We asked for your suggestions: how can people avoid or reduce their plastic consumption? Here are 20 of our favourites tips
1. Refuse plastic when offered by a retailer; they’ll soon reconsider their packaging if *they* have to deal with its disposal – Catherine G
2. Ask yourself if the plastic item can be used more than once. If not, try very hard to avoid it – Sallie G
3. Make your own deodorant, soap and toothpaste. Use soap nuts in the washing machine – Lorraine H
4. Using bicarb, vinegar and lemons for household cleaning. It cuts out plastic and is better for your health and the planet’s – Karen S
5. Make more food from scratch. Pressed for time? Buy a slow cooker – Stuart F
6. Ask yourself if you really need the thing you are buying, can you reuse/repurpose something you already have? – Poppy K
7. Ditch tea bags (most contain plastic). Instead, channel your inner nanna and use tea leaves and a strainer for your brew – Christian S
8. Buy local! Our eggs come in boxes and the meat from the butcher uses far less packaging – Sarah C
9. Block butter and patience – Xan P
10. Start keeping a Twitter record of plastic you use and changes you make to stop using it. Motivational, educational and can challenge retailers directly – Paul R
11. Ask yourself do I need this? It stops me buying all sorts of c**p destined for landfill – Denise B
12. Carry a spork with you whenever you go out: no more bendy plastic forks in cafes, no more coffee stirrers – Hannah V
13. I try to base my purchasing decisions on the amount of packaging used. The brands or products with the least plastic win – Alex P
14. Get involved in actions lobbying the government to introduce environmentally friendly laws so these changes are making a bigger impact globally – Lilian L
15. Buy clothes and knit clothes that are acrylic free – Sian M
16. Take a refillable water bottle everywhere you go; wrap food in beeswax wrap; buy loose fruit and veg; refuse straws; reuse bags – Kate B
17. Get an allotment. Grow your own fruit and veg and freeze it. Get a milkman. Keep hens. Share with neighbours. Refashion clothes – Helen N
18. Use the paper mushroom bags for loose fruit and veg if you buy them in the supermarket – Poppy L
19. Wash with soap! So many lovely natural soaps to try – Nell J
20. Refuse plastic, carry your own bags, coffee mugs and containers and chat endlessly to everyone in a happy and positive way about why. Be the change and be happy! – Jeremy H
Featured image: collage of products sold at the Earth.Food.Love zero-waste shop in Totnes, photographed by Tara Moore
