Life before plastic

Some eco shops stock cleaning products in bulk containers and you can go and refill your own individual containers.

I hate bar soap. It is apparently unhygienic as all the germs from your hands transfer on to it, and collect underneath in that slimy bit. When you have used about half, it is cracked and the cracks appear black and nasty looking, Then it breaks up into little bits and is unusable and wasteful. I use antibacterial liquid soap in a plastic bottle which is much more hygienic, and you can add a little water to it from time to time to make it go further. You can use it down to very last drop.
By the way don't ever burn plastic of any sort It liberates nasty chemicals into the atmosphere.

As we have recently discovered in Australia all those items we have conscientiously been putting in our recycle bins have just been shipped overseas for alleged recycling in China and other countries until they finally said no more. And now we have a big problem!!! To use a good old Aussie phrase, we are up shit creek without a paddle.

Basically we have been dumping our rubbish in someone else's backyard. To our very great shame we do not have a functional recycling system, a recycling industry or governmental policies to minimise waste and support and encourage recycling industries.

I remember dry shampoo in a paper sachet, that you added water to and swished about in a cup, before wet washing your hair

Just had my Sainsbury's delivery. Would you believe one large very flimsy plastic bag ...contents a book of stamps. I give up.

I recently had a grocery delivery from the UK's largest supermarket who were advertising that their fruit and veg would be packaged in a paper bag from now on - s great step forward. When my shopping arrived I was pleased to see that there was a paper bag amongst the groceries bursting with the fresh produce, but on closer inspection each item was encased in its own plastic bag and then put in the paper bag. I had not ordered any item that was pre-packed deliberately to (I had hoped) cut back on the use of plastic. I had one paper bag with 7 plastic bags inside it. Unbelievable!!

In some areas it's still possible to have milk delivered in glass bottles - we've had this for years, and the milk comes from a "proper" farm (with outside cows) not so far away. Yes, it costs more than "supermarket milk", but we think that it's worth it, for the environment.

Grandad1943 - yes, those brown paper carrier bags really were worse than useless. You couldn't use them on a rainy day because they acted like blotting paper, hence purchases falling out through a split in the bottom and the string handles cut off all circulation in your fingers!

I'd like to see our self-righteous ExtinctionRebellion "eco-warriors" cope getting their shopping home in half a dozen of those......

I have my milk delivered in glass bottles by a local dairy but Milk & More also will deliver in glass, Farm Shops also have milk in glass bottles.

I've used hessian/cloth bags for many years. When DD was young & I had no car I used a large basket when I went shopping. If I have a Home Delivery from a Supermarket I request no carrier bags.

I get most of my fruit & veg from local shop which uses (mainly) paper bags or just put it in my bag loose or I use Veg box delivery, loose or in cardboard very little plastic & that is usually recyclable (I uses mine for any food waste which my Council sends to an Anaerobic Digestion Plant)

I remember in the 40s my mother used to put a hand full of washing soda in the bowl and boiling water from the kettle to wash up. Also soda went in the laundry AND the bath. Everyone survived but I sure wouldn't want to do that now.???

Many of us will remember getting money back on pop bottles. Incentives like that certainly helped. A way of adding to the pocket money. When the ice cream man came around it was acceptable to take your own dish out to the van and he would fill it ! As children going to big parties in Community Halls/we took our own cup, plate and cutlery and you just brought them home again, wrapped in a cotton serviette ! No plastic cups/ plates. Still would prefer fish and chips wrapped on outside in newspaper- those polystyrene containers for takeaways must take up so much landfill ( and then put in a plastic carrier bag!)

What I hate are the huge plastic wheelie bins everywhere. They block the pavements and the view. We managed before their introduction. We composted everything we possibly could, including paper, and because there was less packaging and less waste although you sometimes had to jump on the bin to get the lid on, those old metal dustbins were small and convenient. Weren't they?

When I was a child in the 1930s washing up was done in an enamel bowl with washing soda made your hands red and sore, hair washed with Sunlight soap, floors scrubbed with Sunlight soap and wooden draining board with Vim. Washboard and soap for clothes washing. Pieces of towelling which had to be washed out instead of sanitary pads.
Shopping was done daily. Vegetables and fruit either put straight into basket or into paper carrier bags. Eggs were loose and put into paper bags. Biscuits in square tins in front of the counter. Sweets in glass jars. . You took you bottle to the greengrocers to be filled with vinegar. Milkman came round with the churn daily and you took your jug out to be filled.
Lovely crusty bread from the bakers. When my sister and I were sent for a cottage loaf the top didn’t make it home. From the age of five I was sent on errands.
My son was born in 1949 and I had to scrub the nappies on the washboard and then boil them in a bucket on the gas stove.. No synthetics all clothes were cotton or wool. No steam iron.
The other day I got some meat from the supermarket and it was shrink wrapped on a plastic tray. Took me great effort with scissors and sharp knife to get it out. I only wanted one slice so had to wrap the other in plastic to freeze it.

I have both soaps on my basin...bar and bottle. Unfortunately I use the pump action one because I find the bar soap leaves my skin dry...in the 50’s and 60’s we had enamel wash up bowl for general cleaning around house purposes...but for actual washing up that was done in the sink because with a family of eight you could get more pots in to soak....my mum used OMO washing powder and that went for wash up as well. At the greengrocers you took your own bag with you and nothing was wrapped, just all thrown in together. Butchers next and he would wrap the Sunday joint in couple of sheets of white paper...but the blood still would deep through. Only the grocers shop had bottles/tins/ and a small amount of plastic. Even bread was wrapped in white tissue paper ...most re-useable. Nothing seemed to get wasted in our house and we only had a small metal dustbin to empty each week...never full!!

Forgot to say I still have my sons glass boat shaped feeding bottle.

Agnurse..I remember using glass syringes, used toreturn to CSSD, everything was reusable..theatre instruments scrubbed,packed, sealed with autoclave tape, and put in huge autoclaves to be sterilised for next time. The stripes on the tape changed colour if autoclave working correctly. Then came plastic and CJD!

As well as all that has been mentioned, I recall the use of an awful lot of carbolic - my grandmother swore by it for just about everything, including lotion for the hair nits?

Annaram1 I don't recognise your depiction of soap bars at all! What brand have you tried?

Yes, there will be bacteria in a bar of soap- we don't live in a sterile world so there are bacteria everywhere, including in liquid soaps, they are not sterile either. Soap is also the only effective cleanser to rid one's skin of norovirus, which is resistant to many cleansers.

My bar soap doesn't get slimy, or crack or go black or fall to pieces - maybe the regular usage it has keeps it in good condition.

I do have liquid soap in the cloakroom that visitors use, but only as a nod to their possible concerns about bars of soap.

Part of the trouble is we all want ‘convenience’ which is why we have supermarkets etc. If we used and encouraged small shops/traders more items would be sold loose. Eg bread, not wrapped, meat not prepackaged. We have our milk delivered in glass bottles and have a local veg box, which also includes fruit and salad. Only small steps but if we all do a little it will surely help.

As far as I remember washing-up liquid came in at about the same time as plastic containers for it. Before that we washed up in washing powder (Surf in my childhood) or in washing soda.

Fish was wrapped in greaseproof paper and newspaper at the fishmonger's, the butcher used greaseproof paper and brown paper.

The grocer, greengrocer and baker used brown paper pokes, my sister's godmother, who was a draper, wrapped her goods in pale lilac paper tied up with paper string with the shop name stamped on it.

I'm not sure when egg-boxes arrived on the scene, but I do remember taking a pottery bowl with me to the shops to put the eggs in.

kitty I think the idea behind refillable plastic pouches of the hand soap will cut down on plastic a little bit because the gubbins of the pump (also plastic) is retained.

And regarding having bars of soap delivered - isn’t that just creating more carbon emissions to bring it to your door?

The whole subject is a minefield isn’t it? Do one (right) thing and create another (wrong) thing in the process.

I’m going for a lie down!

Oh, yes glass syringes, boiled in the kitchen, when Daddy had used them. Likewise forceps and the entire contents of his Maternity bag after every confinement.

I remember as an adult asking a friend where in her fridge she kept the butter as I couldn't find it. Puzzled she replied, "In the compartment marked "butter"!" I explained that that was were my father kept the vaccines that could be kept for a while, so the family never opened it.

As the doctor's eldest I became proficient (aged 5) at re-rolling crepe and gauze bandages that had been washed and dried. The actual dressings were burnt in our Raeburn.

I have a sneaking feeling that my mother ironed the gauze bandages! I know for a fact that she ironed my sister's gauze nappies, which were used inside the terry towelling ones.

I remember in the 80’s you could buy milk in cartons. Now it’s all in plastic.

Bijou - what a wonderful recollection. You transported me back 70 years!

I just checked out the Friendly soap site and placed an order. Their soaps look good to me and no plastic.
i look forward to trying them.
I used to use Pears soap all the time but after it went to India the smell changed and I din't want to use it any more. This will be a return to bar soap for me after many years of shower gel.