The Plastic Detox - a unique daily life experiment

The family surrounded by all the plastic taken out of their house. Photo: Bartosz Wozniak

Published Aug 18, 2025

For one month, the Hesse family in Tallkrogen will attempt to live without plastic.

The REDUCE team will empty the family's home and replace, as far as possible, all plastic items with plastic-free alternatives. The family will then live without plastic for a month while we follow the experiment with interviews, film, and diary entries.

How will it go? Is it even possible to live without plastic in everyday life?

The Reduce team ready to kidnap all the family's plastic. Photo: Bartosz Wozniak

Material scientist Mikael Lindström explains about the different types of plastics found in the family's home. Photo: Bartosz Wozniak

The camera crew had to work quickly to catch all the action while the house got emptied. Photo: Bartosz Wozniak

Project leader Professor Sara Ilstedt stands ready with the items replacing the plastic ones we kidnapped from the house. Photo: Bartosz Wozniak

The REDUCE project investigates how consumption of plastic products in everyday life can be reduced. The project is led by OsloMet University. KTH Green Leap is responsible for a work package on future scenarios and everyday experiments. The aim of this experiment is to make visible all the plastic we have in our homes, to explore which alternatives exist and what is lacking, as well as to examine the consequences that a plastic-free life has in everyday life.

The results will be presented through film and exhibitions in Sweden and Norway.

To project page

News