Plastic Free July.

As July draws to a close it’s great to see how many people gave plastic free July a go. If you’re one of those people now is a good time to think about keeping up a few plastic free habits longer term. If you haven’t tried (or even heard of) plastic free July don’t worry, now is still a great time to think about switching out some of the plastic in your life.

Why?

Cutting down on your use of plastic is a small change which has big benefits for both the Earth and your body. Plastic is made from toxic chemicals which interfere with the Earth’s ecosystems and our endocrine system.

How?

To begin try switching up just one daily / weekly habit to one of these plastic free alternatives:

• Use a glass or stainless steel water bottle. I use this 600ml glass one from Lifefactory and refill it with filtered water.

• Stop sucking! MILLIONS of plastic straws get dumped into the sea every single day. Most of these are made from single use plastics which take hundreds of years to break down, seeping their chemicals into the water when they do. Is the minor convenience of a straw really worth this? I decided to stop using plastic straws roughly 2 years ago, after one of my yoga trips to Thailand where I saw some of the devastating impact our use of plastic has on our beaches and oceans. I genuinely thought it would be a difficult change given that I drink so many juices, or that I would forget if I was out for a few drinks. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly it caught on as a habit and honestly think I have used 5 or less plastic straws in the past 2 years. You can replace plastic straws with glass or stainless steel alternatives that are very small and light to carry with you.

• Choose products with less plastic packaging. I find it so sad to see gorgeous organic veggies covered in toxic plastic! Every purchase is a vote so please use yours to go for the food items with less plastic packaging. You can ask Irish supermarkets to stop using unnecessary plastic packaging on organic fruit and veg here or have a search on change.org for a similar petition in your country.
• Bring your own bag! Take a reusable shopping bags with you to the market / supermarket. Would you like to take your veggies home in a LifeCleanse shopping tote? Let us know on social media or by email over the next week that you’re going to take it shopping with you and we’ll send one out to you.

• Do you take your morning coffee with you in a travel cup? Bring it to the cafe for your lunchttime / afternoon coffee or tea rather than using disposable cups and lids.

If you try one of these and it goes smoothly then come back to this list, or contact us, and choose another one to try next. I always favour adding in one new habit at a time over trying lots at once as it usually leads to more sustainable long term results.