Want to go plastic free? Try these alternatives to cling film
22nd July 2019
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Going plastic-free is tough, and the list of things to replace in order to lead a more eco-friendly life can feel endless. But there’s no point waiting for a moment when you feel ready to banish all single-use plastic from your house - it's something that can be done gradually.

Image Credit: dvs via Wikimedia Commons
The best way to go about your plastic detox is to focus on one item at a time and work on replacing that with a sustainable alternative. Some are more straightforward than others – most of us probably have a reusable water bottle or coffee cup, for example. Whether they’re plastic-free is another thing, of course, but everyone starts with baby steps. Recently, I decided to look beyond my own lifestyle choices and inflict my eco-sanctimony on my family home. A good place to start with this, I decided, was the kitchen. One thing I noticed that was used and thrown away a lot in my household was cling film. According to The Telegraph, more than 1.2 billion metres of cling film is used by British households every year, enough to go around the circumference of the world 30 times over. It’s difficult to recycle and the information about how to do is often difficult to come by. This means that more often than not, it ends up in landfill. Like plastic bags, it can also end up in the sea, where turtles and other animals confuse it for jellyfish and choke when they try to feed on it. My first foray into plastic-free cling film was from the brand Vegan Food Wraps, the self-proclaimed “reusable, plastic-free vegan alternative to cling film.” I purchased these from a speciality zero-waste shop but they can be found online too. I got their Small Kitchen Pack, which contains one small wrap and one medium wrap and costs around £10.- Article continues below...
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Image Credit: Emily Garbutt

Image Credit: Emily Garbutt
Most importantly, they’re a lot more suited to a student budget. They’re around £2 and you can get them from Waitrose, Lakeland, and Amazon. Although they’re not ideal, they’re definitely a step in the right direction as they’re not single-use. Their cost also makes them a lot more accessible, which is a huge plus. So, while going plastic-free is an important and necessary goal to aspire to, a good starting point is to cut out the single-use products you utilise on a daily basis. You don’t need to be one of the handful doing the plastic-free lifestyle perfectly, but, ideally, you do need to use less cling film. Lead Image Credit: dvs via Wikimedia CommonsYou might also like...
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