Refuse, Reduce, Re-use – Teach Yourself to Use Less Plastic

In our webshop you will find a large range of re-useable products including drinking bottles, lunch boxes, paper straws, bamboo toothbrushes… We do not like plastic and try to keep our plastic footprint to a minimal. Because did you know that plastic only starts to break down after 700 years and that it can take up to 1000 years to completely break down?

The numbers about plastic are more worrisome than you might think.

Do you know how many plastic straws are produced every day across the world? 500.000.000 straws. Yes, really, 500 million plastic straws are produced each day only to be thrown away after only one use.

And most straws end up in the ocean, where they enlarge the already immense plastic soup. This plastic soup is a floating garbage belt of millions of tons of plastic in the middle of the ocean. And plastic straws belong to the top 10 contributors of this garbage pile.

Together with the even more popular plastic bottles. According to the website ‘The World Counts’, up to 100 million plastic bottles are used across the globe every day. In Europe alone, more than 100 plastic bottles per person / per year are thrown out, resulting in 50 billion disposable bottles every year. And, out of that huge amount only 1 out of 5 plastic bottles are recycled!

Next, there are plastic bags. While you might do your shopping with re-usable bags and might think that plastic bags are becoming less popular, there are still an extraordinary number of plastic bags in use: up to an average of 5 trillion plastic bags are produced each year.

By refusing plastic straws and bags, by reducing your use of disposable plastic bottles, by using your glass pots as storage jars, you can help reduce these extremely worrisome figures. You can find more great tips on lessplastic.co.uk.

# 1 Do your shopping with a re-usable bag, made from organic fabric. The Amanprana bag is a small and handy ‘shopping tote’ made out of organic cotton.

Cotton is also preferred over a shopping bag made out of recycled plastic. Plastic is plastic. Fabric has the additional benefit of being able to maintain it well. After washing it, your organic tote looks as good as new. This Amanprana tote, moreover, fits into each purse, so you can always have an extra bag with you for your spur-of-the moment, small purchases.

[product sku="AMAN/biokatoenentas"]

#2 Bring your drinks with you in a re-usable glass or stainless-stell bottle.You'll never have to buy a plastic bottle again and you can just re-fill it with tap water.

This is up to 500x cheaper than when you buy a half litre bottle. And there is a super easy, eco-friendly trick to clean your re-usable bottles. Without a brush! Empty your bottle and rinse 1x. Put 1 to 2 tablespoons of uncooked rice into the bottle and add a little warm water. Shake well for 5 minutes and then empty to the bottle. The shaking will make the hard-uncooked rice grains rub against the sides of the bottle and clean it well.

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#3 Buy yourself a fun, re-usable mug for your tea and coffee on-the-go. You can also use this mug at the office, so you don't have to use throw-away coffee cups anymore.

An additional reason to avoid plastic cups with warm drinks is the fact that the phthalates or plasticisers added to plastic cups are released when in contact with heat. These plasticizers are related to disruptions and imbalances in hormones, so it’s best to avoid them. Moreover, some coffee houses will even give you a discount if you give them your own mug to fill up with your order.

# 4 Bring your lunch to work in a stainless-steel lunch box. A pre-made salad in a plastic box may be delicious, but unfortunately, it’s not great for the environment.

Stainless-steel is a safe option to store food in. It’s non-toxic and does not migrate into food. It also does not absorb flavour or fragrance and does not release any either. In short: stainless-steel is an excellent way to preserve the quality of your food.

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#5 Replace plastic straws with 100% decomposable alternatives, such as paper straws or straws made out of straw.

They may appear small and innocent, but plastic straws contribute such a large amount of garbage to the plastic soup that you really should avoid them. They are luxury items that are only used once before they land in the garbage bin. Opt for a decomposable alternative for yourself and your guests. It makes a big difference and you also avoid any hormone disrupting plasticisers.

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#6 Don’t buy your vegetables and fruit in (extra) plastic bags but use re-usable bags for this as well. Or just leave the bags and take your vegetables and fruits home with you without any additional plastic bags.

A simple calculation makes it clear very quickly how big your contribution to the reduction of the plastic garbage mountain can be, if you just leave all those plastic bags behind. Think about how often you shop for vegetables or fruits per week and multiply this number with 52. Even if you use 1 bag each week for your fruits and vegetables, then you would reduce the use of plastic bags by 52 bags per year, by simply not using them anymore. The average consumer will even use 4 to 5 plastic bags per shopping trip… (Also avoid the free paper bags. These also damage our environment.)

#7 Take your time at home to enjoy a cosy dinner table with home-made meals on it. Ready-made meals are often packaged in non-recyclable plastic packaging.

Even when the packaging is recyclable, it is more beneficial and better for the environment to make your meals yourself. You save natural resources and energy needed to make recyclable packaging for those meals. And in the long-run you’ll learn yourself how to use food more sparingly as well. Food waste is also a form of pollution.

#8 Save your leftovers in glass jars, such as the glass jars from Amanprana. Is your jar of oil empty? Wash it and use it to save your leftovers in.

Glass is inert, odourless, simple to clean, hygienic and see-through. When you save leftovers in a glass jar, you can find them easily again in your fridge and you’ll know exactly what is in which container.

[product sku="AMAN/K"]

#9 “Be the change you wish to see in the world” remains a wonderful life philosophy.

Tell your friends and loved ones what you do and why you’re doing it, so they can also be part of the change you want to see. Don’t underestimate the power actions can have on others. Because people are social beings and they’ll subconsciously adopt another’s behaviour.

Do you have any advice for us?

Which re-usable products would you like to be able to buy at Amanvida?