratitude to those around you. Part of Christmas that I enjoy is buying and wrapping presents, it always makes me feel very festive. I saw plastic free tape as a way to make this more sustainable. I probably use about 3 or 4 pieces of tape per present, so although it represents a very small amount of plastic, any opportunity to change is a good one. My Swap For this trial, I had a whole team of helpers. Three different households, trying two different types of plastic free tape: A paper tape from StikkyTape (£3.88 for 50m, 7.8p per meter) A plant based tape from Sellotape (£2.50 for 30m, 8.3p per meter) In comparison, Sellotape charge between 4 and 2.6p per meter for their non biodegradable tape. Our Findings For the brown paper tape there was the general consensus that it was very good, but not so pretty. This year my family has been wrapping the majority of our pres
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Conditioner Bars

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Conditioner Bars⭐ Recently, I have targeted my bathroom routine for reducing waste. This has included using bar shampoo, conditioner and body wash. In principle, all very similar products, however I found that they have all performed very differently. While I loved shampoo bars, and would recommend everyone tries them (see my last blog post), I cannot say the same for conditioner bars. Why Try This Alternative? As I have long hair, I can get through a lot of conditioner. I had seen conditioner bars and thought it would be a good way to cut another plastic bottle from my daily routine. Often the plastic bottles for liquid conditioner are hard to recycle, especially those using colourful plastics. My Swap So far I have tried two conditioner bars: 'Hey Mango' by Non Plastic Beach for £7.95 (50g, £15.90/100g) 'The Golden Cap' by Lush for £9 (65g, £13.85/100g) When using liquid conditioner, I was spending about £1.65 per 100ml. Therefore, to make conditioner bars financially
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Shampoo Bars

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Shampoo Bars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Having tried and been completely converted to bar hand wash, I was curious whether other products would be as effective in solid form. This has included bar shampoo, conditioner and body wash. If hand wash was such an good alternative, could shampoo be the same? Why try this alternative? As an essential product, and with long hair, I get through a lot of shampoo, and consequently a lot of plastic bottles, many unrecyclable. Therefore, bar shampoo presents a good way of decreasing my plastic consumption. Additionally, all the shampoo bars I tried so far are vegan and cruelty free. My swap I have been using bar shampoo (and conditioner) for over six months now, and so far I have tried three different bars: "Hey mango" Shampoo bar by Non Plastic Beach for £9.50 (70g, £13.60/100g) "Jason and the Argon Oil" by Lush for £8 (55g, £14.50/100g) Eco Warrior Shampoo Bar for £4.50. (£4.50/100g) When I was using liquid shampoo it was costing about 30p/100ml. T
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Veggie Week

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Vegetarian week: This is the first of my week long challenges. Although vegetarianism is becoming more common, and for many this challenge is the norm; giving up meat is still a big step for a lot of people. I have been cutting back my meat intake for a while now, especially of beef, so becoming vegetarian doesn't seem as big of a leap for me as it once was. This week I wanted to look especially at the quality of  meat alternatives and the difference in cost per meal. Monday: Mushroom Risotto Monday morning started in a pretty boring manner; a bowl of cereal, not changing my routine at all. For lunch I did struggle more than expected. Where I would normally have a quick but uninspiring sandwich, most options I would usually go for were not vegetarian. Instead I went for jacket potato with baked beans and cheese. This cost about 60p while a ham and cheese sandwich would cost about 63p. For the first dinner of the week I made a mushroom risotto with peppers and onion, served with gar
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Bamboo Toilet Paper

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 Bamboo Toilet Paper: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Why is this swap necessary? Almost all toilet roll is made out of 100% virgin trees. The removal of trees not only means they can't take in carbon dioxide, but also released the carbon dioxide currently stored. It isn't as simple as planting new trees; not only do they take over 30 years to fully grow, but the damage caused by clearing forests makes the soil worse to grow on. This is the same issue that arises when forests are cut down for animal grazing. Additionally, the process of making trees into soft tissue takes a lot of energy. Bamboo on the other hand is the worlds fastest growing plant, growing up to 3 foot in one day. It takes in 35% more Carbon Dioxide, and produces 30% more oxygen than trees. Because of the fast growth rate, there is a large surplus of bamboo. The Cheeky Panda (the company that I bought the toilet roll from) turns the excess into toilet roll, saving it from otherwise being discarded. There are 10 different types of bamboo
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Smol Dishwasher Tablets

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Smol Dishwasher Tablets: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ About Smol: Smol was set up to provide eco friendly cleaning products which are delivered straight to you. They provide (most products) in plastic free, recyclable packaging, which is the main reason I trialled these. The dishwashing tablets are all-in-one so that you shouldn't need to buy salt or rinse-aid. Additionally, all their products are cruelty free and come with a child-lock mechanism.  Setting up your orders is really easy. They ask you how many times you run the dishwasher a week, and from that calculate how often to send you your delivery. And you don't even have to pay for postage! My Swap: This is how my last two types of dishwashing tablets compare to Smol's in price and packaging: The first came in 25g of recyclable plastic, using about 125g of plastic a year. They cost £15 for 81 tablets, 19p per tablet. The second came in 140g of plastic packaging, with no instructions on recycling. This totals about 500g of plastic a year. Th
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Quick Fix: Bar Hand Soap

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Bar Hand Soap: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is the first of my quick fix reviews. These are all 5-star alternatives that are easy to incorporate into everyday life. Bar soap is a product that already features in lots of homes, and for good reason! Although there may not be lots to say about the humble hand soap, there is a lot to say for the affects that switching to bar soap has. Why is this swap necessary? This product that removes much unnecessary packaging. Bar soap makes bottles used for liquid soap redundant, as pointless as plastic bags for bananas. It was estimated that 577 million soap containers entered the environment last year. [1]  This is all avoidable plastic packaging which is easily replaced by the cardboard boxes or paper wraps that bar soap comes in. The liquid hand soap that I used before was roughly 55g of mostly unrecyclable plastic. That is about 2.5kg of plastic my house saves a year by switching to bars. This multiplied across the whole population makes a massive difference.
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