Flowers in Jam Jars (and Other Plastic-free Ideas)

The best type of flowers come without plastic - I bought these packaged in a glass jar from Brighton Road Food Market, Scarborough.

It feels good to use even a little a little less plastic (admittedly, particularly if you get a bouquet of flowers out of it), so here are a few other simple ways to reduce plastic waste:

• As well as reusable shopping bags, also use fabric bags for fruit and veggies. You can buy these online, from some grocery stores and shops that stock eco products. If you're feeling a bit Sound of Music-esque, maybe you could even make your own from old lace curtains!
• Take a stand against the absurdity of selling things like glad-wrapped bananas and bags of carrots...
• Say no to straws*. There are better alternatives to plastic straws, like metal or paper. Sometimes these are handy but when did we become so reliant on straws anyway?! You would think opening a choc milk or iced coffee to drink from the carton is fairly basic, yet there are actually YouTube videos on this 'lost art'. I predict drinking from the carton sans straw could be the next big hipster trend...
• Buy pantry items in bulk from places like The Wasteless Pantry. You can take your own containers or they have paper bags and old jars available for free use.  
• Before you are guilted into over-spending at a Tupperware party, think if repurposed jars could be used instead. If you need something bigger you could consider purchasing glass or ceramic containers. Lots of op-shops also sell reusable secondhand containers in excellent condition.     
• Use reusable cotton wipes instead of single-use cotton wool (to reduce plastic waste from packaging as well as a whole lot of other waste). I bought some of these in cute prints from The Wasteless Pantry.

I hope those ideas have have inspired you to try a new way of reducing plastic waste. If nothing else, you could look out for flowers in jam jars!

*For a truly inspiring argument on this visit Molly Steer's 'Straw No More' TED talk. Molly gave this talk in 2017 aged nine.