With the UK government’s plan to ban all single-use cutlery including forks, cups, and plates, I’m bringing you the best plastic-free reusables on the market.
What’s the Problem with Single-Use Plastics?
Single-use plastic is part of our daily lives, whether it’s at work with a takeaway coffee, at home with disposable plates for parties, or out and about with plastic cutlery at picnics.
More than half of all single-use cutlery is thrown away and not recycled. This means it ends up as litter, destroying natural habitats and endangering wildlife, or fills up landfill. Landfill rubbish is often incinerated, causing toxins and carcinogens to release into our air and atmosphere.
Not only does single-use plastic cause pollution from litter, but the production of single use plastics also requires energy from fossil fuels, resulting in carbon emissions during production and transportation.
Plastic has well and truly reached every part of the world, perhaps most shockingly in the Arctic, where microplastics have been found in the snow.
The Best Reusable Products
Get prepared for the plastics ban with Between Green Boxes – you’ll receive all the best reusables every month, all for just £20 including P&P – that’s less than the cost of a week’s worth of meal deals!
Ditching pre-made sandwich packets, sandwich bags, foil or clingfilm on your lunch in favour of reusable sandwich wraps like these (made by Eco Snack Wrap) will save you money, not only from scratching sandwich bags off your shopping list, but also encouraging you to take food from home. With its hemp material and Velcro fastening it keeps any contents, like sandwiches, wraps and snacks, safe and secure.
Say no to plastic or paper straws and yes to your handy silicone straw in its handy travel tin. No one likes a soggy paper straw and, despite not being plastic, they’re still single-use, making them wasteful to make. Keep your reusable silicone straw handy in your pocket or bag.
Grabbing some food to go? Use your reusable cutlery and forget about snapping plastic as you tuck in, or tasting the wood of the fork more than your meal. Bamboo, card and other sustainable materials are making up modern lightweight cutlery these days.
There are even reusable teabags nowadays! Ditch the plastic-filled teabags filling up your kitchen bin. You can pop some loose leaf tea in these cotton teabags and use as normal. When you’re done, you can empty the bag and wash to reuse again.
If you wear makeup or use skincare, you’ll likely be throwing away a cotton pad or two every day. These reusable cotton pads won’t clog up landfill with plastic. Simply wash them in the washing machine (or handwash!) and reuse. The planet will thank you.
Did you know that you can get reusable kitchen roll? Much prettier than the white paper rolls, these reusable rolls come in a variety of patterns and can be thrown in the washing machine and used again and again. It’ll save you money – kitchen roll is getting more and more expensive – and the planet!
Sticking with the kitchen theme, these excellent plastic-free sponges will get microplastics out of our waterways and still provide a good scrub! Double-sided, the scrubbing sponges from Eco Scrubber are much nicer to look at than the standard yellow and green sponges, and are much better for the planet. Again, wash to reuse!
Finally, if you want to give a gift to a loved-one or friend, consider using reusuable wrapping paper, in the form of furoshiki wraps. They can be circulated around your family or friendship group, or you can ask for the wrap back to reuse. Many wrapping papers cannot be recycled, and we think these beautiful wraps are much nicer to look at than tacky wrapping paper, anyway!
