9 Easy Swaps To Reduce Your Plastic Waste

As we gear up for Plastic Free July, here’s a wonderful article by Hannah Evans at Taka Taka Foundation on what we can practically do to reduce our single-use-plastic footprint…

We all know we should be reducing what we consume and the waste we produce but it can be pretty hard to work out where to start. So I’ve created a run down of 9 of the easiest swaps to help you reduce your waste.

What I have laid out below is just meant to be an introduction to how you can reduce your plastic waste. I’m not advocating for going zero waste tomorrow - unless you really want to, then bravo!

But what I am saying is that if every single of the 7 billion people on this planet could make a few small changes to their consumption and waste habits we could see a huge reduction in the amount of waste we produce!

So I challenge you to try these 9 easy swaps to see your waste reduce!

Cloth sanitary towels

Did you know a 12 pack of sanitary towels contains the equivalent of 5 plastic bags.

A woman uses on average 11,000 menstrual items in their life. So when we do the maths, that is 4500 plastic bags used in the form of sanitary pads in the lifetime of every woman.

But, there is another option. Cloth sanitary pads.

These have dramatically risen in popularity not only because of the environmental benefits of using them. But also because of economics too.

If we look at Padmad Kenya an initiative aiming to end period poverty in Kenya. This initiative works by sustainable and environmental methods.

They provide jobs for marginalised women to create pads from locally created cloths and distribute their products to women in need. By providing pads like these to vulnerable women means they don’t have to worry about finding the extra money to pay for their sanitary products, every single month.

Instead they have a product that can be used over and over again, dramatically reducing the cost of having a period and making it a very environmentally friendly option as waste is not being produced.

So even if you don’t have to think about the cost of sanitary pads you can still save 1000s of shillings over your lifetime by using this reusable product.

Bring your own bottle

One million plastic bottles are bought every minute worldwide. That’s so many that I don’t even want to work out how many that is per day let alone per year.

Each bottle takes up to 450 years to decompose and only 7% of bottles used are recycled to make new bottles. So there are a LOT of bottles still around.

But, if you have access to safe, clean drinking water you can fill your own reusable bottle to drastically reduce your bottle consumption and save a ton of money.

Even if the water out of your tap isn’t safe there are still better options out there. You can invest in a filter or buy your water in bulk from a company that will collect and reuse the large bottles.

Pick up a pencil

This is one of the simplest changes you can make. Most pens are plastic and single-use. So what happens to all those tubes of plastic when the ink runs out?

In America alone, 1.6 billion pens are thrown out annually. As most of these pens are made of hard plastics and can take 100s of years to decompose they’re sticking around long after their ink has run out.

While traditional wood pencils aren’t exactly the best option - obviously they cut down trees to create the pencils. There are other more environmentally friendly choices out there.

For instance, Green Pencils Ltd creates environmentally friendly pencils from old newspapers in Nairobi. They’ll even brand them for your business or school.

By making this simple switch we could save thousands of trees and save millions of empty pens from making their way to landfills and our oceans.

Bring a bag - or even better a kikapu

These days I don’t go anywhere without my own bag. And if, on the small chance I did forget. I still refuse to buy one from the shop. Instead I try to balance all my purchases in my arms.

Yes, it looks as stupid as it sounds…

Even though Kenya has one of the strictest plastic bag bans in the world, the reusable option (made of polypropylene, a type of plastic more durable and easier to recycle) offered at markets and shops still isn’t ideal.

Especially as I see many people with a huge cache of bags in their homes that never get reused because they’re always forgetting to bring it when they go to the shops. And then there are the bags that rip or tear because they get overfilled and actually aren’t all that durable.

So, if we could change this habit and take a more robust, larger bag or my favourite - a kikapu we could dramatically reduce the use of these still plastic, small and not all that great bags.

Withdraw from the straw

Say no to straws. Unless you have brought your own metal one then you can smugly sip away.

I hate straws so much that years ago - before hating straws was as cool as it is today - my sister and I changed the habits of our local bar from putting straws in every drink without asking to only using them when they were requested.

We haven’t been back in a while but I should think by now they’ve switched to paper or none at all.

Because now it’s 2020 and we have all seen the horrible pictures of turtles with straws in places they shouldn’t be so there really is no excuse to continue to sip your drink of choice through a plastic tube.

Swap to solids

I’m talking soap bars, shampoo bars and even bars for the dishes.

Think about how many plastic bottles you go through every year for all your cosmetics and cleaning products. It adds up pretty fast. But for most if not all of the products there is a plastic-free alternative.

You just may have to go out your way to find it.

Some people may be a bit dubious about trying shampoo bars - I know I was - but once you find the right one you can get a deeper clean than even a liquid shampoo. Bu.Ke are breaking new ground in the Kenyan hair market with their products that can be used on all hair types - afro and caucasian alike. So why not give it a go and quit using at least one plastic bottle?

Quit the disposables

Say goodbye to your disposable razor. I think you probably know I’m going to say…

They aren’t that easy to dispose of. And they’re not yet the rate at which they’re thrown away is crazy high.

In 2018 163 million people said they used disposable razors in the US alone. And when we think that each razor is used up to 5 times, that’s a lot of wasted razors.

But if you can make the switch to a safety razor you can save yourself money and the environment a lot of plastic.

As with most things waste-free there is an initial cost, but in the long run you will be saving yourself a lot of shillings. You can head to your local cosmetics store or check online for some razors available here.

Brush with a clean conscience

I’m talking toothbrushes now. Toothbrushes are just another of those things that we use only once and then throw away without thinking about where they’re going to end up.

Well, a lot of them end up in our oceans. Living in Lamu I see a fair few wash up on our beaches and it’s not just Lamu that’s affected. Beach cleanups all over the world pick up 100 or so every time.

But, there is another alternative out there, a much more ecofriendly one! Bamboo toothbrushes!

These are compostable and environmentally friendly. Bamboo is chosen as an eco-friendly alternative as a bamboo forest can be grown in just a few years so it’s easily renewable.

You can pick up your own bamboo toothbrushes at Killimall.

Question the snack

This final tip is going to take some self control I'm afraid...

Do you really need to buy that chocolate bar, those crisps or whatever snacky thing you’re about to get wrapped in plastic?

Because you probably don’t. Maybe you could go for that banana instead that comes wrapped in its very own biodegradable packaging?

Each time you - or me, I’m just as guilty - buy one of these snacky things we’re adding to the already overfilled landfill sites. These plastic wrappers have no use once they’ve been used. They cannot be recycled or made into anything else. The only thing they’re good for is landfill, or ecobricks (more on that in a few weeks).

So snack on that each time you indulge in some chocolate…

That’s all folks.

How many of these tips do you think you’re going to be able to put into action? Even if it’s just one for now that could be a huge decrease in the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans or in our landfills.

It may be a bit hard to start but stick with it. Then you too can be part of the plastic revolution.

Hannah Evans Is a long term environmentalist and the co-founder of Takataka Foundation in Lamu and a freelance writer at Hevans Writes

Check out all the different plastic free products available in Kenya from greenthing Kenya