By Catherine Somerville of Sustainable Wallingford.

A recent report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Greenpeace states that sales of Bags for Life have increased by 26 per cent since 2018.

It states that seven out of the top 10 supermarkets' plastic footprint has increased year on year, partly due to Bags for Life.

The only ones not to do so were Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, but their decrease was minimal.

The only solution is to create and buy less plastic in the first place because relying on recycling isn’t working.

Read https://tinyurl.com/qwhrko4 for more information on why recycling should be our last resort.

Here is a reminder of some of the quick wins.

1. Keep all your reusable bags together in a prominent place.

2. Take your reusable water bottle/ refillable cup with you every day.

3. Don’t buy bottled water: tap water in the UK is better regulated and tested than any bottled water.

4. Where there is a choice, pick goods packaged in glass or tins, instead of plastic. Glass and aluminium cans are widely recycled. Glass is the most efficient packaging when reused.

5. Take your own containers for meat and fish. Use muslin bags for dried goods and loose fruit and veg, or reuse paper bags.

6. Choose products with less packaging. Say ‘no’ to pre-packaged vegetables and other items that could be sold loose.

7. Buy loose tea instead of teabags. Did you know most ‘paper’ teabags are lined with plastic?

8. Use bars of soap (also use for shampoo and shaving) instead of bottles. If you must have liquid soap, refill the bottles.

9. Use a bamboo toothbrush or at least a brush where the head is replaceable. Most bristles will still have synthetic fibres, but you can at least avoid throwing away the brush’s plastic arm every few months.

10. Buy fewer clothes, or go secondhand.

11. Wash your clothes less often so they last longer. Hang them out to dry.

12. Most clothing contains synthetic fibres. These fibres shed in the wash and end up in waterways. See our previous columns in the Herald on this subject.

13. If shopping online, group as many items together as possible, so you can receive fewer plastic bags.

Be sure to use everything as many times as possible so that it is worth the resources needed to create it.

Tell us your quick wins so we can share them.