Cambridge, consumers and change

We’ve all see the headlines about the problems caused by single use plastic and Governments and corporations have a responsibility to act. But what can you do to reduce plastic waste at home, as a Cambridge resident, to cut down on your own personal plastic footprint?

16 ways to reduce plastic waste at home in Cambridge?

I hope our scuseme guide helps you on your journey to reduce plastic pollution.

Shop locally and seasonally

Local farmers’ markets provide a good template and Cambridge market is a great place to pick up fruit, vegetable and many other items from clothing to confectionary without hefty plastic packaging. There the traders get to know their customers, listen to them and adapt their offerings accordingly; for example, Angela the chicken lady in the Sunday market has listened and plastic is now banned from her stall.  Markets can benefit because they can respond so promptly to customer demand.

Cambridge has a good selection of farm shops, farmers markets, greengrocers and produce shops.  Try to buy what’s local and in season (and so can avoid the packaging required for storage and freight).

Only select unpackaged fruit and veg options where possible.  Plastic is important in helping to maintain food shelf life.  But if you are lucky enough to have good local shops, buy only what you need in the short term to avoid plastic, as well as avoiding food waste.

• Cambridge Market weekly and the Sunday Farmers Market
• Cambridge Farmers Outlet on Lensfield Road
• Host of greengrocers throughout the city including

Don’t cling to the film

Stop using cling film.  Instead put leftover food in Tupperware or similar (plastic I know, but with a long life) or in a bowl in the fridge with a plate on top or use old jars, or reusable beeswax food wrap.

Try BeeBeeWraps handmade in Cambridge

Food on the go

For food on-the-go try reusable sandwich bags, bento boxes, a tiffin tin or sandwich box.  Lunch in the office?  Whilst it’s hard to plan for every opportunity, consider carrying a spoon or fork (or spork!) in your bag or keeping cutlery or chopsticks in your desk at work.

The Tiffin Truck on Regent Street offer the famous metal tiffin boxes –  available to buy or can be borrowed if a deposit is left.

The Good Life: Are you a Barbara or a Margot?

The best approach to tackling the reduction of plastic and waste in general is to adopt the three R – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Or discover your creative side.  Make clothes, make jams and preserves or grow your own fruit and veg.  When something breaks, don’t just automatically throw it away; can it be repaired or reused, upcycled?  Our throw-away culture is a big problem – Cam Home and Garden and MacKays offer great DIY solutions.  If you can’t fix it and need help, call out a local handyperson.

Salad vegetables and herbs are really easy to grow in the garden, a hanging basket or on a windowsill. By doing so, you avoid buying produce that comes in plastic packaging.  If you need help or advice planning and designing your garden to accommodate the good life get in touch with our local garden designers and regular local gardeners.

Collect fruit when in season around Cambridge, find blackberries here or pick your own at Bury Farm in Melbourn. Fresh seasonal fruit can be bought in quantities suitable for jamming at Sun Close Fruit Farm in Milton and Chaplain’s Farm Shop in Fulbourn.

Bags for life

Always carry your own bag with you, whether it’s a carrier bag sturdy enough to be used again and again or a simple cloth bag for fruit and veg to replace the thin clear bags handed out for free in so many shops.

Swap disposable for reusable

Take a reusable cup or your own thermos for on-the-go coffee with you when you visit coffee shops.

Stop buying bottled water

Keep a refillable bottle handy. There’s a growing number of café, bars, shops and even public water fountains that now provide the opportunity for filling up.  Remember, all restaurants in England that serve alcohol are legally required to give customers free tap water, so make the most of them.

Use refill stations

For products such as washing up liquid or fabric softener, find your local refill station where bottles can be reused.  Some shops also offer unpackaged food products such as pulses, rice and even peanut butter. Just bring your own jars and fill them up. You can find out where your closest refill station is using the Zero Home Waste app.  Arjuna and Daily Bread promote this.

Get your milk delivered

Switch plastic milk bottles for glass ones delivered by your local dairy.  Plumbs Dairy have no minimum order and deliver milk, orange juice and a wide selection of other items. Milk Drink is an independent that delivers to your office.

Make your tea the loose-leaf way

Plastic is used to seal teabags shut during manufacturing and therefore Friends of the Earth is urging people to “fall back in love with loose-leaf tea.”  Some brands are making teabags that don’t have plastic in but they can be hard to find so the easiest thing to do is go teabag-free altogether, or check the labels carefully.  Teas can be bought in Arjuna and the Market.

Freeze out frozen

Avoid frozen foods because their packaging is mostly plastic.  Even those that appear to be cardboard are coated in a thin layer of plastic. Plus you’ll be eating fewer processed foods.

Try ‘naked’ toiletries

I have tried to find more independent shops that stock a wide range of toiletries and the Hemp Store in the market has a lovely range of soaps (including a soap on a rope) that provide a great alternative to shower gels.  Local indie Arjuna has a good range of solid, package free deodorant and other toiletries.

At work at play

Use metal cutlery and washable crockery.  Get free glass loan with places such as Cambridge Wine Merchants and insist that caterers use real or at least wooden disposable cutlery and real crockery.  Do not order the plastic cups for water dispensers, instead get staff to use their own glasses.

Supermarket rules

The next time you’re doing your supermarket shop, take some of the plastic packaging you don’t want off the products you do want, and leave it at the checkout. That way you’ll deliver a strong message to the supermarket.

Mindful of microfibers and microbeads

It’s good news that the UK government has a ban on microbeads! But there are still  products on the shelves that contain them, so keep checking those labels before you buy to avoid products containing any of the following: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and nylon.

A lot of our plastic pollution that goes into the sea comes from microfibres – the small fibres that wash out of our clothes.  Julian Kirby, a campaigner of Friends of the Earth recommends buying products to counter-act this, such as the GuppyFriend, which goes into your washing machine and traps microfibres to prevent them from getting into seawater.

Know your symbols

Lastly, learn how to correctly recycle plastic. Get familiar with the different waste direction symbols and common plastic classifications:

Notes:

• Most recycling centres will collect Nos. 1, 2 and 5
• Nos. 3, 4 and 6 are moderately recyclable
• No. 7 is nearly impossible to recycle because it’s made of a combination of all types of plastics

Learn more about how Cambridge manages its wastes here

About Scuseme

Dawn Giesler, is the founder of scuseme Cambridge, an online marketplace that helps your family run smoothly. She has lived in Cambridge for over 20 years and offers advice based on her own experiences. For more information about all the services and tradespeople they recommend, visit scuseme

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