How do you feel when you open your bin to throw something away? Or after you've done your weekly shop? Smug and self-congratulatory at just how little single use plastic there is? Or like most of us, guilty and overwhelmed by quite how much there is?
Teresa Walters was faced with a whole bin full of unrecyclable plastic after Christmas in 2017 and decided that enough was enough and that she was going to do something about it. She roped in her sister Mary, and together they embarked on a competition between the two families to see who could reduce their plastic waste by the most over the course of 2018.
This episode is packed with loads of really actionable tips and if it doesn’t inspire you to make a start on reducing your single use plastic, then I'm genuinely not sure what will! The energy that Teresa and Mary have really comes across during our chat, and I love the way that they’ve teamed up (albeit in competition) to make change happen, and I think it’s easy to see how by working together they’ve been able to bouy each other up and achieve far more than either of them probably would have been able to on their own.
So grab and pencil and a piece of scrap paper to make some notes and then sit back and enjoy!
Useful links
- Sisters Against Plastic
- Facebook page
- On Twitter
- Buying Group - Plastic Free July
- Faith in Nature
- Ecoegg
- Wyatt and Jack - inflatable amnesty
- Clean Bin Project film
- Sodastream (I got ours secondhand from eBay so do take a look for a 'preloved' one first!
- [009] - 4 easy ways to reduce your plastic footprint (podcast)
- [007] - Shopping plastic-free without a local zero waste store (podcast)
- [006] - Plastic-free living with the Zero Waste Chef (podcast)
- Plastic-free(ish) party bags (blog post)
- 9 top tips for shopping plastic- free(ish) at the supermarket (blog post)
- Plastic-free(ish) pets (blog post)
- Re-usable alternatives to clingfilm (blog post)
- The Essential Guide to a Plastic-free(ish) Home (e-guide)
- The link to sign up for the Sustainable(ish) Sunday newsletter
HOW TO MAKE LIQUID SOAP FROM A BAR (from the Sisters Against Plastic FB page)
1: Pop 2.5 litres of water with 1 table spoon of coconut oil on the hob to boil.
2: Grate one bar of ordinary soap (don’t use Dove) and add it to water. Gently heat whilst stirring and bring to the boil.
3: You can add a tablespoon of glycerine at this point if you would like your soap to be thicker than we have made ours.
3: Customise your soap with food colourings / essential oils / honey (great to add moisturiser)
4: Pour into bottles and let cool overnight.
