10 tips for you
With these tricks you can reduce your personal plastic consumption massively:

Reduce plastic your consumption – it often works without plastic
Globally, it is estimated that between five and thirteen million tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year. This kills over one million seabirds and over one hundred thousand marine mammals.
Today, nano and plastic residues can be found in water, soil, air and food. Not only house dust is contaminated with plastic particles, but also areas at the end of the world. Thanks to wind and water transport, Antarctica, for example, is also polluted with plastic.
Even in the human body, plastic is nowadays found in the blood and organs.

01
Drink water from the tap
Fill your water into a fine steel or glass bottle and ask for your drinks by the glass in restaurants too.
Above all, avoid exotic drinking water in plastic bottles. These have an extremely poor environmental footprint due to the entire production and transportation process.
02
Products from unpackaged stores
There are also more and more unpackaged stores in Switzerland. You take your own containers with you to these stores. You pack your purchases in a cloth bag, a cloth bag or your rucksack. This is a good way to avoid single-use and plastic bags and reduce your plastic consumption.
03
Hair shampoo, shower gel + deodorant in blocks
They are certainly unusual but certainly plastic-free, shower gels, hair shampoo and deodorant in one piece. Of course, these products should also be cruelty-free, so pay attention to the ingredients. These apps can help you with this:
04
Natural products instead of synthetic fibers
With every wash, fibers are released from the clothes and washed into the water with the wastewater. Natural fibers such as cotton can break down, but synthetic fibers such as polyester do not break down and pollute rivers, lakes and oceans.
- Semi-synthetic man-made fibers: Viscose, modal fiber, lyocell (also called Tencel), acetate fibers
- Synthetic man-made fibers: Polyamide, polyester, elastane (also polyurethane fibers), polypropylene, polyacrylic
- Natural fibers: are for example cotton, wool, animal hair (e.g. cashmere, alpaca), linen, hemp, jute, silk
Therefore, use a microplastic retention bag for your synthetic clothes.
05
Do not use disposable tableware
Over 100 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide for products that are used for less than five minutes. These include disposable tableware and cups for “to go” coffees.
Bring your own tableware or container and your own thermo mug with you and thus reduce disposable tableware.
06
Avoid “organic” plastic as much as possible
Unfortunately, the definition of organic plastic is extremely vague and not clearly defined. Organicy plastics must be made (in part) from renewable raw materials and/or be biodegradable. This means that a plastic bag made from petroleum can also be declared as bioplastic if it is biodegradable. And a bioplastic fork made from renewable raw materials does not necessarily have to be compostable…
Organic plastic is also produced with a very high energy input, used briefly afterwards and then (in the best case) incinerated. Sometimes, however, it simply ends up in the environment. There, like conventional plastic, it slowly decomposes into microplastics.
This means that the environmental balance is therefore often no better than with conventional plastic. In this case, organic is simply another “greenwashing argument” used by plastic manufacturers.
It’s better to use a recyclable cloth or hemp bag for your purchases.
07
Use a wooden toothbrush
A wooden toothbrush is a sustainable alternative to a plastic toothbrush. It can reduce the incredible amount of toothbrushes washed up on the world’s beaches.
08
Ingredients in cosmetics
Many personal care products and cosmetics contain solid, liquid and waxy plastics. They are used as abrasives, binding agents or fillers. The good alternative – natural cosmetics do not contain plastic. Recognizing plastic in a product is not easy. These apps can help:
09
Cleaning up garbage
Whether you are at home in the Alps or the North Sea, roll up your sleeves and take part in garbage campaigns.
Or initiate one yourself – so that plastic waste in the environment doesn’t stand a chance. Plastic waste not only ends up on beaches, but also in the sea via rivers.
10
Repair instead of buy new
Do I really need to buy a replacement or can’t I repair the old item? More consumption does not always make you happier.
The competent experts at the various Repair Cafés will be happy to help you.
Over 200 Repair Cafés in Switzerland
In Repair Cafés you can repair your broken things together with repair professionals . The free repair events
offer the opportunity to do something about the depletion of resources , planned obsolescence and the growing mountains of waste. At the same time , your wallet is saved, you meet new people and you can chat over coffee and cake. Among other things, the following will be repaired:
- Household appliances
Blenders, coffee machines, toasters, kettles, vacuum cleaner, hair dryer,
irons, sewing machines, drills, lamps - Electronics
Consumer electronics, computer/mobile phone, radio/stero/hifi systems, record players, amplifiers, CD/DVD/BluRay devices, vacuum cleaner robots, toys,
rc devices, drones, game consoles - Mechanics
Bicycles, toys, wall clocks, furniture, mechanical objects, sharpening, scissors/knives, welding work possible

Reduce your personal plastic consumption
Check products and shop healthier – it’s easy with these 3 apps:
Beat the Microbead
The fastest way to find out if your cosmetics and personal care products contain plastic ingredients.
This app uses state-of-the-art text recognition technology. Simply scan the ingredients of your products and check them for microplastics.
You can also get to know these certified microplastic-free brands.
CodeCHeck App
Your personal shopping advisor for healthy and conscious shopping! Scan the barcode of food and cosmetics with the app or search by product name.
You can find out what’s behind the ingredients in real time.
You can see at a glance whether products are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free or lactose-free or whether they contain palm oil, microplastics, nanoparticles, parabens, kerosenes, too much sugar and much more.
Yuka
With Yuka, you can decode the labels of your food and cosmetic products to analyze their impact on health.
The app is independent, sustainable and offers you recommendations for healthier products and additives.
#Sick of plastic
Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent environmental challenges facing our planet
today.
Every year, millions of tons of plastic waste are produced and end up in our oceans, landfills, and incinerators. Plastic pollution is a real poison that has a devastating impact on wildlife and human health.
The purpose of this tool kit about plastic
pollution is to educate people about the
problem and inspire them to take action.

Greenuniverse
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