Blitz your bathroom!

even if you have the best de- cluttering intentions, your bathroom is likely to be chock-full with plastic.

There’s the shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in your shower, the toothbrush, paste and floss by your sink, and the cupboards full of face creams, hair-styling products and make-up.

But it needn’t be so. A delightfully minimalist, clutter-free bathroom could be yours, as this is the one area of the house where it is relatively easy — fun, even — to start cutting back on plastic.

All this week in the Daily Mail we are serialising an exciting new book, Life Without Plastic, by husband and wife duo Chantal Plamondon and Jay Sinha, international pioneers of a worldwide movement to reduce our reliance on plastic.

They are experts in finding ingenious ways to cut back on plastic and small changes you can make to your everyday life to dramatically slash your environmental impact.

For instance, you might think you simply couldn’t survive without a pump-action plastic bottle of liquid soap at every sink, or a handy bottle of shower gel in your shower.

But just think about how many bottles you’d save each year if you embraced the retro charm of a good old- fashioned bar of soap. That impact will be boosted even further if you select a bar wrapped in paper rather than plastic.

Some of the easiest switches when cutting back on plastic are toiletries and beauty products. Once you’ve found a plastic-free product that works and that isn’t contributing to our massive worldwide plastics problem, why would you need to switch back? RAZORS

The complexity of the disposable razor makes it very difficult to recycle. electric razors last much longer, which, despite the fact

they also are made from plastic, makes them preferable.

The ultimate plastic- free shaving choice, however, is using an old-style metal razor with a removable double- sided steel blade, such as the safety razor (£25, labourandwait.co.uk).

If you’re taking one with you on a plane, either remove the blade and check it in with the luggage or buy new blades when you arrive at your destination.

Stop using shaving foam or creams, too (most come in difficult-to-recycle containers) and return to the retro charm of moisture-rich shaving soap

(£10, moltonbrown.co.uk), which you lather up with a brush, or shaving oil.

TOOTHPASTE

TUBES of toothpaste are almost impossible to recycle because of their small size, blended plastic materials and the leftover toothpaste inside. You can minimise your plastic impact by buying the largest tube you can find. If it lasts twice as long as your normal tube, that’s potentially half the plastic impact.

Look out for powders or pastes at farmer’s markets and health stores, or buy a selection of toothpastes in pretty glass jars (£6.90 a pot, georganics.co.uk).

Lush sells ‘toothy tabs’ (£5.95, uk.lush.com) which are pill-sized tablets of baking powder and essential oils (in a returnable plastic bottle), which you crunch between your teeth and then simply start brushing with your wet toothbrush.

Or why not make your own? Mix 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda with 1 tbsp coconut oil in a small glass jar with a few drops of essential oil (try cinnamon, clove, lemon, mint, orange, peppermint, sage or vanilla). If it’s too bitter and salty, add a little sugar substitute such as stevia or xylitol to sweeten it up.

DENTAL FLOSS

IF YOU use floss, never flush it down the toilet, as it can wreak havoc with plumbing systems or make it through the system and out into waterways. Being small and lightweight, it easily leaks out of waste management systems into the environment, where its strength and length make it a risk for potentially strangling and choking wildlife.

Most commercial dental flosses are made of nylon (which doesn’t break down easily) and come packaged in hard plastic containers. If the floss isn’t bad enough, this packaging is very wasteful because it ends up in landfill after just a few weeks of use.

However, you can buy natural silk floss (which does break down) packaged in metal or glass. Try organic silk floss sachets (£4.99, mypure. co.uk) or cardamom silk floss (£4.90, georganics.

co.uk). Eco-Dent Gentle Floss is nylon, but comes in a cardboard box (£7.99, amazon.

co.uk). Or if you like toothpicks, Stim-U-Dent Plaque Removers are thin wooden mint-infused ones (£4.41 for 160, amazon.co.uk).

FACE WIPES

OUR use of face wipes is everincreasing (according to Mintel, 47 per cent of us use them). Problems arise if you treat them just like tissues and throw them in the lavatory. Tissues speedily turn to mulch, but an estimated 64 per cent of the wipes sold in the UK contain polyester (some are more than 70 per cent polyester), which isn’t biodegradable.

Cotton takes between one and five months to decompose, wool takes one to five years, and nylon 30 to 40 years, but polyester takes up to an estimated 500 years. Never flush a face wipe and switch to using a washable face cloth instead, such as Liz Earle muslin cloths (two for £4.50, boots.com).

COTTON BUDS

CHOOSE cotton buds with cardboard stems instead of plastic stems. As we often flush used cotton buds down the lavatory, hundreds of thousands of plastic stems find their way into water treatment plants each week. They are so small they pass through the filters and out into open waters, where they break down into microplastics and form part of the oceanic ‘plastic smog’ — huge patches of pollution in the sea.

Dispose of your plastic-stemmed cotton buds safely and only buy cardboard- stemmed ones from now on.

Most large supermarkets in the UK — Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and the Co-op — are now meeting these concerns by committing to use biodegradable cardboard for their own-brand cotton buds. Johnson & Johnson has also made the switch to paper stems.

TOOTHBRUSH

IF WE listen to our dentists, we should replace our toothbrush every three months, but that’s four plastic toothbrushes per person, per year — and more than 300 over an average lifetime — that end up in landfill. Multiply that by the UK

population of nearly 66 million and you can see how a toothbrush could cause such consternation.

Toothbrushes can’t be recycled because they are made up of three components (the handle, bristles and staples that hold the bristles in place), which have to be separated before they can be processed.

Bamboo toothbrushes (pictured) are easy to find online (£3.99,

anythingbutplastic.co.uk). While the bristles are still nylon, the handle is compostable so you can keep 90 per cent of your toothbrush out of landfill. You can buy bamboo brushes for £4.49 from mahinaturals.

com/woobamboo or £14.99 for four at natureandmy.com, too. Or try the Radius brush (£12.49,

mypure.co.uk), which has a handle made from wood cellulose and bristles made from castor bean oil.

SHAMPOO

MERELY by using a combined shampoo and conditioner you can effectively halve the amount of plastic you use in relation to hair washing. But why not experiment with a shampoo bar, which you lather up in your hands just like soap and use on your hair just like normal shampoo?

They’re a lot more sophisticated than they used to be, with deeply conditioning options suited to different hair types.

Try the range of shampoo bars from Absoapstudio (from £9.20,

etsy.com). The collection includes a chamomile version to bring out highlights in blonde hair, nettle to bring shine to dark hair, silk to promote the elasticity of curly hair, rosemary essential oil for thin or lifeless hair, or tea tree and neem leaf for flaky scalps.

At Lush, you’ll find solid shampoos for dry or coloured hair, and solid conditioner (from £6.25, uk.lush.com).

If you’re not ready to make the leap, aim to buy in bulk if you can — one-litre refill bottles of Paul Mitchell and Aveda hair products are available at lookfantastic.com.

LIQUID SOAP YOU

can cut your plastic use immediately by switching from liquid soap at every sink in your house to a bar of soap.

You may have to hunt a little to find soaps wrapped in paper, but they look delightfully retro in your home, sitting on a soap dish made from wood, ceramics, stone or enamelled metal.

Try switching your plastichoused cleanser for a cleansing bar such as Estee Lauder’s MicroAlgae bar (£20, boots.com) or a facial cleanser and moisturiser bar (£3, anythingbutplastic.co.uk). Alternatively, buy liquid soap and shower gel refills (plus shower oil, shampoo, conditioners and facial cleansing foam) at L’Occitane, which use 80 per cent less plastic than the original bottles ( uk.

loccitane.com). Marseille liquid soap comes in glass pump-action jars, and one-litre refills of body and hand wash are available for £16.50 ( frenchsoaps.co.uk).

You can even make your own liquid soap. Use a cheese grater to grate half a bar of soap (or use the ends of old soaps) then fill a large pan with four litres of hot tap water, tip in the grated soap and stir until dissolved. Let your liquid soap mixture sit overnight, then blend it with a stick blender and transfer into reusable pump containers.

MOISTURISER

WHERE possible, look for beauty products sold in glass jars. This might take a little detective work, as plastic is far cheaper to manufacture and safer to transport. But beauty ranges such as Aurelia and Perricone MD ( cultbeauty.co.uk) have excellent skincare ranges in glass, and Neal’s Yard has always prided itself on its blue glass bottles ( nealsyardremedies.com).

At Lush, you can buy a Full of Grace solid facial serum (£8.25,

uk.lush.com), which melts in your hands. Check out the Body Bliss lotions (£ 6.80 for 100ml,

purenuffstuff.co.uk), which are loaded with essential oils to soften your skin, too.

Or you could try making your own. Just warm a little coconut oil until it melts, then add a few drops of your favourite essential oil and let the mixture cool before applying to your face and body. Store it in a screw-top glass jar.