Plastic-free May: living consciously with plastic

This month celebrates the second edition of Plastic-free May, organized to banish as much plastic out of our lives as we can. Simply take a look at the pollution in our oceans and beaches and you’ll realize how much plastic we’re wasting. Yet a life without plastic doesn’t seem evident: supermarkets use loads, clothing, toothpaste and even skin care contains miniscule plastic particles. The solution? The biggest responsibility lies with us.

Making durable choices

A life without plastic seems difficult. We don’t consider it but a lot of daily items are made up of plastic. It’s cheap and companies love to use disposable products.

Cutting out plastic foregood is impossible, but changing our mentality towards isn’t: little adjustments can go a long way to minimizing waste. Using the least amount possible and the correct type of plastic is a great first step! On the website Plastic-free May you can check out 101 things you can do to help you live consciously with plastic.

SELF products

SELF is a durable brand, we try to reflect that in everything we do. Because a natural product in a polluting package isn’t right… That’s why our packaging and products are build up out of years of research. Every single product is fully recyclable and I’m proud to be able to say we’re one of the first in the European skin care brands to receive the Zero Plastic Inside Label!

Recyclable plastic

Plastic isn’t necessarily wrong, it depends on the type of plastic you use in your product. We choose for a healthy and ecological plastic that is fully recyclable. The recycling process is less cumbersome than the process of glass and requires less water and less CO2, resulting in less emissions. If you’re choosing to go with plastic, pick recyclable plastic. A large amount of the problem is the use of non-recyclable and single use plastic.

Ecological packaging

Besides plastic there are a few other substances that are fully recyclable: we use pressed wood for our lids and our outer packaging is made of recycled paper. We choose to use 1 sheet of paper for 1 package to minimize the amount of waste.

The packaging itself is done in a durable way as well, our boxes are made up out of recycled cardboard and green foam chips made of corn, a biological degradable alternative.

Beat the microbead: Zero Plastic Inside Label

The problem isn’t just plastic packaging, bags or straws, there’s a whole lot of ‘hidden plastic’. These are microbeads, small particles that aren’t visible with the naked eye. Unfortunately these particles are everywhere, such as in toothpaste, certain scrubs and shampoo. And yes, even in your food! Microbeads enter the food chain and onto our plates, so we ingest plastic without being aware of it.

SELF is one of the first in the European market with the Zero Plastic Inside Label, given by the Plastic Soup Foundation. So we can assure our users that our products are 100% natural and contain no microbeads. Want to make sure your products don’t contain plastic? Check out if they have the label.

Do you want more information about our products? Feel free to mail me at team@nauralself.eu