Is it simple vegan and plastic free to live? It speaks for you that you are interested in Vegan life and plastic free lifestyle with each other. But is it even possible to live in a doubly environmentally friendly way?
In this post, I'll show you how you can easily reduce plastic waste and vegan and plastic free living can. With a little creativity you can avoid a lot of unnecessary plastic waste and still live vegan.
Here I have another small Table of contents for you:
- DIY ideas for food
- Buying food vegan and plastic free
- Vegan and plastic free Cosmetics
- Closing words
Notice: Vegan and plastic-free is definitely easier than you think. Once you have read through my tips, you may think that you have to do a lot yourself. But many things can be simplified over time. And if you have a few things already made in stock, then you have something of it for a long time.
DIY ideas for food
Many things you can simply make yourself to combine vegan and plastic-free. I love to cook fresh and try out new things in the kitchen. Maybe I have a special DIY gene in me. If you make some things yourself, vegan and plastic-free is much easier and often you save yourself some money.
Make vegan milk drinks yourself
Instead of buying almond, oat, coconut, soy, rice, cashew, flaxseed, hazelnut drinks in tetrapaks, it's easy to make your own plant-based "milk". I buy the nuts or oats for the plant-based drinks plastic-free in bulk packs.
In my contribution to the Macadamia milk production I show you how you can easily make milk drinks yourself. Of course, the recipe also works with other nuts or oats. With the homemade milk you can easily have a vegan and plastic-free breakfast.
Make cashew cream yourself
For creamy sauces or soups, I use either pureed avocado or homemade cashew cream. This saves me the trouble of having to buy soy or oat cream in a plastic bag. I buy my cashews plastic-free in bulk packs, as they are more sustainable and cheaper that way.
How you can make cashew cream yourself, I show you here in my post on cashew cream. For creamy dishes, the cashew cream is perfect. An optimal cream substitute with which you can easily cook vegan and without plastic.
Make hummus yourself
There are countless hummus recipes and since I like to experiment, I naturally like to make hummus myself. One advantage of this is of course the simple waste reduction. Chickpeas and tahini I buy in a jar instead of ready-made hummus in superfluous plastic packaging to buy.
How you Hummus easy to make yourself I show you in my linked post. The plastic-free everyday life is much easier with vegan hummus.
Make snacks yourself
I make many of my snacks myself. This is usually much cheaper and saves a lot of packaging. With homemade snacks, I know exactly what's in them and that I'm not eating any preservatives or additives. The combination of "vegan and plastic-free" is really super easy.
Two more recommendations of my best vegan recipes can be found here:
Cooking yourself instead of going out to eat
When you cook for yourself, you know exactly what food goes into your meal. And you also know how they were packaged beforehand. There are more and more sustainable restaurants. When you cook for yourself, you not only save plastic, but also money. You can also cook a little more in advance for the next day. This way, you don't have to eat to-go food from a plastic box during your lunch break.
Here I have a few more recipes for vegan and plastic-free living for you:
- Vegan kitchari with red lentils
- Vegan paella with tempeh (coming soon)
- Pumpkin recipes
My DIY kitchen equipment
Stand mixer
Personally, I own a Vitamix, but it is not necessarily low plastic processed. Since I bought the blender before my "plastic enlightenment", I keep him of course anyway. After all, my Vitamix should still have a long life. A good alternative with plastic-reduced processing is the stand mixer from Philips. You can get the blender here.*
Dehydrator
I have the dehydrator BioChef Arizona*, which, however, is processed with plastic. I have not found a completely plastic-free dehydrator. The BioChef Arizona has plastic-free stainless steel trays and BPA-free mats. I use the BioChef Arizona really often and want to use the device for a long time. Thus, I save plastic in the long run, when making some things myself. Thus, the processing with plastic is okay for me, although of course I would have preferred to buy a completely plastic-free dehydrator.
Cooking shovel
A cooking scoop is a small but very useful tool. With the cooking shovel you can easily and uncomplicatedly transport small cut food from your cutting board into the pot or pan.
The cooking scoop is of course not a must-have for vegan and plastic-free cooking. But for me it is a pleasant luxury that makes cooking easier and, above all, faster.
By the way, you can get a good cooking shovel here.*
Germination jars with stainless steel sieve
Since I eat a lot of sprouts and sprouting seeds in my diet, I regularly use sprouting jars. When buying sprouting jars, I made sure to use plastic-free processing so that my sprouted foods don't come into contact with plastic as much as possible.
Sprouts and shoots are a really great component in a healthy diet. They are uncomplicated to make and can be incorporated into various meals. Buckwheat sprouts are super for breakfast, for example in a Muesli or Breakfast porridge. Sunflower sprouts can serve as great salad toppings. Fenugreek sprouts make a great addition to curry dishes. If you want to learn more about healthy eating, check out my Blog about healthy food over.
I can really recommend the germination jars from Eschenfelder. Here you get the glasses in a set of 3 with frame*.
I usually buy my seeds for sprouting in bulk in paper bags and save really large amounts of plastic. Healthy, vegan and plastic-free living becomes much easier with sprouted food.
Food shopping
Buying your groceries is also vegan and plastic-free. In the article on the plastic free shopping you've already gotten some valuable tips on this - now we'll make your shopping vegan, too. This way, we can do everything in our everyday life to jointly reduce the Stop climate change.
Drink tap water
The easiest way to avoid large amounts of plastic is probably to use the Drinking water from glass bottles. If you don't feel like lugging the deposit boxes, just drink tap water.
In the article Water from plastic bottles vs tap water Christoph explains the differences and advantages between tap water and water from plastic bottles. With a glass or stainless steel water bottle, you can always refill your tap water and take it with you or even fill it up for free on the road instead of buying water.
Buying fruit and vegetables plastic-free
At the farmer's market, in the organic food store or even in the supermarket, there is now a large selection of plastic-free packaged fruit and vegetables. Here you can easily reduce plastic waste.
But I'm also not a saint who never buys items with plastic. After all, that's hardly possible these days. Far too often, for example, you find little stickers on fruit or vegetables. What is very important to me, however, is a reduction of my plastic waste and the combination with my vegan everyday life, which has been going on for a long time.
By the way, for plastic-free shopping of fruits and vegetables, a suitable Fruit and vegetable bags excellent.
Frozen vegetables - vegan and plastic-free
I usually try to use rather fresh fruits and vegetables. However, sometimes the frozen option is simply a good choice if, for example, the fresh option is not available.
When buying frozen fruits and vegetables, I always prefer the variety in a carton instead of a plastic bag. The cartons are also easier to stack, which is a great side effect in my small freezer.
Bulk packs instead of small packs
I often order larger quantities of seeds, grains, dates and other dried fruits, spices and more on the Internet. I pay attention to plastic-free bulk packaging and organic quality. The combination of plastic-free packaging and organic quality is often not found in retail stores or is much more expensive, which is why I then resort to online shipping.
I then fill the ordered bulk packs little by little in Preserving jars so that I can store everything in the kitchen to save space. The rest then simply goes into the storeroom.
My "plastic sin" is soy yogurt
However, vegan and plastic-free living can unfortunately not always be combined (yet). From time to time I like to eat soy yogurt, which is currently only available in plastic packaging. The soy yogurt in plastic packaging is for me overall the more sustainable and morally better decision compared to the milk yogurt from the glass.
To compare sustainability, I found a comparison between milk and soy drink. Soy milk produces about 2.5 times less CO² emissions, only half as much land is needed and the water consumption in production is 4 times lower than in milk production. You can find out more about nutrition and sustainability in my article about the connection between Nutrition and climate. I really want to recommend this post to you, as we all pay far too little attention to the environmental impact of what we eat.
Manufacturer like alpro additionally pay attention to the use of regional Soy. This is rarely the case in dairy and meat production, where genetically modified soy from South America is often used as feed.
Furthermore, alpro pays attention to recyclable packaging materials. In alpro's sustainability report, the vision of a circular economy for packaging materials and the exclusive use of sustainable packaging materials was stated. In my opinion, these are great goals, which of course can only be realized with corresponding sales. Of course, I am happy to support these goals.
So now I've digressed a bit again. However, I did not want to leave my "plastic sin" just like that, but explain my point of view. If you also have an opinion about it, then leave it to me in the comments.
No fish, no meat, no dairy = no plastic
Fish, meat and dairy products are often packaged in plastic. In addition, animal products are anything but sustainable. That's why I like to eat vegan and thus also reduce my plastic waste. This way I can kill two birds with one stone.
Ich verstehe allerdings auch, dass der Schritt von einer „normalen Ernährung“ zum Veganismus am Anfang sehr groß erscheint. Hier kann ich dir wirklich ans Herz legen, dich Schritt für Schritt weiterzuentwickeln, neue Rezepte und Lebensmittel kennen zu lernen und deine Ernährung zu verändern. Mir hat diese Veränderung wirklich auch viel Spaß gemacht, weil man so viele neue Dinge kennen lernt. Und noch dazu fühle ich mich fitter als jemals zuvor. 🙂
If you're interested in veganism and maybe need some help getting started, check out my posts below:
- Vegan living - 11 tips for vegan start
- 13 vegan alternatives for animal products
- 12 vegan protein sources
- Fruits and vegetables and why they are so healthy
- 20 tips for more energy in everyday life
Vegan and plastic free cosmetics
Especially Microplastics in cosmetics is finally a real thorn in the side of us consumers. We also have great options for cosmetic products to stay vegan and plastic-free.
App CodeCheck
I recommend you the App CodeCheck. The app is available for Android and iOS. With CodeCheck you can easily scan the barcode of products and then it will show you if the product, for example. Microplastics or palm oil. There are various settings that you can choose, such as vegan, gluten-free, and you can also exclude individual undesirable ingredients. In addition, ingredients that pose a health risk are displayed.
I find the app super helpful when you're on the go and don't have time to research. Just scan the barcode and you'll know immediately if the product is vegan, plastic-free and if it contains any harmful substances.
Curd soap - vegan and plastic free
The good old Curd soap is now really coming back into fashion because it reduces plastic waste and often comes without unhealthy additives. There are curd soap from many different manufacturers.
I use the model Olive Purist from the organic manufacturer ASAVO and am very satisfied with the soap. The skin feels a little more "stop", which was a little unusual at first. I have the feeling when using that you can feel the natural ingredients and that they are good for the skin.
I find the smell of the Olive Purist model pleasantly neutral and not intrusive. For me personally just right. If I want to smell intense, I prefer to use perfume.
The vegan and plastic-free soap from ASAVO comes in different models
- Olive Purist - tested and recommended by me if you like a neutral scent -. you can get the soap here.*
- Rosemary power - the rosemary soap you get here.*
- Lavender time - the lavender soap you get here.*
- Lemon fit - the lemon soap you get here.*
- Metal box to store the soap - you can get the can here.*
Brushing teeth vegan and plastic free
On the subject of vegan and plastic-free tooth brushing, there is already a contribution by Christoph to the Make toothpaste yourself. There you will learn how you can easily make toothpaste yourself at home and at the same time do without unnecessary plastic and unhealthy additives. Healthy, vegan and plastic-free in the desired combination, is also somewhat easier with homemade toothpaste.
Wash hair without plastic
Washing hair without classic shampoo sounds totally crazy at first. However, there are some alternatives that are vegan and plastic-free. Learn more in the article about the Wash hair without plastic.
Washing clothes without plastic
How to wash your clothes vegan and plastic-free, you will learn in the article of Christoph to the Make detergent yourself. Here you get different ways how you still get your laundry clean without bought and plastic-packed detergent. And it's all vegan and plastic-free.
Vegan and plastic-free - is that possible?
Yes, it's possible! Living vegan and plastic-free is much easier than you might think at the beginning. I hope my post has helped you to gradually make your life vegan and plastic-free. Maybe I should say plastic reduced instead of plastic free. It's probably not possible to go 100 % without plastic. After all, so many products, like my laptop mouse and laptop keyboard that I'm writing with right now, are plastic.
A conscious renunciation of plastic and animal products is a great step in the right direction and also shows manufacturers where the priorities of us consumers lie. And then all the more products will be produced sustainably, vegan and plastic-free in the future. After all, demand has a significant influence on supply.
Do you have questions, tips and suggestions for a plastic-free and vegan everyday life? Then I look forward to your comment as always.
All the best,
P.S: Maybe also the Zero Waste Lifestyle something for you. It's all about avoiding waste in everyday life. In the linked article, you can find out how easy it is to do this.
