Live Simply February
Less Plastic is Fantastic!!
Help the Poor
• Sign up for the CAFOD Walk for Hunger in Lent
• Donate to Charities eg. Dinnington Foodbank, CAFOD, Street People
• Buy from companies who pay the living wage at home and abroad
• Join the CAFOD Campaign calling for the UK government to introduce a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act. Businesses must be held to account when they fail to prevent human rights abuses and environmental harm throughout their supply chain.
o Sign the letter at the back of church asking our MP to pledge to support a new law
Help the Environment
• Watch The Green Planet on TV
• Feed the birds Note – Wash feeders, bird baths, bird table regularly to avoid the spread of disease
• Provide clean fresh water for the birds
• Leave undisturbed wild areas in your garden. Piles of leaves and brushwood provide shelter for animals to nest and hibernate in
• Wait until early spring to tidy and prune in the garden to provide shelter for insects
• Order seeds for Bee, Bird and Insect friendly plants in your garden
• Put up a nest box for birds and clean out old ones ready for spring.
Live Simply – Less Plastic is Fantastic
Action – Sign the Petition - Call on the government for a new law to end plastic pollution
Shopping
• Buy less plastic items
• Avoid single use plastics where possible
• Take a shopping bag to the shops
• Fill a reusable water bottle from the tap. Don’t buy bottled water
• Don’t buy hot drinks in plastic cups, take a reusable one and ask vendors to fill it
• Buy loose vegetables
• Recycle soft plastics, eg. plastic film, food wrappers, crisp packets at Tesco and Sainsbury’s
Soaps, shampoo, conditioner
• Use solid soaps instead of shower gel and liquid hand wash
• Buy hand wash refill pouches - available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s
• Use solid shampoo and conditioner eg. https://soapsforlittlesuds.co.uk/
• Buy shampoo refill pouches available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s, Superdrug
• Buy your favourite shampoo and conditioner in large bottles on-line.
Cleaning Products
• Buy plastic free products eg dishwasher tablets, washing powder, washing tablets and pods egSmol https://smolproducts.com/
• Buy products in large bottles
• Buy hand wash refill pouches eg. Carex available Tesco Sainsbury’s
• Buy cleaning product refill pouches – available Tesco, Sainsbury’s
• Buy Ocean Saver pods. Put the pod in a cleaning spray bottle, add water and shake.
- Kitchen, Bathroom, Degreaser and Window Cleaner pods available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s - £1.50
• Make your own All Purpose Kitchen and Bathroom Cleaner – cheap, quick and easy! - Add 2 Tbspcitric acid powder to 750 ml water + squeeze of washing up liquid to an old cleaning spray bottle. Cost 20p - Buy 1kg for £5 on EBay and it will last a year!
• Make your own fabric conditioner - add ¼ tsp citric acid powder to the fabric conditioner compartment with a small amount of water
Top tips for Window, Shower and Glass Cleaning
Invest in a good quality squeegee, or replace the blade of your old one with a good quality blade. Available at Screwfix, B+Q etc.
• Shower - use a squeegee to dry the glass every day, then once a week spray with All-Purpose cleaner, rinse and squeegee dry.
• Windows – wash the window with a cloth soaked in soapy water and squeegee dry, wipe the edgeswith a dry cloth then polish with another cloth. It sounds like a faff but it’s worth it for gleaming,smear free windows!
General
• Use loose leaf tea - most tea bags contain plastic!
• Don’t use plastic waste bin liners – empty the bin in the dust bin and wash the kitchen bin
• Make your own yogurt – cheap and easy, no special equipment required. Buy a starter culture and follow the instructions. When it’s ready take out 2 tbsp and freeze it for a starter for the next time.
• Bake your own bread and cakes
• Buy milk in glass bottles.
• Buy less new clothes -buy good quality clothes and wear them for a long time. 60% of clothes are made of synthetic (plastic based) fabric.
• Buy plastic free, sponges, kitchen clothes, tooth brushes
• Buy scourers made from coconut!
Micro plastics
Micro plastics are tiny plastic particles that come from the breakdown of plastics. They are the major polluter of our oceans. The main source of micro plastics is from washing clothes made of synthetic fibres. To make matters worse, toxins stick to micro plastics and are eaten by sea creatures.
How to reduce micro plastics from washing clothes
• Wash clothes less often
• Fill the machine so that clothes rub together less and fewer fibres break off into the water
• Wash on a cool wash - 30 degrees
• New clothes shed most microfibers in the first 8 washes – consider washing new clothes in a microfiber capture laundry bag. eg. Guppy Friend or Ocean Saver
• Look out for microfiber capture filters for washing machines, these will be available soon.