Washing up liquid, however, is certainly not the only household item using up single-use plastic – and it is not just packaging we should be concerned about when doing our weekly shop.
Ecover stressed less than half of plastic bottles made for household items were collected for recycling and just seven per cent of those collected were recycled.
The company’s Long Term Innovation Manager, Tom Domen, said Ecover was making a “long-term ambition to stop using virgin plastic”.
Crisps
Friends of the Earth lists crisp packets as one of the top worst household items for plastic waste alongside less surprising products such as water bottles, wet wipes and clothes.
About six billion packets of crisps are bought every year in the UK (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
And yet, around six billion packets of crisps are bought every year, in the UK alone, the BBC reports.
Palm oil – present in cooking items including chocolate, margarine, ice cream and bread – has led to widespread deforestation due to its overconsumption in recent decades.
The World Wide Fund for Nature found the conversion of forests into palm oil plantations was releasing “massive quantities of carbon dioxide, fuelling climate change, and destroying the habitat of species like orangutans”.
Suncream
Like shampoo, suncream is generally bought in a single-use plastic container which may not always be recycled.
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Read MoreAccording to Green Peace, research has shown sunscreen harms wildlife and is a significant contributor to coral bleaching.
In total, 14,000 tons of suncream washes into the ocean every year, a 2016 study found.
Skincare
While tiny plastic particles in rinse-off products like soap and shampoo are now banned, cosmetic producers in the UK can still add the plastics to skincare products.
Meanwhile, the University of Birmingham found in September there was “a significant oversight in… global regulatory frameworks that predominantly concentrate on rinse-off products”.
She added: “Despite the likely extensive skin exposure to microplastics through such products, there is a surprising lack of research to investigate the associated health effects, with no studies found on microplastic exposure identified in this review.”
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