When you start trying to reduce your plastic footprint, it can seem daunting. Nearly everything is packaged in plastic and/or made of plastic itself. Walk through your typical day and see what plastic you come in contact with and throw away. The easiest swaps that will save the most plastic, are single-use items. Oftentimes, swapping out these single-use items will not only reduce your plastic footprint but will save you money too! These four items are easy swaps that can save you lots of plastic!

Coffee Pods or Coffee Cups

Starting at the beginning of the day, most people have a cup of coffee. If you have a pod system at home, that’s a little plastic pod that gets thrown away every day. Over the years that can add up! Switch to a reusable metal pod and add ground coffee.

I would not buy a reusable plastic pod because the heat from the water will cause the plastic to leach into your coffee. I don’t know about you, but I like my coffee black…no cream, no sugar, no plastic. I talk more about how much money you save switching from pods to ground coffee in a reusable pod in this post:

If you like to patron your local coffee shop on the way to the office, try asking if you can use your reusable cup again. As things return back to normal, more coffee shops will be willing to accept reusable cups. If not, ask for your coffee without the lid and just dump the coffee in your reusable cup. The lid is the majority of the plastic, so you’re saving the bulk. I say “the majority” and not “all” because paper cups are lined with plastic so it’s leakproof.

Water Bottles

It’s estimated that 1 million plastic bottles are bought every minute–that’s almost 20,000 every second. I can’t even wrap my head around how much space that takes and how much plastic waste that creates in a year. The easiest way to avoid this waste is to carry around a reusable water bottle. My favorite brand of reusable water bottles is Klean Kanteen. I have several of their insulated water bottles and coffee cups:

And my kids have their sippy cup version:

It doesn’t matter which brand you purchase, as long as it’s not made of plastic. Just like everything else, plastic will leach into your water. Which brings up another reason why you shouldn’t buy plastic water bottles…they contain MUCH more plastic than tap water. A study measuring microplastics from bottled and tap water from countries around the world found that bottled water had up to 7 times as many microplastic particles in a sample! Skip the plastic water bottles and skip drinking the microplastics.

Utensils

If you’re like most people, you’ve eaten a lot more takeout in the last year. Let’s be honest, how full is the junk drawer where you stash those plastic utensils? Plastic utensils and other food service ware items are one of the most common plastic items found on the beach.

When ordering takeout, ask for no utensils. When going out to eat, throw some utensils in your bag, purse, or pocket. Or order items that don’t require utensils like sandwiches, burritos, tacos, or pizza! I have one of these foldable utensils that I keep in my bag, just in case:

For more tips for plastic-free takeout, check out this post:

Menstrual Products

While periods are luckily not a daily occurrence, you could easily end up using 30 disposable plastic pads or tampons each month. Switching to a menstrual cup was one of the best thing I’ve done since going plastic-free. You can go so much longer without changing them out and it’s reusable!

I talk more about plastic-free periods in this post:

What do you think? Can you try all of these swaps? Or have you already?

For related and random posts, check out:

• 15 Easy Plastic-Free Bathroom Swaps
• 10 Easy Plastic-Free Kitchen Swaps