It’s difficult to avoid plastic, but Emma Beddington’s article makes it seem impossible and it isn’t (My no-plastic life: I tried to cut out single-use items for a month – and it almost broke me, 12 February). We have a routine that eliminates most plastic waste. We shop at the market for fruit and vegetables, all in paper bags, and use vinegar for all cleaning. We use tooth tabs in glass jars, shampoo soap bars and laundry sheets. We’ve had dairy milk and oat milk delivered in glass bottles for years.
Supermarkets can cut plastic packaging, but don’t. When I asked a manager at a big store why they can’t do more, I was told they have long-term contracts with big producers, which have long-term contracts with plastic producers. So vote with your wallet and shop where they help you – Lidl has compostable bags for many loose veg and fruit, and Aldi has nuts in paper bags. And there are always refill shops, though they tend to be expensive. Cutting down on plastic is possible, it just takes a little more time and effort.
Sue Kellaway
Christchurch, Dorset
Congratulations to Emma Beddington and to Gwen Harris (Letters, 12 February) for their efforts to go plastic-free, which mirror my own attempts to go zero waste. Having reduced our household waste from two to one bag per fortnight, I now reluctantly accept that further reductions are unlikely. After recycling, upcycling, using retail outlets that sell unpackaged products, doing without certain things and composting all organic waste, what is left is mostly plastic.
The path to a more sustainable lifestyle is not straightforward and it can be hard to make informed choices about what actions are actually beneficial. The raw material for the bamboo loo rolls delivered to your door wrapped in paper, if not the product itself, may come from the other side of the world, and driving any distance to avoid a plastic bottle doesn’t make sense.
There will doubtless be many wrong turns along the path, but the huge financial and environmental costs involved in processing and disposing of our domestic waste should be incentive enough for us all to try harder to minimise it. Supermarkets and suppliers need to do much more, but individuals need to show willing too.
Cathy Swann
Alresford, Hampshire
