Life Without Plastic has a lot of items you would expect to find in a plastic-free lineup: mason jars and accessories, glass food storage with bamboo-and-silicone lids; that sort of thing. There are a few items that really stand out and are worth covering in detail.

Folding Spork

One of the staples of a disposable-avoiding lifestyle is reusable cutlery. There are a lot of different styles to choose from, depending on which tools you need and the circumstances of use. How portable do they need to be? Can you wash them at the same location where you'll be eating? Do you really need anything any fancier than a mismatched set you can get at a thrift store for next to nothing and without making anything new?

LWP's folding spork is a nice option for those seeking extreme portability and simplicity. If your food can be eaten with a spork, this may be all you need, especially considering that it's sturdy enough to do at least some cutting with an edge. It folds up small and is easy to clean, and the cloth bag doesn't add much extra bulk, as some carrying cases do.

One slight drawback: as a spoon, it's very shallow, especially given that the tines cut into the bowl a bit. This is helpful to keep it flat and portable, but it also means that if you're contending with thin soup or melted ice cream, you might be better off just drinking it.

If you want something at the other end of the cutlery spectrum, consider Outlery.

Boar-Bristle Toothbrushes

Bamboo-handled toothbrushes are another staple of low-waste life, but most use nylon bristles. This means that when a toothbrush reaches its end of life, you usually have to either break off the head or pull the bristles out with pliers to go in the trash. LWP instead offers toothbrushes made with boar hair, which are completely compostable.

One obvious caveat here is that the toothbrush is compostable, but not vegan, which may be a sticking point for some. The site claims that the boar hair is "a by-product of the meat industry in China", so if the pigs' fate--both life and death--was already sealed by other demand, it may be just as well to get more use out of them.

I haven't had the opportunity to actually test these yet, so a real review will come later. Apparently the bristles can be pretty stiff, but will soften up with soaking.

Steel Mason Jar Lids

Plenty of zero-waste shops will sell fancy lids for creatively using mason jars, but it's nice to see plain old screw-top lids available here. Not the "canning rings", but just screw-top lids that can be used when a canning seal isn't needed. These are usually plastic if you get them from the jar manufacturers.

Both wide-mouth and standard sizes are available.

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