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Vegan and plastic-free - is both possible?

Vegan and plastic-free - do the two go together?

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 article, 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 go vegan.

Here I have another small Table of contents for you:

Notice: Vegan and plastic-free is definitely easier than you think. Once you've read through my tips, you might think that you have to do an awful lot yourself. But a lot of things can definitely be simplified over time. And if you've already made a few things in advance, you'll be able to enjoy them for longer.

DIY ideas for food

You can easily make many things yourself to combine vegan and plastic-free. I love cooking fresh and trying 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 you often save a lot of money too.

Make vegan milk drinks yourself

Instead of buying almond, oat, coconut, soy, rice, cashew, linseed and hazelnut drinks in tetrapaks, it's really easy to make your own plant-based "milk". I buy the nuts or oats for the plant-based drinks in plastic-free bulk packs.

In my contribution to the Macadamia milk production I'll show you how you can easily make your own milk drinks. Of course, the recipe also works with other nuts or oats. Homemade milk makes it easy to have a vegan and plastic-free breakfast.

Make cashew cream yourself

Cashews for cashew cream vegan and plastic free

For creamy sauces or soups, I either use pureed avocado or homemade cashew cream. This saves me having to buy tetrapacks of soy or oat cream. I buy my cashews in plastic-free bulk packs as they are more sustainable and cheaper.

How you can make cashew cream yourself, I show you here in my post on cashew cream. Cashew cream is perfect for creamy dishes. An ideal cream substitute that makes it easy to cook vegan and without plastic.

Make hummus yourself

There are countless hummus recipes and as I like to experiment, I naturally like to make hummus myself. One advantage of this is of course the simple reduction in waste. I buy chickpeas and tahini in a jar instead of ready-made hummus in unnecessary 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

Make your own snacks to live vegan and plastic free

I make many of my snacks myself. This is usually much cheaper and also saves a lot on packaging. With homemade snacks, I know exactly what's in them and that I'm not consuming 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 it was 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. For example, you don't need to eat to-go food from a plastic box during your lunch break.

Here I have a few more recipes for you for vegan and plastic-free living:

My DIY kitchen equipment

Stand mixer

I personally own a Vitamix, but it's not necessarily made with a low plastic content. Since I bought the blender before my "plastic enlightenment", I'm keeping it anyway, of course. After all, I want my Vitamix to have a long life. A good alternative with a plastic-reduced finish is the stand mixer from Philips. You can get the blender here.*

Dehydrator

Dehydrator as equipment for vegan and plastic-free living

I have the dehydrator BioChef Arizona*, which is, however, processed with plastic. I have not found a completely plastic-free dehydrator. The BioChef Arizona at least has plastic-free stainless steel shelves and BPA-free insert mats. I use the BioChef Arizona really often and want to use the appliance for a long time to come. This saves me plastic in the long term when I make some things myself. So the plastic finish 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 simply transfer chopped food from your chopping board to 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, quicker.

You can get a good cooking shovel here.*

Germination jars with stainless steel sieve

Sprouting jars as equipment for vegan and plastic-free living

As I eat a lot of sprouts and seedlings in my diet, I regularly use sprouting jars. When buying sprouting jars, I make sure that they are plastic-free so that my sprouted food does not come into contact with plastic.

Sprouted seeds and sprouts are a really great part of a healthy diet. They are easy to prepare and can be incorporated into various meals. Buckwheat sprouts are great for breakfast, for example in a Muesli or Breakfast porridge. Sunflower sprouts can serve as a great salad topping. Fenugreek sprouts are an excellent addition to curry dishes. If you would like to find out more about healthy eating, take a look at my Blog about healthy eating 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 packs in paper bags, which really saves a lot of plastic. Healthy, vegan and plastic-free living is much easier with sprouted food.

Food shopping

You can also buy your food vegan and plastic-free. In the article on plastic free shopping you've already been given some valuable tips - now we'll make your shopping vegan too. This way, we can do everything we can in our everyday lives to protect the Stop climate change.

Drink tap water

Tap water instead of plastic bottles for vegan and plastic-free living

The easiest way to do without large quantities 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 drinking bottle made of glass or stainless steel, you can always refill your tap water and take it with you or even fill it up for free on the go instead of buying water.

Plastic-free shopping for fruit and vegetables

vegan and plastic-free shopping

There is now a large selection of plastic-free packaged fruit and vegetables at the weekly market, organic food stores and supermarkets. 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. All too often you find little stickers on fruit or vegetables, for example. What is very important to me, however, is reducing my plastic waste and combining it with my vegan lifestyle.

Incidentally, a plastic-free shopping cart is ideal for buying fruit and vegetables. Fruit and vegetable bags excellent.

Frozen vegetables - vegan and plastic-free

I usually try to use fresh fruit and vegetables. However, sometimes the frozen option is a good choice if, for example, the fresh option is not available.

When buying frozen fruit and vegetables, I always prefer to buy them in a box rather than a plastic bag. The boxes are also easier to stack, which is a great side effect in my small freezer compartment.

Large packs instead of small packs

I often order larger quantities of seeds, grains, dates and other dried fruits, spices and more online. I look for plastic-free bulk packaging and organic quality. The combination of plastic-free packaging and organic quality is often not available in retail stores or is much more expensive, which is why I then resort to online shipping.

I then gradually fill the ordered bulk packs into Preserving jars so that I can store everything in the kitchen to save space. The rest is then simply put in the storeroom.

My "plastic sin" is soy yogurt

Unfortunately, living vegan and plastic-free is not (yet) always possible. Every now and then I like to eat soy yogurt, which is currently only available in plastic packaging. For me, soy yogurt in plastic packaging is the more sustainable and morally better choice overall than milk yogurt in a jar.

To compare sustainability, I found a comparison between milk and soy drink. Soy milk produces around 2.5 times less CO² emissions, only half as much land is needed and water consumption in production is 4 times lower than in milk production. You can find out more about nutrition and sustainability in my article on the connection between Nutrition and climate. I would really like to recommend this article to you, as we all pay far too little attention to the environmental impact of our food.

Manufacturer like alpro also pay attention to the use of regional soy. This is rarely the case in milk and meat production, where genetically modified soy from South America is often used for animal 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 didn't want to just leave my "plastic sin" there, but rather explain my point of view. If you also have an opinion on this, please let me know in the comments.

No fish, no meat, no dairy = no plastic

Fish, meat and dairy products are often packaged in plastic. What's more, animal products are anything but sustainable. That's why I like to eat a vegan diet and reduce my plastic waste. That way I can simply kill two birds with one stone.

However, I also understand that the step from a "normal diet" to veganism seems very big at first. I can really recommend that you develop step by step, get to know new recipes and foods and change your diet. I really enjoyed this change because I got to know so many new things. And I also feel fitter than ever before 🙂

If you are interested in veganism and maybe need some help getting started, then take a look at my following posts:

Vegan and plastic free cosmetics

Especially Microplastics in cosmetics is finally a real thorn in our side as consumers. We also have great opportunities to remain vegan and plastic-free when it comes to cosmetic products.

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 it will then show you whether the product is, for example Microplastics or palm oil. There are various settings you can choose from, such as vegan, gluten-free and you can also exclude individual undesirable ingredients. You will also be shown ingredients that pose a health risk.

I find the app super helpful when you're out and about and don't have time to do any research. Simply scan the barcode and then you know immediately whether the product is vegan and plastic-free and whether it contains substances that are harmful to health. 

Curd soap - vegan and plastic-free

Curd soap vegan and plastic free shower

The good old Curd soap is now really coming back into fashion because it reduces plastic waste and often does not contain any unhealthy additives. There are curd soaps from many different manufacturers.

I use the Olive Purist model from the organic manufacturer ASAVO and am very satisfied with the soap. The skin feels a little more "stubborn", which was a little unusual at first. When using it, I have the feeling 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. Just right for me personally. If I want an intense scent, I prefer to use perfume.

The vegan and plastic-free soap from ASAVO comes in different models

Brush your teeth vegan and plastic-free

There is already an article by Christoph on the topic of vegan and plastic-free tooth brushing on the Make toothpaste yourself. Here you can find out how you can easily make your own toothpaste at home while avoiding unnecessary plastic and unhealthy additives. Healthy, vegan and plastic-free in the desired combination is also a little easier with homemade toothpaste.

Wash hair without plastic

Washing your hair without traditional shampoo sounds totally crazy at first. However, there are some alternatives that are vegan and plastic-free. You can find out more in the article about the Wash hair without plastic.

Doing laundry without plastic

Washing clothes without artificial additives, vegan and plastic free

You can find out how to wash your laundry vegan and plastic-free in Christoph's article on the Make detergent yourself. Here you will find various ways to get your laundry clean without using store-bought detergent packaged in plastic. And it's all vegan and plastic-free.

Vegan and plastic-free - is that possible?

Yes, you can! Living vegan and plastic-free is much easier than you might think at first. I hope my article has helped you to gradually make your life vegan and plastic-free. Perhaps I should say plastic-reduced rather than plastic-free. It's probably not possible to go 100 % plastic-free. After all, so many products, such as my laptop mouse and the laptop keyboard I'm currently using to write, are also made of plastic.

Consciously avoiding 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, in future, all the more products will be produced sustainably, vegan and plastic-free. 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,

Make hummus yourself - hummus recipes

P.S: Maybe also the Zero Waste Lifestyle something for you. It's about simply avoiding waste in your everyday life. Read the linked article to find out how easy it is.

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* Links with asterisks are so-called Affiliate linksIf you click on it and buy something, you automatically and actively support my work with CareElite.de, as I receive a small share of the proceeds - and of course nothing changes in the product price. Many thanks for your support and best regards, Christoph!

Julian Hölzer

Julian Hölzer

Hi, my name is Julian and I am a trained vegan nutritionist. In 2016 I started to get involved with veganism and quickly learned how big an impact our diet has on the environment and how diverse plant-based diets can be. That's why I want to inspire you to get involved with veganism too.

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