There have been months since I tried to stop using plastic. Instead, what I've been doing is reducing the amount I consume. It's really surprising how hard it is to find certain products in alternative packaging, other than plastic.
Some stuff I have not been able to stop buying, and I confess some of them I don't really need, yet is difficult to put them aside: sweets. But what had been really driving me crazy lately was shampoo. I had been looking wherever I could for a bottle of shampoo that was not made of plastic.
The first advice I took was from the girl in
Life Less Plastic: buy the shampoo in bulk, in places where you can re-fill the same bottle once and again. I couldn't find a place of that kind where I live so I moved on.
Next advice consisted of using baking soda which has tons of
practical uses and, among those, hair cleaning. With this advice I had to be patient as during the first weeks or even the first month my hair was going to look dirty, while it got used to producing the amount of natural grease it really requires and not the one that chemicals in shampoo make it produce, that is excessive. This seemed like a good option, because apart from being cheap, last long, come in carton package, it was also a natural product. But, once again, it didn't work for me either -though it has worked for my husband perfectly fine. I guess this had to do with the natural components of each person's skin.
No matter what, I didn't buy one single bottle of shampoo along my quest for a plastic-free one. In the mean time I struggled with dandruff, no mentioning the discomfort of feeling dirty and the disappointment of not having a solution. So I started using all the little shampoo bottles I had collected in hotels or had been given as presents before. That kept me from feeling guilty because of buying plastic, gave me the pleasure of feeling clean every now and then, but they were going to be finished at some point without having solved my problem.
And finally, one day, the magic plastic-free shampoo found me. I found the shampoo of my dreams: a bar of shampoo free of packaging, of
any kind of packaging, free of preservatives and small. It is expensive compared to other options and I still have to see if it is really going to last as long as a regular shampoo would -asking for it to last like the baking soda would be too much. Plus, the results on my scalp and hair health are also yet to be seen, but one thing is sure: it is a very friendly option for the planet.
The thing about toys is that they don't come with the list of ingredient. One can go to the grocery store and look at food or cosmetics or many other products and find out what's in them. With toys, there is no way of knowing that.