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🌼 Hippiekit's 12 Sustainable Swaps
Your Plastic Free July Starter Kit
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Hi 💚 - It's Plastic Free July, and I wanted to give you a kickstart. Perfection isn't the goal here. Progress is. Below are the 12 categories I recommend swapping first if you want to cut petroleum, plastic, and unnecessary chemicals out of your daily life - not perfectly, just better. For each one, I've picked 3 brands I actually trust, plus a link to browse everything I've vetted in that category. Affiliate Disclosure: I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you. It helps me keep building this resource. Read the full deep-dive on each swap here. |
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👙 1. Undergarments
Most mainstream underwear is polyester, nylon, or spandex - petroleum-based fabric worn against your skin 12-16 hours a day. Swap to organic cotton.
🌱 Pact Women's Organic Cotton Undies |
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🧴 2. Laundry Detergent
Mainstream liquid detergent means a big plastic jug, petroleum-derived surfactants, and synthetic fragrance blends soaking into every load. Swap to powders and sheets.
🌱 Nellie's Mineral-Based Laundry Soda |
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🧻 2A. Dryer Sheets → Wool Dryer Balls
Dryer sheets work by coating your clothes in a thin layer of synthetic softening chemicals. Wool dryer balls soften with airflow, not chemistry - and you control the scent yourself. Add a few drops of a pure essential oil to your dryer balls before a load for natural fragrance with none of the synthetic coating.
🌱 Clean People Wool Dryer Balls |
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🍽 3. Dish Soap
Spray dish soaps put petroleum-based surfactants and fragrance right into the air you breathe near your food. Swap to plant-based, bar, or tab formats.
🌱 Meliora Plastic-Free Lemon Dish Soap Bar |
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🫧 4. Dishwasher Pods
Mainstream pods wrap petroleum-based surfactants in a dissolving plastic film (PVA) that goes straight down the drain. Swap to plant + mineral formulas.
🌱 If You Care Dishwasher Pods |
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🍳 5. Nonstick (Teflon) Pans
Nonstick coatings are PTFE - a synthetic fluoropolymer that can shed and degrade when overheated or scratched. Swap to stainless steel.
🌱 Caraway Stainless Cookware Set |
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🍴 6. Single-Use Picnic-Wear
A 15-minute picnic fork can outlive you - plastic cutlery and foam plates fragment into microplastics that never fully disappear. Swap to compostable and reusable.
🌱 Repurpose Compostable Bagasse Bowls |
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💧 7. Reusable Water Bottles
Single-use plastic bottles are made from petroleum-based PET and have been shown to shed microplastics, especially with heat. Swap to stainless steel.
🌱 Black+Blum Stainless Steel Explorer Bottle |
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🌸 8. Deodorant
Antiperspirants use aluminum salts to plug your sweat ducts, plus synthetic fragrance and propylene glycol. Swap to plant-based deodorant.
🌱 Ethique Natural Deodorant Stick |
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🚿 9. Shampoo & Conditioner
Mainstream shampoo strips your scalp with sulfates, coats hair in synthetic silicone, and rinses it all down the drain in a plastic bottle. Swap to bars or refillable formats.
🌱 Plaine Products Shampoo & Conditioner - code Hippiekit for 20% off |
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🧴 10A. Face Wash
Popular face washes use industrially-processed cleansing agents, PEG thickeners, and synthetic preservatives in a plastic bottle. Swap to plant-based cleansers.
🌱 Foxbrim Naturals Face Cleanser |
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🧴 10B. Moisturizer
Popular moisturizers coat skin with silicone and petroleum jelly instead of nourishing it. Swap to plant oils and shea butter.
🌱 Butter Me Up Organics Sea Buckthorn Moisturizer |
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🪥 10C. Face Brush
Generic facial brushes use nylon bristles and plastic handles that shed microfibers over time. Swap to natural bristle and bamboo.
🌱 SHASH Face Brush More Sustainable Choices Here → (Only 2 options right now - one more coming.) |
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🥡 11. Plastic Food Storage Containers
Polypropylene containers hold hot, oily, acidic food and go straight into the microwave - a lot of contact with fossil-fuel plastic. Swap to stainless steel and glass.
🌱 Umigy Stainless Food Containers |
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🪟 12. Curtains
Polyester curtains are literally the same plastic family as water bottles - hanging in your sun-warmed windows all day. Swap to linen. |
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You don't have to change everything overnight. Swap one thing. Then another. Momentum builds. Progress over perfection. 🌎 Happy Sustainable Shopping - Team Hippiekit |