Deplasticising: Everything AND the kitchen sink

Deplasticising can be a frustrating business. You get rid of some of the main culprits, then you look around and notice... so much more in your life is plastic (these very computer keys, for example!)

So, you try your hardest, within your means. I certainly can't afford to get rid of all the plastic in my life, and how wasteful would that be anyway? The policy has been to get rid of plastic that we store food in, and I'm trying my darndest not to buy food in plastic. That is difficult at the moment as I don't drive (I'm working on that: great: more carbon emissions... well, I still think it would be more environmentally friendly).

Anyway, then suddenly you notice plastic has crept back into your life in some insidious way.
I used to make my own toothpaste, years ago. Over ten years ago. Plastics, chemicals. But the dentist gave it a bit of a thumbs down. Well, I'm sick of plastic toothpaste tubes, plastic dental floss (we have the bamboo brushes, so that's good). I'm going back to making my own toothpaste and maybe a bit more research on the surfactants, emollients etc.

So after food, I've tried to deplasticise the family's clothes. Shocking stories of plastics coming from washing machines triggered that. But I can only do that as I can afford it.

The next on the list is the kitchen sink area. It's an area we use several times a day, with the potential to spread pollution into waterways. I've always been aware of tipping fats, oils and harmful chemicals down the sink, but only in the last couple of years did I think about my dishwashing brush. The local supermarket stocks only plastic ones, like this...

They look kind of nice when you buy them. But, gradually, you don't really see it happening, till one day you look at your brush and it looks more like this...

Actually, they tend to look a lot worse than this. There was one I threw out a while back that I used to scrub the kids' clothes with. It was a cheap little plastic nail brush and at least half the bristles had fallen out. Where had they gone? Down the drain, of course! To waterways or, in our case, into our greywater system. Great! Plastic sludge on our property.

So, slowly, I've been deplasticising the washing up area.



Nom nom nom... dishbrush head for the compost.
Now try doing THAT with a plastic brush!

First to go were the brushes. Replaced with some beautiful Redecker wooden brushes. I see on their website they've started making plastic dish brushes as well. That's a shame. The New Zealand company, Eco Store, also makes a nice brush, and the replacement head fits in my Redecker handle. There are quite a few of these on the market, and they're actually not that expensive. (Well, they're almost twice as much, but with a plastic brush costing between $2-3, that means a wooden one is $3-$5). I've found they last about the same, so long as you keep the wooden brush dry between washes. Then you can retain the handle and replace the head, so in that respect they last longer.

The water dispenser on the left is for catching water from the hot water system. We have a rainwater tank (can you see it out the window? It's stainless steel and a beauty!) and a gas hot water system. The water runs for a fair while before it turns hot, so I catch that water with the stainless steel bucket, pour it into the water dispenser, and that becomes my rinse water.

Now here's an annoying thing. That stainless steel bucket cost $26.99 at the local hardware store. Yes, count them, $26 - no, 27 big ones. How much does a plastic bucket the same size cost? I have seen them for SEVENTY. SIX. CENTS!!

So which one is the average person going to choose? And try getting hold of an antique galvanized one on Etsy or Ebay... you're looking at a fortune for a shabby chic cottagey collector's item.

I've tried several things to wash up with. I like the Ecostore liquid the best but... too many plastic bottles (and pricey!). I tried a huge 10L bottle of castile soap. Again, it comes in a gigantic, thick plastic container and our worms (we have a greywater diverter/worm farm for a grease trap) didn't like it. They died, poor things. Apparently it's very acidic. So I'm back to Sunlight Soap. It is good but can get messy. A little vinegar helps to cut through the greasiness. I found this soap swisher on Etsy for $30 (again, shabby chic priceyness). But it was in the US! Would you believe, I couldn't find one in Oz? I looked on Ebay, asked at second-hand stores, antique stores, op shops ("Oh! I remember those! My mum/grandma had one of those! But sorry, haven't seen one for years"). Luckily, my father-in-law goes to the States once a year to visit his sister, so I sent it to a cousin's place (otherwise it was going to be $30 postage - forget it!).

The soap swisher with the Sunlight has revolutionised the messiness and greasiness of washing up.

The S&W mayo jars (plastic lids : / ) are good to store homemade dishwashing powder [we don't use borax, as the jury's still out on the safety of borax. It still works just as well]. So yes, a big plastic carbon-munching dishwasher - but it actually uses less water than all the hand-washing. And we don't put any plastic, wood, pots or pans in the dishwasher, so we still have a heap of hand washing at the end of the day. I also use those mayo jars for orange peel vinegar cleaner concentrate.

I have two plastic spray bottles that are still in great condition, so I use those to mix up the orange peel cleaner, and the other is a surface spray with pennyroyal (for when I sense fleas might be about in the hot weather). I'm yet to find a good glass spray bottle.

In the brush caddy, I also have a vegetable bristle bottle brush and potato brush, and a coconut coir scourer - it's the best! Bi-carb is up there for all manner of abrasive cleaning jobs, and on the left, on the coffee machine, a batch of essential oils. For cleaning the floors I use a little of the dishwasher powder and some lemon or orange and eucalyptus.

So while I have spent some money over the last couple of years, in actual fact, not buying single-use plastic bottles of dishwashing liquid, dishwasher powder, surface cleaners and floor cleaners has meant I've recouped that money quickly... and then saved heaps!