Sometimes it's about reducing the amount of plastic you're using

We saw an interesting post by Who Gives A Crap this Plastic Free July and we really loved the message (see the bottom of this post for the full graphic). It explains how not everyone has the privilege to go plastic free, so if the rest of us do our best, we can leave the plastic for those who really need it. Here's some tips from us to help reduce the use of plastic, whether it's single use or reusable.

Choose your water filter jug wisely

Filtering your water instead of buying bottled water? Big tick to you. Refilling a water bottle, regardless of what it is, is a step in the right direction. Filtering water completely plastic free is difficult. Even the high end benchtops have a small amount of plastic in them. Not everyone has the room or the budget for a benchtop water filter that costs hundreds of dollars. Charcoal sticks have limited capacity for filtering water and are the only true plastic free options.

Most water filter jugs on the market are plastic. We do have one from Ecobud that's glass, but the filter cartridges are still plastic and this needs to be taken in to consideration. Here's a comparison of the number of plastic water filter cartridges needed for the two water filter jug options in our store vs the most popular brand in Australia which is readily available in supermarket, Brita.

BRITA FILTER CARTRIDGE 24 cartridges in a 2 year period - replace a plastic cartridge every month.
ECOBUD FILTER CARTRIDGE 8 cartridges in a 2 year period - replace a plastic cartridge every 3 months
WATERS CO  BIO MINERAL POT 1 litre 5 cartridges in a 2 year period - replace 1 small cartridge every 6 months, a second cartridge lasts for 2 years.

One thing that can be difficult in a large household with a water filter jug is how frequently you need to refill it. Our recomment choice in juts is the last option and it has a capacity to only hold 1 litre of filtered water at a time. Theh daily amount that most people should drink is approx 2 litres. Whether you're doing this at home or doing it to fill up bottles for each family member on the go, we specialise in larger sized water bottles, especially the 2 litre water bottle size. Funnily enough, we don't actually have one that's exactly 2 litres in size, but our larger water bottles range from 1.5 litres to 2.2 litres in capacity. The Water Co jug filters quickly, so it only take a few minutes to start filling up  your large water bottles.

Choose concentrated cleaning products over diluted cleaning products

Sometimes you just need a plastic spray bottle and a liquid spray to get something clean. There's no need to buy a new bottle every time, those sprays last longer than the 500ml or 750ml worth of liquid in the bottle. If you're shopping online, you also don't want to pay the postage on shipping water around. We are seeing an emerging market in natural concentrated cleaning products in pods and dissolvable tablets. You buy your bottle once, or better still, use a bottle you already have, and then we ship you a small pod that might weigh 100g once packed, instead a of a bottle that weighs upwards of a kilo and costs under $10 to buy. Pods work out around the $4 mark each with significantly lower freight costs.