5 Key Strategies For a Plastic-Free Life

We’ve reduced, reused, and fretted over Ziploc bags for an entire month, and now it’s time to turn all those lessons learned into words we can live by.

By Emily Main, Organic Gardening

Here are the 5 key strategies we learned, which can help anyone live with less plastic:

#1: Expect failure!!
As the team of bloggers over at Growing a Greener World put it, this is one challenge in which failure is almost certain—and that’s OK. As we said from the beginning, completely eliminating all plastic from your life is impossible. Even the stuff you try to avoid will sometimes creep past your defenses, so rather than stress about a mistake or moment of weakness, just accept it and keep trying.

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#2: Prioritize.
Deciding to go (mostly) plastic-free can easily leave you feeling overwhelmed. Each of us experienced that sensation, and many of you wrote or commented about that too. So it’s a good idea to start by IDing some of the bigger plastic inputs in your life, and work on those. Once you’ve established a plastic-free habit, you can move on to the next one on your list. Here are some good starting points:

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

LMj S.

1:46PM PST on Dec 12, 2012

Good article, thank you.
Also agree with Pepper H.

December 12
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kerrie b.

4:44AM PDT on Jun 22, 2012

here in south Australia plastic bags are no longer given out.You can buy them at 10 or 20 cents each, and this is to encourage people to bring their own bags. Our plastic drink bottles have a deposit on them and so someone will take them back to get the refund. These two simple acts have reduced our waste by thousands of tonnes each year.Reusable takeaway coffee mugs are commonplace as well.Despite that it is still hard to get people to join in when they think its too hard or if it makes them and /or their lives uncomfortable.

June 22
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Lisa D.

6:16PM PDT on Mar 15, 2012

Thanks for this. I'm trying to be more mindful of the amounts of plastic we use in our house.

March 15
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Nino U.

6:11AM PST on Dec 21, 2011

I've been practicng all noted for a while, and it helps life being less stressfull (reducing all the junk surrounding me). Thank You for the article!

December 21
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Elisa and Susan P.

6:26PM PST on Dec 10, 2011

To Pepper H.: You hit the nail right on the head! The REAL problem is that plastic is an unnatural compound – that is, man-made. All natural compounds have bacteria or a substance that will naturally recycle it but obviously plastic does not. Scientists have to create a bacteria or chemical compound of some sort that will decompose all or most plastics. That would solve the entire problem. The lesson for future chemists is: Don’t invent a new compound that cannot be naturally decomposed or if you do, create a bacteria or substance that can decompose it!

December 10
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Pepper H.

7:45PM PST on Nov 30, 2011

I read this a month ago and it's still bugging me. Trying to live plastic free is absurd. First, get your fingers off that keyboard,it's plastic! Second, wake up! Plastic is not the enemy! WASTE is the enemy! Items meant to be thrown away after one use, wasteful packaging (both plastic and paper), stupid "have to have it" plastic junk nobody needs, but advertising makes everybody want - These are the enemy. You want somebody to blame for the mountains of trash threatening to engulf our world, look to marketing and advertising.

November 30
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Alberta G.

5:58AM PST on Nov 13, 2011

Excellent article! Too much pre packaged crap everywhere! What happened to sitting down and eating rather than taking food to go. Hate those plastic bags too!!

November 13
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Alex K.

7:49AM PST on Nov 11, 2011

I always try to remember reusable bags or to just not use the plastic bags from stores. Thanks!

November 11
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Yenlynn C.

5:33AM PST on Nov 9, 2011

Yes, just talk to the cashier you don't need a bag and take the carton by hand. I always do so when I go to a night market for vegetables I would do so to the vendor (food stand).