12 Ways to Break Up With Single-Use Plastics

Depending on your circumstances, it may be impractical or impossible to completely eliminate plastic from your life, but even small changes in your personal habits can make a difference. An incremental, big-picture approach—reducing or replacing one plastic go-to before moving to another—is easier to stick with and build upon than trying to cut everything out all at once or chasing perfection.

If you want to make a dent in the plastic that comes out of your household, committing to buying less is most important. Don’t get hung up on the occasional straw, but do consider your general shopping habits.

Start with one routine or habitual purchase that includes plastic. That might be your daily iced coffee container, or it might be something less obvious.

For example, if you’ve gotten in the seasonal or annual habit of buying brand new clothing, only to donate a pile of tees the following year, buying less new polyester clothing and keeping what you do have for longer will reduce your plastic waste. Polyester is spun from plastic (and sheds microplastics), and most fast-fashion polyester clothing ends up in a landfill.

Reusable bags, bottles, and other items can help reduce plastic waste, but only if you use them often and for as long as possible. Reusable swaps aren’t inherently better for the environment than disposable ones, especially if you consider their whole life cycle.

In fact, collecting multiples of reusable items only increases your carbon footprint, according to life cycle expert Jeremy Gregory, PhD, executive director of the Climate & Sustainability Consortium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Instead, keep and reuse what you buy for as long as you can, do your research before purchasing, honor your personal preferences, and resist the urge to chase trends.

At Wirecutter, we test and recommend lots of reusable alternatives to throwaway plastic, like menstrual cups and discs, reusable straws, soda makers, snack and produce bags, packable tote bags, water bottles, and travel tumblers and travel mugs.

A lot of the disposable plastic stuff we rely on is more habit than requirement. For example, you might not need to use a liner for every trash can or compost bin in your home.

Many other comforting standbys, from sheet masks to air fresheners to bleach pens, might turn out to be things you can do without or find new, less-wasteful alternatives for.

If you regularly order stuff online, grouping purchases from retailers like Amazon (and opting for slower delivery) reduces your environmental impact overall, including by cutting back on films, bubble wrapping, styrofoam fillers, and other plastic-derived flotsam. (The majority of global plastic production goes into packaging.)

Perhaps counterintuitively, shopping online can be better for the environment when it reduces multiple car trips.

If you order in most days or rely on prepared meals, you’ve probably noticed that you can amass a lot of disposable plastic or compostable containers that your garden or curbside system can’t accept. Cooking from scratch is one of the simplest ways to reduce the amount of single-use plastic you’re tossing (and it might also reduce your exposure to forever chemicals).

Our guide on cutting down food waste can make last-minute cooking breezier and save you the money you would have spent on delivery.

Get in the habit of packing a reusable tote or other shopping bag for grocery trips. If you drive to the store, keep your totes in the trunk of your car so they’re always available. Just don’t use this as an excuse to buy tote bags at every opportunity; this defeats the environmental benefit.

We have recommendations for reusable totes and produce bags that are durable and can fit in a commuter bag, purse, or glove box for smaller errands. For a lightweight option that packs down to the size of a wallet, we like totes by Baggu, which come in regular and mini sizes. They do contain plastic, but since they’re reusable and durable, they’re a practical replacement for single-use bags, if you stick with them.

A smaller reusable tote or produce bag can also replace the plastic film bags in the produce aisle. Or, try the free version: Reuse the store-supplied produce bags on your next trip, and stash them in your reusable shopping bag so they’re always there when you need them. You can also try reducing or forgoing produce bags altogether, especially for sturdy fruits and vegetables (you don’t actually need them most of the time).

Another reason to pack a lightweight reusable bag: You can shop the bulk bin without using plastic. For groceries like dried fruits, nuts, grains, coffee, and so on, the good old bulk bin is a great way to avoid single-use packaging while at the store.

For dry goods, we recommend Junes’s The Carry-All Set, although its porosity may not work for everything. For re-upping on oats and seeds, try paper bags, which can be reused multiple times and then composted, or repurpose plastic bags from previous shopping trips. (Again, whatever you choose, stash them in your reusable shopping bag so you don’t forget them.)

Some cities also now have refill stations and so-called zero-waste stores, which can be one-stop sources for everything from olive oil to shampoos, detergents, and soaps. (You need reusable containers to hold your refills.) You should be able to locate the nearest store with a quick online search.

A growing number of brands and retailers also sell items in refillable packaging, like dental floss. But you don’t have to buy trendy, eco-friendly items: When it comes to household cleaners, you can easily make your own with bleach or vinegar.

Solid and powdered forms of hand soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and detergents often come in plastic-free packaging and are another way to reduce your plastic empties. (Our top pick for laundry detergent and one of our dishwasher-detergent picks are powdered, for example, and come in a cardboard box. Ethique shampoo bars are a plastic-free staff favorite.

And when it comes to bathing and washing hands, you can always use classic bar soap, which typically comes in plastic-free or low-plastic packaging.

You’ve surely heard making coffee or tea at home can save you money, but it can also reduce waste. Although paper cups might seem recyclable, they actually have plastic linings to keep them from leaking.

We have guides to brewing coffee at home. And if you have to dash, we’ve recommended the Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug for four years because it keeps beverages hot longer, has a leakproof design, and doesn’t burn your hands.

If you prefer to buy coffee from a shop, try packing a travel mug. Some coffee shops offer a small discount if you ask them to pour your beverage into your clean travel coffee mug. But most baristas can’t make you a cappuccino or cortado in tall travel tumblers (though many third-wave coffee shops sell travel cups that fit under espresso machines).

The same goes for water—if you’re always buying bottled water when you’re out and about, carrying a reusable water bottle with you is a great habit to start. (Hydration!) We have recommendations for a range of bottles.

Is smoking cool again? We’re not ones to judge, but cigarette butts are a huge source of plastic litter in the environment (and are the most littered item in the world), according to the United Nations Environment Programme (PDF). And vape pens also contain plastic, so either way, quitting smoking can have an impact.

Although disposable plastic might be a visible reminder of our environmental impact, reducing our use of it is not necessarily the most impactful thing we can do, and it’s not always accessible. As individuals, we can more significantly reduce our carbon footprint, for example, by flying less, driving less, and eating less meat and dairy.

This article was edited by Christine Cyr Clisset.