We all know that plastic bottles and disposable coffee cups are bad for the environment. But the truth is, plastic is everywhere. Scientists have found microplastics in the air, water, beer, seafood, and salt; a study published in Environmental Science & Technology in June 2019 suggested we eat between 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles a year — and breathe in even more. When it comes to fashion, it’s the plastic in our clothes that we need to worry about. One load of washing can release up to 700,000 microfibres according to a study from November 2016 (although estimates from other studies are significantly higher). And research from August 2019 found that the delicate wash cycle — despite its deceptive description — is even worse for the environment, shedding on average 800,000 more microfibres per load. But there are other, rather surprising everyday items that also contain plastic. Here, Vogue rounds up what you should be looking out for, and how to avoid it. Sheet masks  Individually wrapped sheet masks are a plastic double-whammy. The mask itself is often made from nylon or polyester, while the pouches they’re packaged in also contain plastic combined with aluminium, which is difficult to recycle. If you want to dispose of your sheet masks properly, look for organisations such as waste management company TerraCycle, which specialises in hard-to-recycle materials. Meanwhile, switch to masks made out of biodegradable materials such as Natura’s bamboo sheets, which have 100 per cent plant-based origins. Wet wipes  Also often made from polyester, wet wipes are another huge problem for the environment, ending up on beaches and in oceans, and releasing microplastics into the water supply as they break down. Make sure you don’t flush them down the toilet, and opt for biodegradable wipes from brands such as Natracare and Jackson Reece. When it comes to face wipes, kick the habit completely by using flannels and reusable cotton pads instead. Sequins Though once made out of metal, most sequins are now made out of PVC and are non-biodegradable. Luckily, companies such as the Sustainable Sequin Company are producing sequins made from recycled plastic, but until these are available on a mass scale, it’s probably best to avoid buying a new sequin dress for the festive season. Sanitary pads Sanitary pads are made from up to 90 per cent plastic, according to Friends of the Earth, with the material found in every layer. Tampons, while made out of cotton, also contain plastic in the applicator and the string. There are now a number of more eco-friendly alternatives on the market, such as those found at Freda and Flo, including pads made out of renewable materials, reusable pads and Mooncups. Teabags When enjoying a cup of tea, you wouldn’t expect to be drinking microplastics as well. But according to a study from September 2019, a single teabag made out of plastic mesh can release 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics. Even teabags made out of paper contains a small amount of plastic used to seal it. Instead, opt for plastic-free teabags, such as those made by Clipper, which are biodegradable or compostable, or try drinking loose-leaf tea. Chewing gum Did you know that chewing gum can contain polyethylene and polyvinyl acetate? Those are forms of plastic, FYI, and were introduced as alternatives to chicle, its former main ingredient found in sap from Mesoamerican trees. Not only is polyvinyl acetate also found in PVA glue and polyethylene found in plastic bags, but they also aren’t biodegradable and can end up in the stomachs of animals. There are plenty of plant-based gums available on the market, such as Chewsy and Simply Gum for a much more eco-friendly choice. Crisp packets  Crisp packets are made of layers of metallised film in order to keep the contents fresh, which means they usually can’t be recycled because of the mixture of materials involved. Research is currently being done into alternative packaging, such as synthetic nanosheets using non-toxic materials; but as New Scientist reports, a long regulatory process means that we won’t see these advancements for a few years. In the meantime, organisations such as TerraCycle have set up recycling schemes specifically for crisp packets. Drinks cartons While you might assume that drinks cartons are made out of cardboard, they are also coated with up to 20 per cent plastic to prevent leakages, as well as 5 per cent foil, according Recycle Now— making them more difficult to recycle. Make sure you check whether your local authority can recycle drinks cartons, and opt for glass bottles where possible as a more sustainable alternative.

It's true that clean makeup has come a long way in the last five years. It's even come a long way in the last year alone. While we're more invested than ever before in finding beauty products that are safer for our bodies and the environment, that often comes at the sacrifice of performance, pigment, and payoff. There are plenty of clean makeup swaps for products you've traditionally loved like lipstick, eyeshadows, and creamy blushes and highlighters. But mascara? As a diehard mascara junkie, I can confidentially say that most clean mascaras are...fine. They lengthen and define but often flake and fail by the end of the day. Saie is here to change that.

Saie (pronounced say) was dreamed up by founder and CEO Laney Crowell. Formerly an executive at Estée Lauder, Crowell tapped a team of seasoned cosmetics veterans and wellness-focused influencers to help with product development, sustainability, and branding. Beauty giant Unilever then got on board and invested in Saie. The result is an initial launch of four products (mascara, tinted lip balm, an eyelash curler, and two shades of brow gel) tailored to the beauty lover who doesn't have time to do a full face beat. While most clean makeup products are cost prohibitive, all Saie's products will be priced under $25. There will be new launches from the brand every six weeks—so get your makeup bag ready. Saie's clean makeup ingredient standards are rigorous. Not only are there over 2,000 ingredients they won't ever touch, they're also proud to formulate without phenoxyethanol, an alcohol-based preservative used by many other makeup brands that call themselves clean. The ingredient, often used as a safer alternative to parabens, is potentially allergenic and irritating.

The star of show is Saie's $24 mascara. When I met with Crowell, she explained that most clean mascaras are water-based. When that water inevitably evaporates the formula starts to flake. Which is why clean mascaras have a bad reputation of ghosting before the day is done. Saie's formula is packed with oils that actually stay wet. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it's not. The formula does dry down but not all the way, which means the inky black color stays malleable on your lashes and doesn't flake. The formula is more defining and lengthening than volumizing, but you can pack on several layers to get thicker lashes without risking clumps. Plus, the brush is genius. The rubber bristles are perfect for separating each lash, and there's a rounded spiky tip that goes one step further to help you get those annoying inner lashes.

The $16 liquid lip balm comes in one universal shade of mauve and is formulated with sustainably-sourced beeswax. It's also worth noting that every ingredient in the brand's formulas are biodegradable. The product packaging is 100% recyclable and the lip balm tube is made from post-consumer plastic. If you want to recycle any of the brand's products after you're done using them, just shoot them an email. They'll send you a shipping label so that no product ever gets thrown in the trash. Crowell assured me that they're working toward fully sustainable packaging and are currently partnered with TerraCycle and Carbon Credit Capital.

There are two brow gels in the line, each priced at $18. One is clear and one is a faint light brown shade that is universal as long as you don't apply 20 layers of pigment. They're perfect for sweeping quickly over brows for a little definition. The $18 sturdy lash curler comes in the brand's signature lilac shade.

When I first heard that a zero-waste wine bar had opened in Brooklyn, the first of its kind in the city, I imagined composting how-to's on the walls and bamboo cups on the tables—telltale signs that a space is branding itself as sustainable in this day and age. I found no such things when I visited on a drizzly evening this fall. Filled with weathered wooden booths, marble tabletops, flickering candles, and throaty background music, Rhodora feels like any other trendy restaurant in NYC. The space doesn't hit people over the head with its green ambition, Halley Chambers, Rhodora's deputy director, tells me from across the table, and in fact, many guests go the entire night without realizing that they're dining in a zero-waste experiment. The subtlety is intentional: "It shows you can have this really beautiful experience that isn't reductive," Chambers says. "It doesn't feel sparse or scarce." It's true that unless you read the mission statement printed on the front of Rhodora's paper menus (biodegradable, of course), it would be easy to miss all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the space. "It's, of course, hard to see, because we have no waste," she smiles. A full dining experience with zero waste. So what does it mean for a wine bar to be zero-waste? For starters, it doesn't have trash cans. Anything left over after a nightly service is either recycled or reused. All food scraps are sent to the basement to be composted on site. Plastic cups, cutlery, and straws are banned. For times when waste is truly unavoidable (when a customer brings an empty chip bag in from outside, for example), there is one emergency box that gets sent to TerraCycle, a company that recycles things that would usually need to go to landfill. More impressively, the food and wine that's served is also waste-free. Rhodora's staff picks up their own veggies from a nearby farmers market, the cheese and eggs are delivered in sturdy bins to be returned and reused, and anything that's shipped from out of town comes in packaging that can be recycled or composted—all the way down to paper tape. The supply chain is the biggest source of waste for most restaurants, Chambers explains, but Rhodora has found that many of their suppliers are keen to try out a more eco-friendly way of operating. Their linen company, for example, was inspired to nix the single-use plastic wrapping it used for all of its deliveries after Rhodora requested that their shipment come in reusable linen bags. And their cleaning supplier, which operates nearby, agreed to make the extra trip to stop by and collect Rhodora's empty bottles to be refilled. "It speaks to the fact that everyone actually wants to do something," says Chambers.

Can this model work for other restaurants? Despite the flexibility of some suppliers, maintaining a supply chain that's hyper-diligent about waste is still a huge challenge. Chambers says that single-use plastic inevitably makes its way into the front door sometimes, and there's some question over whether all their recyclables are actually getting recycled. She acknowledges that eateries outside a city like New York, where tons of producers operate within a few blocks of one another, would find it even more challenging to do business like this. Rhodora's menu is also limited to a few simple small plates (the emphasis is mostly on the fun, funky natural wine section), which means they have an easier time sourcing sustainable ingredients than a full-fledged restaurant would. But the hope is that the space serves as a case study that others in the food industry can look to for inspiration. It doesn't set out to be a finish line as much as a starting point. "We are acutely aware that our tiny natural wine bar is not going to have an outsized impact unless we find collaborators who are interested in pushing for the same thing," says Chambers. "The partnership aspect is so important—not just on a local level but on a systemic level of how we actually address waste."

The past, present, and future of conscious dining. While it's the first of its kind in New York, Rhodora joins a small cohort of restaurants around the world that operate from a zero-waste mission. Silo, Douglas McMaster's fine dining restaurant in London, is probably the most impressive and well known, and it was the initial inspiration for Rhodora. (After doing a pop-up with McMaster, the Oberon Group, a carbon-neutral hospitality company in New York, was inspired to take its own sustainable mission further. When they found it too difficult to rejigger an existing restaurant into a zero-waste one, they opened Rhodora from scratch instead.) "[McMaster] was instructive in showing us how much more we could do to reduce our waste footprint—and that running a restaurant is possible without trash," Chambers explains. In talking with Chambers about Rhodora's early success, it's easy to believe that the zero-waste restaurant movement is just getting started: that the small outpost in Brooklyn is the latest in a chain reaction of eateries inspiring one another to do a little better, to use a little less.