Plastic Free July - Little Steps to Make the Big Changes

Our Ultimate Guide To Practical Conscious Living This Plastic Free July

"It's only one plastic straw," said eight billion people

That simple statement packs a huge punch, doesn't it?

It's such a good (and striking) reminder that when we dismiss something as ‘too small' or ‘not enough’ - we might be missing the point of it.

We humans are a huge collective, there's 8 billion of us. It’s us, living in a human way on the earth that's having the biggest effect on our planet. It isn't the Bees who are drilling for oil, or the Whales who are dumping fast fashion textiles in Chile's deserts. It’s us, and that might feel confronting.

I say, lean into that discomfort, and be the human the earth needs us to be, the human, humanity needs us to be.

Trust that when you choose to live more lightly on the earth, it will be noticed. Be proud that you are activating your number. The '1 of 8 billion opportunity'. Because doing our bit, bit by bit, does add up to something monumental.

Ok this is great - but the intersection of what about what the planet needs Vs modern living? 

The planet, its critters, the animals and plants need us to live the quote "Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good". There is NO way you can do all the things - and you don't need to (Lordy knows the ‘you can do everything' slogan sold to girls in the 80's drove a lot of burnout and anxiety - let's not repeat that). It's about being inspired for change and prepared to act. It's realising that breaking a habit or implementing change can only be possible you are prepared to give it a go. Then making it permanent with systems and routines that stick because they work with you in your daily life. That’s what the planet needs, your commitment not to being perfect, but to being better.

Anyway, doing good, feels good. Just knowing you are taking part in looking after our precious planet is not only uplifting, it’s calming especially while it feels like our world is burning.

In the next section ill share some of the changes I have made over the years—many of them at first felt like small steps, but as time has gone on I have come to realise that they’ve turned out to be pretty big!

Practical Plastic-free living tips

Here's a my favorite plastic free sustainable changes I have made and stuck with.

1. Find some good books about living a less plastic life!

I read and recommend reading the book by Bea Johnson 'Zero waste home'. It was the first book that really took off about being a conscious consumer, and it resulted in an international groundswell for living a life that makes less waste. I found it SO inspiring and the book has a tone of great tips and ideas. Since then there have been lots of other great books.

Two books that are brilliant & closer to home that bring a Kiwi flavour are Living lightly by Nicola Turner from @mainstreamgreen and Better, bolder, different by Kate Hall @ethicallykate 

2. Reusable coffee cups and drink bottles

I won't get a coffee in a takeaway cup. I drink a lot of coffee, I enjoy it. So, I made it my personal policy to not use single use cups. And this has been a huge success! This is how it works. I keep a clean keep cup in the car ready for any coffee opportunity - that's it! After washing my cup, I store them back in my car—that way, they are right there when I need them. I moved their ‘put away’ home from the kitchen to the car because I would forget to take them with me. This system works MUCH better and means I don’t miss out on a coffee ever!

3. Ditch the plastic rubbish bin liner

This was my 2015 New Years 'doing better' change challenge. And 10 years later, it's still going strong. This little change actually rippled into much bigger changes at our house. Because I didn't want a gross, stinky rubbish bin, it forced us to be really on to it with our food waste. Here’s what we did:

We implemented a 'leftovers' space in the fridge

This is a shelf at eye height so the food to be use up is front and centre. This is also what the kids graze when they come home from school! 

We stepped up our composting

Now no food goes into our rubbish bin. This achievement feels really good. Food waste is a sizeable chunk of waste that goes to landfill in New Zealand & is a big methane gas producer which drives climate chaos. Told you, one bin liner.... huge ripples!

We made a better recycling system

Our old system was clunky and to be honest made it way too easy to chuck recyclables in the bin. First, we got really clear on what could or couldn’t be recycled in our area. Then we started pre-sorting our recycling inside. Now, all our co-mingle bin items are collected together in a big box under our pull-our rubbish bin. Our glass and soft plastics share a bin space behind the pull-out rubbish bin. This means the whole box gets tipped into the co-mingle bin. And glass doesn’t bang around nestled with the soft plastic. I find the best way to take soft plastic to the supermarket drop off is to simply load up a bread bag, squeeze it down and tie the top in a knot—easy!

 Told you, one bin liner.... huge ripples!

4. I asked this question when shopping

This is my #1 question when I’m shopping and the effect is brilliant!  It forces me to pause & think about what happens to the item I’m looking at buying when I’m finished with it? This pause means I can consider if I’m choosing a problematic wasteful item or not – This is me doing my bit. This is how my convo with myself normally goes: Am I about to buy a single use item destined for landfill? Am I choosing a poorly made item? Am I choosing something that could be repaired if needed? Could I find this second hand? Or could I borrow this and not even buy it? Or am I just feeling spendy and actually, I can live without it???

This single question has really shone a light on MY relationship to the items in my possession. This is purchasing power!

I always have a shopping bag on me too!

5. Be up for learning about plastic

Knowing exactly what plastic is really helped me. It’s very easy to say 'it's all bad',  then see plastic everywhere & get very overwhelmed. To be perfectly honest, you would need to completely change how you live to avoid all plastic—and that is possible, but also, let's focus on being a little better everyday right now!

I learnt about 'compostable plastic' and PLA

These are plastics that soil bacteria can break down. The PLA might in its own right not be the biggest concern, but the dyes and additives to stop early breakdown or keep the PLA supple are. Considering these plastics are composted and compost mostly goes into our vege gardens that grow our food, I had to question if adding this to our food cycle was a good idea. I reckon compostable plastics may well pollute our soils and end up being a regrettable substitution for this reason. I avoid compostable plastic and wouldn't add it to my compost. 

I learnt what plastics can actually be recycled here in New Zealand

Because not all plastics are able to be re-moulded and not all re-mouldable plastics can be in NZ. Plastic containers have a number on the bottom – this is the resin identifying number. Finding a number doesn’t mean it CAN be recycled, it is just telling you in essence the flavour of the plastic. 

In NZ only plastic resins 1, 2 and 5 have the best chance of being recycled. If you don’t have a non-plastic alternative, choose packaging in these numbers that is un-tinted with no added colour. For example, a see-through milk bottle is more recyclable than a white tinted one and a clear plastic drink bottle is recyclable where a green lemonade bottle is not. This is why when Figgy & Co can’t avoid plastic we choose non-tinted, NZ recyclable containers.

I also learned that the so call bio or sugar plastics are the same-same plastic—they are just made from alcohols from sugar not alcohols from petrochems. Be very cautious of big marketing stories around these plastics being better for reasons other than the from sugar vs from Petrochem angle—they get hyped up as being a different and better kind of plastic resin, when they’re not.

I learnt about microplastics

Talk about evil villains lurking in the shadows of a horror movie! Thanks to science, the picture is now coming into focus about how widespread and harmful these tiny shards are. I now buy loose leaf or plastic free bagged tea, and don’t compost my vacuum cleaner dust or dryer lint. I’m now proactive about the textiles I buy, this includes clothes, sheets and cleaning clothes because synthetic and blended textiles shed microplastics when washed. 

Knowing plastic means you know what you are dealing with. Now I can pragmatically choose a better option when I can, and know when a better option wasn’t there—and then move on.

Embarking on your eco-friendly journey

If you are starting out your plastic-free journey, let's be honest, it can feel a little bit overwhelming.

You might be thinking where do I start? My best advice is to target your consumables - the things you use and replace over, and over again—like what you drink coffee from or what kind of milk you buy. And to keep an eye open for sneaky cheap plastic items that are poor quality and go straight to landfill—this is novelty and 2-dollar shop kinda stuff.

Though I haven't added it above, one of the other things I did (that won't surprise you) to reduce my single use plastic was making my own cleaning products and personal care products. Part of this was about less waste and part about being chemically conscious and keeping an eye on ingredients too. So below I’ll add some easy cleaning swaps, these are the first ones I added when making changes to live more lightly, they’ll help reduce your waste while keeping your home clean.

I've put together two suggestions that get used the most in a home - small swaps like this really do add up. Not only will these products help you reduce waste & plastic from your cleaning routine it will also help with reducing harmful or unneeded chemicals from your life too! Little steps like these can make big long-term ripple changes. So here goes..

Sustainable cleaning for Plastic free July and beyond

Two places you can make easy changes that impact your whole home are in your kitchen & bathroom. Namely, your surface cleaners, and your laundry powder.  It is easy to go plastic free for both. These are the kind of small swaps that really do add up because you use these items every day in your home.

The Figgy & Co range of cleaning supplies makes it easy to either make your own cleaning supplies or purchase from our made-for-you range of cleaners in glass or paper packaging. Not only can these products help you reduce waste & plastic from your cleaning routine, they will also help with reducing harmful or unneeded chemicals from your life too! Little steps like these can make big long-term ripple changes. So here goes..

Option one: Kitchen and Bathroom DIY pack

Our Kitchen and Bathroom DIY pack is a cleaning power house, providing you with about one-year worth of home cleaning staples. The supplies in this pack will make a huge 25x 500ml refills of bench spray & 6 x 250gm batches of cleaning paste. 

How to use Bench spray: Perfect for kitchen benches, tables, high chairs, vanity, mirror, outside the loo, and wet dusting... again any hard surface that needs a wipe down. 

How to use cleaning paste: This is a cream cleanser for hard surfaces and is akin to a jif type product. Perfect for stove top, oven, roasting pans, tannin in cups, baths, showers, sinks, tiles, tapware, white sneakers and getting scuff marks of walls and floors …. literally any hard surface.

Perhaps the best thing about this pack is that you may never need to purchase plastic cleaning vessels or plastic lined ingredients again. When your soap, baking soda and essential oil run out, your glass trigger bottle and glass pottle will still be good to go. Just restock on these ingredients and your next year of cleaning will be sorted too!

Option two: Laundry powder

Our hand-batched laundry powder is something special for your skin. It’s handmade with love at Figgy HQ from a handful of safe, natural ingredients. You can buy it in a big 2kg plain paper bag (with NO plastic liner) to refill your own containers or nab our recipe and whip up a batch at home.

Because there’s no fillers, our laundry powder is concentrated, this means one 2kg bag will last about 100 washes, this works out to as little as $0.31c per load. The great thing about DIY if you’re keen to roll up your sleeves and give it a go, is you’ll save you even more money per load.

Our laundry powder is tough enough to handle the day-to-day laundry burden, but gentle enough to be used for babies or those with skin irritations including eczema and dermatitis. It can be used for clothes, sheets and towels, and does a great job of washing machine washable merino too. It's also pretty handy as a pre-wash soak for heavily soiled items, like reusable period products.

Other plastic cutting cleaning ideas you could try

Go plastic free for washing dishes by hand with a Figgy bar soap held in a old school soap shaker! We also have sturdy stainless steel forever Pegs for hanging out washing or why not check out our DIY recipe booklet for even more homemade cleaning inspiration!

FAQ: All you need to know about plastic free July

Q1: What is Plastic Free July?

Plastic Free July is a global movement that encourages people to reduce their use of single-use plastics. It’s about becoming more conscious of your everyday choices and making small, sustainable swaps that add up to meaningful change.

Q2: Where should I start if I’m new to low-waste living?

Start with small, manageable changes. Look at the plastics you use once and then throw away—like cling film, produce bags, and cleaning product containers—and replace these with reusable or refillable options when possible.

Q3: What are some easy swaps I can make?

• Replace single-use cleaning bottles with reusable spray bottles and refill concentrates.
• Use natural fibre textiles for clothes, bedding and cleaning cloths instead of plastic-based synthetic.
• Switch to solid bars for soap, shampoo and conditioner instead of liquid in plastic bottles.
• Store leftovers in glass containers or jars or beeswax wraps instead of cling film.

Q4: How does Figgy & Co help reduce plastic waste?

Figgy & Co offers refillable and reusable cleaning products that are non-tox and made in NZ. Our products are packaged with waste reduction in mind, helping you cut down on single-use plastic without compromising on cleanliness.

Q5: Do I need to throw everything out to go plastic-free?

Not at all! A key part of reducing waste is using what you already have. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress. Use up your current products, then make better choices when it’s time to replace them.

Q6: How can I stay motivated during Plastic Free July?

Focus on one area at a time and celebrate small wins. Share your progress with others, join community groups (check out our Figgy Community on facebook) or challenges, and remind yourself that even small changes contribute to a bigger environmental impact.

Q7: What if I can’t avoid plastic completely?

That’s okay! The aim is to reduce where you can. Choose reusables more often, recycle thoughtfully, and look for bulk or package-free options when available. Progress, not perfection, is what matters most.

As you can see, one or two small changes to your current cleaning habits can make changes that are sustainable and permanently reduce the plastic use in your home - with the massive added reward of reducing the chemicals in your home also.

Start small, and if we all do the same—big things will happen!

I hope plastic-free July is successful for you whatever changes you make and best of all I hope your new swaps stick! 

Get natural cleaning tips from our blog!

We want you to have everything you need to clean your home healthier while avoiding unwanted chemicals – and looking out for the planet too! Take a browse through our blog and learn more about natural cleaning, safe ingredients and so much more!