Futuring Orange founder Mrs Hook has been doing Plastic Free July since she first learned about it four years ago, but has been actively cutting down plastic use for over 25 years since her university days.

"When I was a uni student going to supermarkets I looked at people walking out with 15 shopping bags each and adding it up in my head knew it wasn't good," she said.

"I did some research and found there were something like 6.5 billion bags used each year all going into landfill and waterways. Hopefully it's a lot less now."

Mrs Hook said she loved the idea of going through July without buying anything with plastic in it.

The shift of mentality is something people need to begin clicking into in order to change their habits.

"Everyone thinks they're doing their best and I have no doubt they are, but often they think they're doing their best while in the supermarkets, and they're not providing the tools we need, so I think we need to pivot to doing what's necessary."

She said one of the hardest aspects of not using plastic is asking servers to consider using alternatives, which can range from cloth bags to Tupperware containers to paper, and shopping across different stores rather than a supermarket.

"One of the hardest things can be asking. If you tell people you're trying to cut down on plastic they'll often understand and want to help."

"It's all about changing habits. You also have to break up your shopping, because it's just not possible to buy everything sustainably from one spot."

There are five things which stand out as hard to buy without plastic, but Mrs Hook has some advice.

Farmers market is a great way to get rid of plastic if you do your shopping there.

Mrs Hook said a lot of the produce is made and grown locally which helps suppliers and has other environmental impacts, but above all she said vendors are always open to forgoing plastic.

"You can feel confident bringing a cloth bag along or your glass or Tupperware containers."

Bread was "one of the hardest things we found" to buy without plastic, but once you know the secret, you're set.

"Often I'll go to some of the smaller bakeries with a cloth bag and ask for an unsliced loaf and hand it over as I'm ordering," she said.

"With the slicing machine at baker's delight you can bring an old used bread bag and clip and they're pretty happy to help out there."

The solution to buying cheese without all the plastic wrappings is also a social one, which Mrs Hook said can be organised as part of her Facebook page Plastic Free Orange.

"Last year a group of us got together and chipped in to buy a large wheel of cheese from Harris Farm, so we all paid $15 or $20 and took our wedge of cheese," she said.

Remember glass milk bottles delivered in the morning? While those days are long gone, there's still a way around getting milk without the two litre plastic bottles.

"You can head to Woolworths to buy one litre cardboard cartons which still have a bit of plastic lining on the inside but it's better than the alternative," she said.

Buying meat without plastic is becoming easier and easier when you look outside major supermarkets. While some, like IGA on Summer Street, allow you to order meat just in the paper, the bigger chains don't.

However, going even smaller can be a solution, with independent butchers jumping onboard to help cut down plastic, who are more than happy to put snags and steaks in Tupperware.

READ ALSO: FOOD FOR THOUGHT | Lockdown was hard, but a surge is on the cards

"Some smaller butchers will happily put meat in a Tupperware container if you ask," Mrs Hook said.