PlasticLess.com

That’s right, you can get shampoo in aluminum cans. I didn’t have a camera at the little drugstore that had what I believe was a Swiss product. I don’t have hair, so I am not really in the market for shampoo. I don’t know if this is a good alternative to shampoo in a plastic bottle. Hopefully, demand for shampoo in bar form will someday create a decent supply.

Shampoo is one of those products that are the perfect candidate for a local refilling program. The wide variation in formulas is mostly a marketing ploy anyway.

Edit: I went looking and found a site with some interesting bar shampoos. Shampoo in bar form seems to still be very much a specialty product. Happyfootpromotions.net is one place to find the stuff and they also sell metal cans that are designed to contain your shampoo bar.

I once bought a bar of cocoa butter for health and beauty purposes and my dog ate it, foil and all

We went to a Car Boot Sale on Sunday. This was ostensibly only to look for good used books. We have kicked the habit of buying ’stuff’ a long time ago.

I fell off the wagon. I bought a used pair of hand operated hair clippers. The ones pictured on this post are new. I think it might make more sense to buy a product like this new. Mine are seriously dull and I am not sure if anyone local is skilled at sharpening them.

I am balding and I choose to go with the ultra short hair look. I have to wonder how many bottles of shampoo I have saved in the last 7-8 years. If anybody knows a good source for shampoo that is not packaged in plastic, I would like to know for the rest of my family.

Pump dispensers for hand washing liquid are generally plastic. We still have a couple of these dispensers from before we decided to make an effort to reduce our use of plastics.

Buying commercial size refill bags is one way to reduce plastic consumption and still use the convenient dispensers. This week we are trying out an experiment. My wife saves up a few thin soap bars and dissolved them in water to make a liquid for the empty dispenser.

I have been asked about what soap I use for shaving my face. I am still using up a metal can of shaving foam. I think I will try using bar soap when I finish the can.

Recent research indicates that everyone in America has traces of plastics in their body.

Phthalates have been implicated as a causal factor in several health problems. They are added to normally rigid PVC to make soft products such as the plastic bags that store blood, plasma and intravenous fluids; feeding, breathing and dialysis tubes; catheters; respiratory masks; and exam gloves. They are also in children’s toys, vinyl floors, wallpaper, shower curtains, vinyl bibs and cosmetics.

Studies have linked high concentrations of phthalates to obesity. It is unclear how this association works.

One thing that I do regularly is to do a quick Google search for ‘plastic’ news. Today, I inadvertently typed ‘plasticless’ instead. Not surprisingly, this blog tops the list. Number two is Plasticless Lists.

The goal of this page is to make a list of retailers who have products packaged without plastic. At the moment, there are only a handful of entries and they are all for Vancouver. If you have any shops in your city to add to the list they welcome your input.

Here is the razor and blades that I bought at a local store recently.

The razor came in a plastic case. The blades are packaged with paper.

The razor cost less than $10. The blades are not as cheap as I was hoping that they would be, but using this shaving system will use much less plastic than modern disposables in the long run. I am still looking for a definitive answer about the number of shaves I should perform with each blade.

I found out from the shopkeeper that these items were stocked upon repeated requests by elderly gentlemen. If you have some retro alternatives in mind that you cannot seem to find in stores, consider asking at Mom and Pop places where the elderly shop.

I just found this item while fact searching:

Toothbrushes represent more than 100 million pounds of plastic waste each year.
Office of the Federal Enviro. Executive, White House task force on recycling, “Recycling for the Future,” June 1999

Choosing toothbrushes with recycled handles is one option to reduce this impact. These toothbrushes are made from at least 25% recycled yogurt cups. The packaging is a wood based material from a renewable forest. They even come with a prepaid mailer so you can send them to be recycled by a company that makes park benches.

Preserve toothbrushes are in the running to be the official mascot of PlasticLess

Another option is to get reusable handles that come with replacement heads.

The packaging of individual toothbrushes is also a tremendous waste of plastic. We know that we are going to brush our teeth for as long as we have them, buying toothbrushes in multipacks may reduce the amount of packaging.

This is a fantastic article about the huge cumulative impact plastics are having in our environment. When I first read about the existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Gyre (a sea of floating plastic twice the size of Texas) I knew we had to start making serious changes.

Something that shocked me to read in this article: many body scrubs and other cosmetics are filled with teeny little beads of plastic that are meant to be washed down the drain into our rivers and oceans.

Exfoliants: little granules that massage you as you bathe.” He selects a peach-colored tube of St. Ives Apricot Scrub; its label reads: 100% natural exfoliants. “This stuff is okay. The granules are actually chunks of ground-up jojoba seeds and walnut shells.” Other natural brands use grape seeds, apricot hulls, coarse sugar, or sea salt. “The rest of them,” he says, with a sweep of his hand, “have all gone to plastic.

Of course, even with the natural apricot scrub there’s still the plastic tube to contend with. Next time I get tempted to buy a body scrub product, instead I’ll mix up my own scrub. If you have any non-natural scrubs hanging around the house, you may want to even consider throwing them in the solid waste unused rather than washing them down the drain into the water system.