How to reduce plastic waste
The year is 2450. Alexa is now Prime Minister, robotic Ant and Dec have just won their 353rd TV Choice Award, and the polystyrene container from which you demolished that donner kebab on your mate’s hen do in 2017 has just swept onto the windscreen of your great, great, great, great grandson’s hovercar.
Plastic packaging can have a lifespan of minutes (or seconds, depending on how hungry you are for that kebab), but it can persist in the environment for over 400 years. So, if you’re looking for how to reduce plastic waste, keep reading – your great, great, great, great grandkids will thank you for it.
Single-use plastics are made to be used and abused
But our planet isn’t. That’s why, for the last two years, reducing plastic waste has been the most common way consumers have embraced a more sustainable lifestyle, with three in every five cutting back on single-use plastics in 2021.
According to a recent Deloitte study, almost half of all consumers are looking to buy more sustainable produce, with 39% also buying more locally produced goods. As a milkround that delivers waste free groceries from independent suppliers and farmers, we couldn’t be prouder! But the hard work doesn’t stop here.
Keep reading to learn how you can become a greener you and discover our top tips on how to reduce plastic waste.
How to reduce plastic waste with small switches
For those looking for how to reduce plastic waste, you need to start small. Making small changes is a sustainable way to tackle the problem as you’re more likely to keep it up and not revert back to easy wasteful habits. Give these tips a try to get you started.
- Meal prep – when you have prepared meals ready to go you’re much less likely to reach for a tempting takeaway full of plastic packaging.
- Opt for plastic free toiletries – most toiletries can now be picked up without plastic packaging. From wooden toothbrushes and shampoo bars to fabric cotton pads and Who Gives a Crap toilet paper, there are plastic free alternatives for just about anything, including menstrual products!
- Refill – you can refill just about anything if you know where to look! Here at Modern Milkman, our refillables range includes cereal refills and sugar. Meanwhile, we also stock household refillables on our cleaning products delivery including soap, washing-up liquid and household cleaner.
- Pack a bag – keep a shopping bag in your car to avoid picking up a plastic bag when you’re stocking your cupboards. You can even get foldaway bags that can easily fit in a handbag or coat pocket for emergencies.
How does going plastic free help?
Imagine waking up to sticky coffee cup lids spilling out of your duvet. This is an everyday reality for our wonderful wildlife, with 700 species affected by plastic waste, 88% of the sea’s surface polluted by plastic, and 8 million pieces escaping into our oceans each day. Meanwhile, manufacturing plastic creates billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases, and disposing of it in landfills contributes heavily to climate change.
30% of the plastic produced every year is single-use (National Geographic), but it doesn’t need to be, and it’s great to see consumers turn their back on these one-hit wonders and look towards more sustainable and reusable packaging.
We’re counting on you
There is no shortage of scary statistics and frightening facts about the future of our planet. But a bit of positivity can go a long way, which is why we’ve added a personal counter to each of our customer’s milkround.
Now, from the day of your first delivery, you can see just how much plastic you’ve saved through our return and reuse bottles and sustainable packaging.
Teamwork makes the dream work, and we’d like to thank our customers, hard-working milkies and incredible independent suppliers, who have collectively saved over 91 million plastic bottles from entering our oceans and landfills. That’s the equivalent of over 214,00 wheelie bins!
How to reduce plastic waste for a brighter future
Making the most of reusable packaging is an easy, sure-fire way to reduce plastic waste. From return and reuse milk bottles to a waste free fresh produce delivery – small changes add up to be a part of the solution and enable you to become the greenest version of yourself – think less Shrek and more plastic-reducing hero.
