This post is going to be a poorly constructed laundry list of lifestyle alternatives that may reduce plastic consumption even though that is not their primary purpose.
- Going Barefoot: I went beachcombing a couple of years ago and the vast majority of the detritus on the beach consisted of footwear. It was surreal. Spending a proportion of your life barefoot will reduce your consumption of shoes. Many shoes are partly or completely made from plastics.
- Grow a Beard: If you don’t see any available alternatives to plastic razors and shaving cream with plastic caps, consider just not shaving.
- Buy Secondhand Clothing: You would be hard pressed to find a new item of clothing that doesn’t come with some amount of plastic in the form of packaging or labelling.
- Get a Vasectomy: Children are the target market for pointless plastic stuff. Most temporary forms of birth control; involve some plastic packaging.
- Rent Movies Online: If consumers shift away from the bricks and mortar Blockbuster model, fewer DVDs and DVD cases will be manufactured.
- Live Communally: I’m not suggesting that you share a toothbrush with your buddy, but reducing the number of households per capita would reduce the need for a lot of stuff, much of it plastic.
- Go Carless: My spell check doesn’t even think carless is a word, but I did it for about 14 months recently and I am considering doing it again. Cars contain a lot of plastic.