How to reduce the amount of plastic you are using in your home?

It has been reported that there is between 4.7 and 12.8 million metric tons of plastic floating around in the ocean currently. This is an astonishing amount of waste which is impacting our climate hugely just now.

We have outlined some ways in which you can help to reduce this and improve our planet:

1- Stop using plastic straws. These are creating huge concerns for the marine life- impacting turtles particularly-as highlighted on David Attenborough’s documentary, Blue Planet. You can purchase paper straws, or reusable stainless steel straws online or in any big retailer.

2- Take your own shopping bag to the supermarket. One plastic bag can take 1,000 years to degrade- so take your own and try to reuse them as much as possible- plus you will save 5-10p each time!

3- Bring your own reusable mug- even when you get a take-away from a café. This saves unnecessary wastage on multiple take away cups- and sometimes you get a discount on your coffee too!

4- Use a razor with re-usable blades rather than multiple disposable razors. It’s also much more cost effective.

5- Try to pick up loose fruit and vegetables in the shops rather than the pre-packaged ones, and stay away from those plastic bags too.

6- Similar to number 3, stop buying bottled water. Invest in a good water bottle that you can re-fill. Scottish Water aim to install 30 Top Up Taps around Scotland by next year.

7-  Swap your lunch bag for a lunch box- instead of sandwich bags, use a Tupperware box instead. It always saves your sandwich from getting squashed!

8- Look out for cardboard bottles and packaging rather than plastic. This is most common in cleaning and laundry products.

Remember, every little helps, so even if you can take one or two of these tips into your home then you will be helping the environment and making our planet a little bit cleaner for future generations.

Here at Cairn, we are very environmentally aware and recycle all our paper in the office through Changeworks Recycling. We also make sure we all use reusable plastic cups for our teas and coffees and hardwearing recyclable jute bags for carrying our lunch!