How to Reduce Your Plastic Use When You're Out and About

Sara recently asked me what she could do to reduce her plastic consumption, and I thought it was such a good question that I decided to devote a whole post, or maybe three or four, to it!!

Plastic is fairly ubiquitous and it would be impossible to avoid ALL of it. The good news is, it is also very easy to cut your plastic consumption in half.

For example, by being prepared when you go out, you can cut down on disposable cutlery, plastic water bottles, and plastic lids of coffee cups. I always carry a stainless steel water bottle with me, and I also usually have my travel mug with me. If you end up using plastic forks fairly often during the day, you can buy some to-go ware or you can simply stick some chopsticks in your purse. The Ethical Consumer likes this solution the best because it doesn't involve buying new stuff, and chopsticks don't take up much room in her ever exploding bag.

But what if you forget your travel mug and reeeeeally need a coffee? Well, either find a place where you can sit down and drink your coffee from an actual mug (come on, don't you have ten minutes to just sit and relax with your hot drink?) or take your coffee with you in its paper cup, but leave the lid off. (Please note: the Ethical Consumer is not responsible for any spilling of coffee or subsequent burning of skin.)

Okay, so you have your stainless steel water bottle for water, and your travel mug for coffee ... what about soda?

Soda is bad for you, it's bad for the environment, it's got all sorts of weird chemicals in it, it's empty calories, and it's oh so delicious. While I limit my soda consumption, I am still guilty of occasionally indulging. So I make sure to only buy soda in aluminum cans or glass bottles. (Yes, aluminum cans do have a plastic lining, but on the plus side, aluminum itself is one of the few things where the recycling market is very strong.) Ideally, of course, you just skip the soda. But when you can't skip it, buying in aluminum can or glass bottle means that you're at least lessening your plastic consumption. It also has the added benefit that you'll wind up drinking less soda too, as the glass bottles and cans are generally smaller than the plastic bottles.