5 Beginner Plastic Free Swaps we recommend to everyone!

Starting to be more sustainable can feel like a really daunting task.

There is so much noise online telling you what to do and where to start. It feels almost impossible to know where to look!

This is going to be a little different. I want to recommend a few products that I think are super-easy swaps, but when you are starting out, it is about starting where you feel comfortable — not where someone tells you to.

So, here are 5 swaps that are worth starting with. That’s it. No pressure, no guilt… Just a good place to start.

My first recommendation is a washing-up brush.

Plastic washing-up brushes really don’t feel like they are worth the money it costs to make them, let alone what you would pay in a supermarket (or wherever you happen to buy your cleaning products). They don’t really get through the dirt on dishes, and they release microplastics into the water going down your drain!

Enter the wooden brush!

The wooden brush has slightly firmer bristles, doesn’t release any nasties into the water system, and has a replaceable head. You are saving money over the long run! It is a real win-win!

Next up, we have the humble soap bar.

Soap bars are a really easy swap for your bottled hand soap. You can get refillable hand soaps (we sell one in store!), but it can be a faff if you don’t have a refill shop nearby. The other option is getting a bottle of hand soap, and that can often be full of chemicals and things you don’t want in your waterways or on your skin!

Soap bars offer a different side to it. They are generally made of more natural ingredients (please check the ingredients and the labels), and they can last an absolute age. 

It is worth investing a little more in a soap dish or rack. It will help the soap dry out properly between washes, meaning that it will last a lot longer!

Recommendation number 3 is toothpaste.

There are a whole range of more natural toothpastes out there on the market. We personally love the ones from Truthpaste. We chose it because it would be an easier swap than going towards toothpaste tablets or a powder.

Conventional toothpaste is full of lots of unpleasant things that you don’t want to be swallowing, even by accident (please don’t swallow your toothpaste!), especially things like surfactants that are used to get the bubbles and lather that you are used to from your toothpaste. It is always worth checking the ingredients of the products you buy to see what is in them. The other main downside of conventional toothpaste is that it generally comes in a plastic tube. That tube cannot be recycled because it can be nearly impossible to clean from the consumer side. It is also often made out of plastic that cannot be recycled anyway…

Truthpaste’s toothpaste is fluoride-free, but is full of natural botanicals to ensure good dental health. It comes in a glass jar that you can use again and again for so many different things, and it lasts what feels like forever — at minimum, for me, it is 6 months for one jar!

Please make sure you take your dentist’s recommendations for your oral care.

Next on the list is a silicone baking sheet.

Step aside baking paper and tin foil; there is a new legend in town!

I absolutely love my silicone baking sheet. It is a small investment, but if looked after properly it can last pretty much a lifetime. Unlike baking paper and tin foil, the silicone baking sheet is not single-use (and I mean more than one baking session… I know I have reused some baking paper when baking batches of cookies…). It is also machine washable, and can take heat well over 200 degrees, which is absolutely ideal for an at-home cook, or someone that wants to deliver Michelin-star quality from their own kitchen.

My final super-easy, beginner swap is one we have all heard before:

the humble reusable bottle.

I could have said coffee cup, but I thought that can be a pain — especially if it lives in your bag and you forget to wash it out… That is not something you want to find on a spring-cleaning day…

So, the reusable water bottle it is.

We all used to have reusable water bottles as kids. Except back then they were themed and it was one of the most important topics in the playground — that, and which lunch box you had. As we have all grown up, though, it has become less common to have a water bottle, mainly because we can just buy bottled water with our own free will.

The bottles we get bottled water in (for the most part) are plastic. They are not necessarily BPA free and can actually go out of date. It’s not the water that has the best-before on it, but the degradation of the plastic. It slowly releases its chemicals into the water, and they are not really the best for our health!

Reusable bottles mean that you can control what you are drinking. Are you drinking enough throughout the day? You’re in control. Is there anything leaking into your drink from your bottle? No, because you are using something made from a different material. Are you limited to plain water? Absolutely not, it’s yours; you can put any flavours or deliciousness in there!

We love using Ocean Bottle. They not only use some recycled plastic for the top part of their bottles, but the main body is stainless steel and double insulated, so your drink stays cool for as long as you need (it really works — I accidentally tested it in a sauna!). The best benefit of these bottles is that by using one of them you are also doing good. The company shares a portion of its profits with charities and organisations that collect waste from around the world. If you scan the NFC tag in the bottom of the bottle with their app, it can show you where in the world waste has been collected and sometimes what type of plastic!

I know starting on an eco journey can feel like it’s impossible sometimes, or even daunting. I just hope that with these few swaps, it doesn’t feel like such a mountain to climb. Remember: every change makes a massive difference!