It can be so hard to avoid packaging in 1st world countries. As I wrote before, transport plays a big part in the fact that plastic is often the first choice for containers. Even if you choose to go to a site which sells things loose to refill your own containers, the chances are that it got shipped there in bulk in plastic. You could refill your honey jar from a dispenser, but the dispenser is plastic, so completely avoiding plastic for health reasons can be nigh on impossible. However, it's still worth doing if it reduces waste.
There are ways to reduce plastics in your life, but how much by depends on your commitment to the cause and what you're willing to sacrifice. Tammy Logan, of Gippsland Unwrapped, goes all out for a goal of zero waste and that is her priority. She'll buy her butter based on the packaging, in this case grease proof paper wrapped. This way she can reuse the wrapper for baking and compost it when she’s done. Generally, the only butters wrapped like this are the supermarket brands, the rest have a mixed wrapper consisting of paper, plastic and aluminium foil, which is not recyclable; at least not here. My priority is organic first and local if possible. They don't do these in just paper wrappings and won't any time soon. The machinery used for wrapping the butter would need to be changed in order to use a paper only wrapper.
So often there's a compromise between health and going waste free. Avoiding plastic on your food and eating organic is a health consideration and you'd think they'd go hand in hand, but all too often organic produce comes wrapped in plastic. For me reducing plastic is as much a health consideration as waste consideration, so I'm often torn between the two.
There are some simple steps I've taken to reducing plastic waste in my life. The first is reusable shopping bags. It's funny how reliant we've become on disposable bags from the supermarket, because getting back into the habit of taking our reusable ones with us on shopping trips can take a little while. Yet it was only about 30 years ago that it was the norm to take your own bags as few shops provided any bags.
A few years ago South Australia brought in a single use bag ban, so shops were no longer allowed to give out the really thin plastic bags which barely lasted more than one use. They could provide thick, reusable ones, but there is now a small charge for these in most places, to discourage people using them. It's not just the supermarkets here that don't provide free bags, few other stores do either and when they do, they usually ask if you want a bag rather just giving you one. So having bags which fold down small into your handbag can be useful for impromptu shopping and that's now my default. I rarely make big shops now, so I don't have to worry about remembering to bring them as I'll have up to 7 bags in my handbag which I can use. Buying loose veg, rather than pre-packaged, can be completely plastic free if you take a reusable, light weight produce bag. I finally got around to making myself one from some left over chiffon.
Aside from the inconvenience of remembering to bring bags with you, one of the arguments against reusable bags are that they can harbour bacteria and give you food poisoning. Let's be honest, it's a good idea to wash them occasionally, especially if they've been carrying badly wrapped meat, and if you're washing your clothes then they can go in the same wash, so it's not a big, extra job.
While buying loose items for refills doesn't avoid plastic entirely, it will certainly reduce the amount of packaging if you can find somewhere which provides that option. I, personally, don't know of any waste free stores locally, so I actually buy organic wholesale and refill from there. This is how I know how much plastic they arrive in at the stores. The company I order from tries to do most of its packaging as none plastic, but glass comes in bubble wrap and the cans come in shrink wrapped slabs. Then the boxes are taped up with plastic packing tape.
In the kitchen, cleaning can be done with reusable cloths and rags, which can be thrown in with the laundry periodically for cleaning. I had a friend who would go through yards of kitchen paper every time she cleaned the kitchen side. She'd also use a disinfectant spray and a multitude of other cleaning products around the house. Her bin would be overflowing every week for a family of three, when ours would be barely half full for a family of four. Cleaning products are unnecessary. Just clean water and drying the surface will keep bacteria from breeding and vinegar is a perfectly good cleaner which is anti bacterial too. So why use a different cleaner for every cleaning job in the house, if one thing will do the job?
For food storage I've been gradually moving away from plastic, replacing containers as they break. It’s hard to find any without plastic lids, but at least the lids are less likely to be touching your food. Silicone is becoming more common as manufacturers try to cater for the plastic free movement. If you're replacing plastic, the alternatives are usually glass or stainless steel. The cons with glass are the weight and the risk of breakage. The cons with stainless steel are the price! I have stainless steel drink bottles, because they are well used, often knocked and dropped fairly frequently too. If I used glass or would cost me even more in replacements than I spent on these bottles in the first place. I haven't been able to justify the price on other storage containers, as they're less likely to be broken during daily use.
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