There is no doubt a plastic free lifestyle leads to all manner of new challenges. Plastic is so ubiquitous you have to question all aspects of your lifestyle; what you wear, what you eat, what you will give up and what you won’t. You a get to develop a whole new skill set. If you want fake tan you have to learn how to make it.
But giving up plastic also makes you question other more political issues. If you give up on plastic how are you going to provide cheap clothing for 7 billion for example? Can we really go back to growing everything we need and mining all our resources?
My projects include
The Fair Share Fabric Project using only my global share of fibres & fabrics. More below
Homesteading – making home-made products and plastic free clothes
Composting – the only way to deal with trash. Which means all trash should be compostable. I compost like a demon.
The Campaign For Real Litter
The Fair Share Fabric Project using only my global share of fibres & fabrics.
As an experiment I have pledged to use no more than my fair global share of fibres Whats a global share? Currently the global consumption of clothing works out (roughly) at 11.74 kg per person of which 3.8 kg is natural fibres. As I don’t like synthetics I try to stick to 3.8 kg of natural fibres.
Why not just use 11 .74 kg of natural fibres? Fabric production like everything has an environmental impact and carbon footprint, a rather large one actually. I would argue that it is not sustainable for us all to have 11.74 kg of natural fibres a year. This is one of the promoted benefits of plastic, that it takes the pressure off natural resources. Synthetic fabrics mean less land grab to grow cotton. But synthetic fabrics like any other plastic are massively polluting.
So if we cannot produce more, we have to consume less. This is how the equation works for me:
We cannot exceed current levels of production:
We cannot expect others to want less than we have:
We cannot swamp the market with synthetics:
Therefore I have to live with my global share of natural fibres.
But can it be done? Cautious reply after 2and a half years is yes it can.
Archived
#Plastic picking – where we pick up plastic rubbish where ever we find it
Trash Reduction & minimalism and what to do with your rubbish
Historical Links
Bear in mind that this blog started before Facebook and twitter when plastic awareness was limited. So back then I knew all fellow bloggers by name and had watched every plastic related film. I used to report on every one of them
Since then things have changed. There is a plethora of information and an army of bloggers. All easily accessed via search engines and social media.
Check out my Facebook page
You can check out my historical links here if you really want to know who was who in the early days. But they will be very out of date. Ditto reports.
Films & Images
The best way to make people plastic aware is to show the damage that plastic is doing. Photos of plastic trash polluting the planet and hurting animals illustrate the real effects better than anything. Of course they need to backed up with information about plastic. Case studies about plastic free living show what can be done to tackle the problem. Support groups on social media where plastic free tips can shared are hugely useful in encouraging people to make small changes that all add up. Campaigns and bloggers are a great way to make an impact and there are some good ones out there.
Back in the early days I used to list them here. I no longer do that.
Films & Images
scary movies here documentaries about plastic
dirty pictures galleries of plastic pollution.
Planet Trash – A page of images showing plastic pollution the world over plus one of the biggest list of liked anti plastic groups on Facebook.
(You can find a list of the places featured here on the blog).
Bloggers
Blimey could it be that the battle is over? Not the battle against plastic but the battle to raise awareness. When I started my boycott, Envirowoman was the only anti-plastic voice out there in the blogosphere. The first of the plastic boycotters, she inspired me to change my ways. Now there re hundreds of great plastic free bloggers out there who have done sterling work in promoting a life less plastic. See if you can find one blogging in your country or even town. They will be a fund of local plastic free resources.
U.K. based bloggers can be found here
Here is a list of people blogging about plastic-free the world over.
Campaigns, Arts, Media and Education
Can be found here
Reports
See what plastics doing to world over.
Wasting Away how much rubbish do we create globally
Definitions You can find definitions, clarifications and explanations here
Number Crunching – for nasty stats go to Statistics
Social Media
Plastic Is Rubbish Facebook group where folks can share, rant and post about living plastic free. A resource for plastic less living.
As the interest in plastic free living grows we need a space to pool resources – especially in the U.K. where we don’t have bulk stores and finding unpackaged produce is so much harder. It’s great to see people using it to share plastic free info and lifestyle hacks. Join us here.
PlasticSrubbish is our Twitter account
We have just started with Instagram
And have a Pinterest page With loads of plastic free pins.
Partnered
Plastic Free July
Waste Less Live More Week
Zero Waste Week
As Seen In
I have written for, and been featured in, various publications. You can see them here.