Natural scourers and sponges
I'd come to realise that washing up [the manual sort, not a dish-washer] using plastic brushes, scourers etc must be releasing little shreds of plastic into our water system, for wildlife to ingest. Damaging to all, but a killer for small and micro creatures. Sometimes non-plastic alternatives are a bit clunky, but I've found two items which work brilliantly.
First is a washing-up scourer made of loofah, a tropical plant like a marrow which dries to form a soft skeletal structure; you buy it as a flat pad, and when first put in water it puffs up hugely, and is brilliant as a non-scratching but effective scourer of plates etc; it's squashable so that it can clean inside glasses, mugs etc. I use mine daily for a full washing-up session, and it lasts for a good couple of months before becoming a bit crummy, at which point it just goes into the garden compost. And all the while, the only shreds that go down the sink are purely vegetable matter :-). This is a really brilliant natural washing-up aid.
Second is a surface-cleaning sponge made of cellulose (so from trees/plants); I've found that it looks and behaves exactly like a synthetic sponge, for wiping down surfaces etc. It only releases natural shreds, and at the end of its long life it can just go in the compost. Again, a really workable alternative to synthetics.
Look for LoofCo and Maistic products in organic-product shops such as Infinity and Hisbe in Brighton.
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