Today’s alternatives

Alternatives to Plastics... today’s alternatives

The Company Eartheasy is all about sustainable living. It says “Sustainable living is about respecting the limits of the earth’s capacity to provide” and has prepared a broad list of alternatives to the use of plastics. SPN says that if you would like to see less plastic on the supermarket shelves and less plastic waste, here are some durable plastic alternatives that are available for you to consider right now.

Plastic Alternatives

Glass whilst not biodegradable, is inert, inexpensive and infinitely recyclable. And since many food items come packaged in glass, upcycling glass jars into food storage is a no-cost way to give your food packaging new life. Jars from jam, honey, pickles, nut butters, and so much more can be added to your no-waste toolkit for shopping from the bulk bins. They can also be repurposed to store leftovers and homemade drinks, or decorated and turned into homemade gifts.

Platinum silicone is made primarily of sand, food grade platinum silicone is flexible and durable. It’s also very heat tolerant, so you can boil, bake, and cook in these products without danger of denaturing. Look for silicone products without plastic fillers.

Beeswax-coated cloth used primarily as a replacement for plastic wrap and platic bags, beeswax-coated fabric is easy to use and easy to clean. It also smells great.

Natural fibre cloth can replace plastic bags. Sustainable clothing made from organic cotton, wool, hemp, or bamboo won’t shed plastic fibres when washed. felted or recycled, whilst wool is a versatile, safe, and compostable material for children’s toys, household containers, and more.

Wood is an abundant, natural resource. The wood from sustainably-managed forests can replace plastic in household items such as cleaning brushes, kitchen utensils, and cutting boards.

Bamboo is fast-growing renewable resource can replace plastic in items like tableware and drinking straws. It is lightweight, durable, and compostable.

Pottery and Other Ceramics have been around for millennia, pottery and other fired ceramics offer a stable, waterproof alternative that’s good for food storage and tableware. However, be sure to look for non-toxic glazes.

Paper In the past, many things were packaged in plain paper, and while better than plastic, paper can’t be recycled infinitely because every time it’s reused, the fibres get shorter, thereby limiting its use. Luckily all paper except the glossy kind is safe to put in your home compost.

Cardboard is fully compostable as long as it’s not coated in plastic! Many companies are now packaging their products in plain cardboard to cut down on waste. You can also use cardboard boxes to replace storage containers in your home. Keep in mind that anything you buy has an environmental footprint.

Though longer lasting than plastic, things made from glass, metal, and so on still take energy to produce and transport. For these alternatives to make sense, you need to use them over and over again. Buying well-made, durable products will help ensure you get the most from whatever you select.

BioPlastics are biodegradable or compostable plastics made from natural substances instead of petroleum. The idea is that these new, earthier plastics can replace the harmful ones in our food and around our home. This seems like a great alternative! Unfortunately, most bioplastics don’t break down in home composts, landfills, or when loose in the environment. Most require commercial composting facilities, which aren’t always available to the average consumer. Bioplastics can also contaminate municipal recycling programs when people unknowingly add them to their recycling. Many bioplastics even contain significant amounts of conventional plastic. Scientists and manufacturers generally describe bioplastics in the following ways:

Non biodegradable, these bioplastics aren’t easily broken down by organisms. Like anything (even conventional plastic), they will eventually degrade after many years.

Partially bio-based, “durable” plastics that are not compostable. Microrganisms can break these down, but the process generally takes longer than 3-6 months.

Biodegradable, compostable plastics that need commercial facilities to decompose. While some newer bioplastics carry the claim that they will break down in a home compost, these are not yet the norm.

Made from a range of materials like corn-starch and sugar to mushrooms and agricultural by-products, bioplastics are the latest attempt to prolong our disposable lifestyle. The solution, according to plastic pollution experts, is not to continue our reliance on single-use products with different materials, but to avoid single-use products altogether.

“ For these alternatives to make sense, you need to use them over and over again ”

Packaging more naturally

Many companies are working on fully compostable (in some cases edible) packaging. Here are some examples already on the market. Mushroom packaging is a combination of agricultural waste and mycelium (mushroom) root, this home compostable product is “grown” on a hemp-flour mixture, and then dried to halt the growth process. It is most commonly used to replace Styrofoam packaging. Seaweed-based packaging that comes in edible and biodegradable grades is another option, In addition, pressed. Hay is being used in Poland for egg cartons and in Thailand, where the plastic problem is reaching crisis proportions, they are using banana leaves. One supermarket there has opted to go plastic-free in favour of plastic and while banana leaves may only be practical where they’re readily available, this does reinforce the idea of using local, compostable materials.

Eartheasy was founded in the US by Greg Seaman over 20 years ago. His mission is to help improve the quality of people’s lives thorough information, to help them to enjoy a more sustainable lifestyle..