Reducing Plastic Use in July

It seems every month there are more news stories of the negative impact of plastic on our lives, our oceans and food supply. July has been a month of awareness for how we can reduce our use from organizations like Plastic Free July and #PassOnPlastic, by Sky Ocean Rescue. Team Sky even spread the word by adding the hashtag to their team kits for The Tour de France, where teammates, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome placed first and third!

(photo above courtesy of TeamSky.com and has no affiliation with NotPie)

At NotPie, we are as conscious about our environmental impact as we are committed to organic and ethically sourced ingredients. Celebrating loved ones should be done without compromise for the beautiful world we live in, our health or happiness. Last year, our family participated in Plastic Free July by eliminating common sources of single use plastic like water bottles, to-go cups and straws and plastic packaged food wherever possible. We saved every bit of plastic we used as a household of four people and found at the end of the month we had dramatically reduced what we were putting into the recycle bin. This year we wanted to explore how we could incorporate less plastic in our business, including the packing and shipping of the delicious treats we send around the United States.

Our plastic-free Summer Trifle

For the first time, we created a dessert that shipped in reusable glass jars that went out to all of our monthly subscribers, the Summer Trifle. The jars were filled with lemon cake layered with apricot marshmallow, blackberry or coconut ganache, topped with a vanilla marshmallow, and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. In our packaging, we used recycled craft paper instead of plastic filler in our boxes and opted for paper based tapes wherever we could. We also explored how we might create more permanent packing solutions for our treats with molded containers made out of recycled pulp instead of plastic.

Plastic Free July has left a lasting impact on our business as well as our lives and we thought we'd like to share some of our favorite solutions for reducing plastic and waste that you can use in your own home.

Returnable and refillable shampoo & conditioner from Plaine Products

Plaine Products is one of my favorite new companies, helping to remove plastic bottles from your shower and bathroom with metal containers that you send back for reuse when you order new product. Not only is the plastic reduction a win, but these products are made without the harmful ingredients used by many brands and no plastic micro-beads (I bet you didn't even know your body care products had plastic in them!).

Reusable thermal tumblers from MiiR

Our family runs on coffee and tea and the surest way to make sure our teenagers weren't loading up on plastic and paper to-go cups along with the plastic lids and straws that come with them, we got everyone a thermal tumbler from MiiR. MiiR makes the best thermal water bottles, tumblers and camp mugs and ties all of their products to water projects in developing countries.

https://www.miir.com/collections/tumblers

Pourover coffee filter from Willow & Everett

When I'm not getting coffee out, I'm making it at home in either my V60 pourover or glass Chemex and while using a reusable filter isn't directly replacing plastic, it does a lot to reduce the amount of waste in your home. I've long resisted a metal filter for what I believed it would do for the quality of my brew, but this gem from Willow & Everett not only has a dual-filter mesh but a silicon ring that creates a good seal at the top of the Chemex. I'm definitely a believer.

Reducing plastic is everyone's responsibility

Every piece of plastic ever produced will be last for potentially thousands of years and when you scale that out to all the ways you touch plastic every day, the scope of the problem becomes clear. Reducing single-use plastic forces us to be better stewards for our environment and our natural resources, reduces oil consumption, keeps our beaches and oceans cleaner and keeps toxic chemicals out of our homes and bodies. The more we all can explore ways to do things a little differently, the more brands will step up to the plate to create better solutions.