Giving up lazy plastics is easier than you think.

Life is sometimes about figuring out what you can handle.

Many of the choices to make each day we didn’t realise were going to be choices when we woke up in the morning. There are so many threads in the day that we have to choose to follow, and the ones we do are usually the ones that are most important to us. But by the end of the day it can leave us feeling tangled. We all have limits to what we can handle. We can prioritise the things we want to do and justify the things we don’t, but in the end we also have to decide what we can handle, and stop there, at least for now.

The threads we choose to follow consistently, are those that come from a deeper place. We call them our values, or our dreams. But even when I think about these, I find have limits to what I can handle on any particular day.

This doesn’t mean we don’t set new goals and new boundaries for tomorrow or the next day, and figure it all out again. Progress is a continuous process of boundary crossing, re-grouping, effort, backwards steps, forward leaps. Often in bursts of intense energy, sometimes droplets of progress.

This project is a bit like that. The choice I made to try and be kinder to our planet was in some ways a dream of improvement and self-discovery, in small steps and within what I could handle. Small steps to make big changes. Small connections, to create a shift in habits.

The prospect of making a positive change in the world or in my life is so exciting. But at the same time being kinder to the planet is a cause, and a cause can sometimes be perceived as a singular and disruptive thing. Following a cause, often suggests that you have to be all in, every day, forever.

Being planetwise, has been a more subtle journey. It works for me, but I always feel the pressure of activism. And the feeling that what I am doing is disappointing to some.

A good example of this is this is plastic, and something that I journaled as part of ‘plastic free July’. Plastic Free July, is a global movement, that began back in 2011 with the vision of living in a world free of plastic waste. It is a fabulous thing, and you can read about the Plastic Free Foundation here. I have also written about plastic before.

My view on plastic also bears repeating. Plastic waste is a problem.

It is still not new news, and there is progress.

Yet plastic free July scares me.

I still have an enormous sense of confusion and hopelessness. About the impact we are actually having against the runaway juggernaut of a plastic problem. About fiddling around the edges as individuals. A feeling of hopelessness that we can let our apples and onions roll around our shopping trolley in carefree abandon without a plastic tray or bag, but meanwhile we walk around the same supermarket on a 3-acre plastic floor.

Or that we refuse plastic straws in a bar, but at the same time we still rub shoulders in the bar with 200 people wearing enough micro-plastics to cause serious harm to 1,000 sea creatures. That by doing the small things, seems like an exercise in futility, or worse a self-aggrandising and empty gesture to pat ourselves on the back.

I still feel that eliminating plastic is almost the same as eliminating consumerism, or materialism. If we want to own things, then we are going to encounter plastic. If we want to wear things, then our cheapest and easiest clothing solutions use plastic.

This would make the idea of a plastic free July, a daunting prospect, and an unachievable goal. More than I can handle.

However, as I read more about the movement, I have realised that the Plastic Free Foundation have created an achievable movement. An accessible ambition through plastic free July — by breaking this down for literal minds such as mine. It has renewed my energy against plastic waste.

That is because plastic free July, does not mean you have to spend the month using pencil and paper only, or you have to feel a sense of guilt every time you glance at your child’s action figure. It is about breaking down the challenge into achievable and understandable parts. For example, it can mean giving up ‘the big four’ takeaway items. This is bags, bottles, straws and coffee cups. This is something I believe we all can do. It is starting small, but it is also perhaps at the very essence of the problem.

The alternatives to each of these items are accessible and are easy changes — because they can be re-usable items, or even better, nothing. Choosing no bag, or no straw. It is also the very essence of the plastic problem.

We choose many plastic products or items because they are convenient. We choose plastic because we want stuff, we don’t want to pay too much for it, and when we’re done we just want to throw it away. This needs to change.

It can be about thinking about what we do, and choosing one thing that is hard, but can make a change at a deeper level. About breaking habits.

And so for my first ever plastic free July, I chose to go back to the bathroom, and continue a path I have already started when we replaced shampoos and shower gels with bars. I am taking the challenge to remove all plastics from my toiletries.

This might seem like a small change. But when you break this down into the deodorants, moisturisers, hair products, toothpastes — it is bigger than it you might think. Toiletries are in everyone’s bathrooms and there are a lot of bathrooms in the world.

It is hard because it speaks to many hang-ups we also might have about our appearance. We all might have that wet right armpit when we get nervous, or that rogue fringe that won’t behave itself. We have our go-to products that we have used for many years because they fix these cosmetic issues. We trust them, and so breaking this cycle is going to be hard.

It also doesn’t help that many of these products, are good quality and fix these hang-ups. It would be more convenient for many environmental activists if this wasn’t the case. But the reality is that the science of keeping us clean and smelling good, has made some amazing breakthroughs in product quality and effectiveness.

OK, so many of the products that we use to care for our skin may contain stuff that grows in the middle of rainforests. Or has been dug up on remote mountain-tops. But they frankly make our skin glow like a lantern and make us smell good enough to eat.

I have been experimenting for a few months with various items. And I’m here to tell you that is can be OK not to use these products. There are steps you can take that are positive, and products available that will not leave you anxious about your outside appearance. I know it sounds shallow to say this, and I know that many reading this will consider that real friends don’t care about our appearance. That the planet doesn’t care.

But I don’t think it is as simple as that. I can’t give you a list of products to buy, but I can say that I have been using a natural deodorant for about 6-months now. It is a paste, and so have to use my hand, but it is OK.

I have been using bar soap, bar shampoo, solid toothpaste. They are a change in how we do things, but what they do is excellent. Brands such as Upcircle and kutis, or products such as bamboo toothbrushes or closed loop toiletries are alternatives. Many mainstream brands are also beginning to consider natural ingredients, vegan products, and packaging that leaves a smaller footprint than before.

Through replacing all these products, I have made a pledge to plastic free July, that can handle. And more than that, I have made a pledge for the future that I am unlikely to reverse. I didn’t yet find an alternative to all the products that are in the bathroom cabinet. But in those that I’ve discovered, my skin does smell good enough to eat. Plus, perhaps I glow a little bit more now that I know it is being kind to the planet too.

This change is not going to silence the background hum of plastic that has been in our lives for decades. But it is a start in the long journey to try and stop things floating around in our oceans or piling up on our lands. Creating a problem that will still be around for our grandchildren’s grandchildren to try and solve.

It helps me separate the fact that many things that are made of plastic are things that are doing good, because I am starting to see more places where it is being used in a lazy way.

It helps me contribute to zero plastic in ways that I can handle. And by doing it, send ripples of intent to those who are reading this, or to the producers that we longer support, and to the children that we hope will continue to find us alternatives.

It is one toothpaste tube at a time, one aerosol at a time, but it is a start.