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Reset your Bathroom!- Plastic Free July Series

  • Writer: Divya Bharathi
    Divya Bharathi
  • Jul 11, 2020
  • 3 min read

You might say, "Are you Silly?, we have heard this story 'N' number of times and we know what you are going to say"


But wait, spare me a little time and hear out what I have to say on this.


Plastic Free July is an initiative by Plastic Free Foundation founded in 2011 envision to see plastic free world.



You: Told you, it is the same stuff.

Me:

Okay, coming to the point.


Throughout this series, I am not going to emphasis just on "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" but also on "Buy locally".


This is the first post for this series focuses in Bathrooms!!


If I say Bathroom and replaceable plastics, what all can you remember?


Let me list the essentials:

  1. Tooth brush, Tooth paste and Tongue cleaner (the Dental Vanity)

  2. Shampoo (sachets, bottles)

  3. Soaps and their cases (Bathing and Detergent)

  4. Shaving Razors

  5. Sanitary Napkins/Diapers.

  6. Floor/toilet cleaners and brushes for cleaning.

Now coming to the part which can be feasibly replaced with alternatives to plastics.

  1. We can easily replace our conventional Toothbrush with natural Bamboo based tooth brush (which still has plastics in bristles). This brushes are very good to start with because 100 % plastic free brushes are not yet in the market. But still you can go for good old NEEM sticks brushing once in a while (trust me I do that!). And the other best alternative is to brush with the Naked fingers and simple tooth powder. Even if it is not possible to do this naked hand brushing all the time, we can do it once in a while.

  2. The plastic tongue cleaner can be easily replaced with full Stainless steel or Brass cleaner which is commonly available in the market.

  3. We buy shampoo in two types (Bottles and Sachets). While coming to Sachets, we can easily stop buying that and switch over to Bottles. In Bottles also, do not buy 100- 250 mL bottles, always tend to buy in Large quantity (750 mL-1.5 L) and then split it inside the home. For example, in our home we use two bathrooms, we buy one 1 L shampoo bottle and keep that 1 L bottle in one bathroom and transfer in other reusable container in other bathroom (I have shown it in the picture). But there is a question, "What if I'm travelling?", choose a similar smaller reusable container for that purpose. The hard rule is: Stop buying Shampoo in Sachets.


This shampoo bottle is 1 L and the other is a face wash bottle that I bought almost 2 years ago, now there is shampoo which was split from yellow bottle in Face wash bottle. Simple but makes sense (for me at least).


4. Shaving Razors are another big problem, just go with Reusable razors rather than disposable razors.


5. Conventional Sanitary Napkins will not only be an environmental hazard but also a health hazard. We can very well shift to Cloth napkins/Menstrual cups/Tampons. (I will cover this another full post).


6. Coming to the toilet brushes, we can easily adopt with Natural Coconut tree based broomsticks for cleaning rather than the plastic broomsticks.


7. The cleaning liquids generally comes in plastic bottles only, one way to reduce that is to buy locally so that you can get refills whenever you require (atleast exchange of the bottles can be done, Right?)


The conclusion is, while buying anything, look for the local shops. By doing so, we can get the refills not just simply accumulating the bottles which bought each time from the store.


Thus the tag line would be : Buy Locally. Reduce, Refill, and Reuse.


These suggestions are mostly for one-time use plastics.


Going with my favorite quote "Start small but Start". This Plastic Free talk is not just for the month of July, but the purpose would be to say that, take July as the practice month and carry these Plastic Free practices for life-time.




Let me know your plastic free practices in your Bathroom and the plans you have to make a plastic free bathroom.



Anbudan,

Divya Bharathi.



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