THE BASICS

In this post, I will be talking about how I got started with plastic-free living, the steps that I took, and how you can do the same. I want to start off by saying that I am in no way an expert in plastic-free living, While these methods may have worked for me, that doesn’t mean they will be right for everyone. We are living different lifestyles and are at different stages of plastic usage. I’m going to break down the steps I took and then expand on them.

Understanding the idea

The first step I took when starting this journey was to do research. I wanted to be well-informed about what I was getting myself into. I watched plastic-free vlogs and read articles about the impacts plastic-free living can make. I found this super helpful and informational because I had a good understanding of the process of going plastic-free.

Take stock

This means taking stock of all of the plastic you currently use on a daily basis.

Ask yourself:

• How much plastic do you use on a daily basis?

• What products have no alternative that you need?

• What products can you give up?

• What products can you find alternatives to?

For me this meant logging what plastic I used during the day. At the end of the week, I would look back on what plastic I used. I made note of the things that I needed and the things I was willing to give up, for example, the plastic prescription bottles I won’t be able to find an alternative or give up, but my daily Starbucks coffee I was willing to give up. For the things I deemed necessary to my lifestyle, I found plastic-free alternatives.

Research

Start researching where you can find plastic-free alternatives to those products you need. It may take months to figure out where you can grind your own peanut butter and buy shampoo bars.

Cutting

The next step I took was cutting the plastic products out of my life. You will want to start step by step switching out things that you can. You have to understand that cutting out plastic all at once is extremely difficult. Switching the products out one by one can make the transition more manageable.

Evaluate

After doing some cutting of plastic from your life, evaluate what is going well. What is difficult? How can you make that easier? I found that cooking and eating plastic free is super difficult. Asking yourself what is making plastic-free living difficult can help you to see any problems or improvements you can make. Doing this every so often is really good because it allows you to come up with solutions to your problems. Which makes you less likely to quit in the long term because you will be able to solve your problems.

Continue to cut

Now with a new and improved perspective you can hopefully have more success with going plastic free. I made a plan for myself after I evaluated the difficulties I was having. Mine was to set time aside to meal prep and plan the foods I was going to buy and make. This eating plastic free a lot more enjoyable to me and allowed me to continue.