The road ahead...
Well, January's well and truly over and my intensive first month of plastic-free living is behind me. And what lessons will I be taking forward into the rest of the year?
Well, lesson 1 is that living completely plastic-free in my case at least is well and truly impossible. Having spent the whole of January gritting my teeth against cravings for my favourite cereals, fresh berries and leafy greens, I have enjoyed a spectacular fall from grace int he past week! And even throughout January, it became clear in the very first week that I simply would not be able to find any viable swaps for many of my usual products. To name but a few:
But lesson 2 has been that whilst there are many products that absolutely cannot be sourced without some kind of plastic being involved, there are a great many that can be swapped and substituted (or simply lived without). Having struggled to expunge every scrap of plastic from my shopping basket, I have reached a point where I think I can now afford to cut myself some slack and substitute "low-plastic" for "no-plastic". Here are my favourite discoveries in my first six weeks of "low-plastic" living. What I love about these fixes is that they are sustainable and actually in many cases preferable to my former plasticky solutions:
No. 1: Having milk delivered in bottles. The milkman occasionally gets their timing wrong at random, but on the whole this is a plastic-fix that has saved me a whole lot of time an pfaff and has tapped into a nostalgia for childhood days of Transformers, She-Ra cartoons and Sega Megadrives.
No. 2: Homemade yoghurt and bread. These are two of my favourite staples and I love that they share a symbiotic relationship (the timing of which runs cyclically every week with the delivery of my whole milk), as the bread is made using the whey strained from the yoghurt. This not only gives me a deliciously sweetly sour loaf but provides an application for the waste whey, which ideally shouldn't be disposed of down the drain as this can introduce harmful imbalances to the water table (or so I've read. Whatever the case, it's a winner!) And making these things from scratch is saving me a few pennies in the long-run too.
No. 3: DIY goodies. Cakes, biscuits and all things that are good in life seem to come wrapped in plastic, so having baked my own teatime treats for fun for many years, I am now doing so as a matter of routine. I have also invested in a box of compostable paper bags to facillitate plastic-free transport for my tasty homemade treats. The sacrifices I make for the planet...
No. 4: Dental products. I have discovered that toothbrushes and dental floss can be bought not only made from bamboo but even packaged in bioplastic and compostable packaging! Being someone who is addicted to her electric toothbrush I am loathe to think of finding an alternative (I have used manual brushes in years past and my teeth suffered greatly as a result. I even have the fillings to testify to it!), but I am getting along just fine with the dental floss. It doesn't have the minty-fresh flavour of my usual dental tape and I can't pretend that it's a joy to use, but then again, what dental floss is? In any case, for the sake of the planet, it's a sacrifice I'm happy to make and my teeth certainly have no complaint!
No. 5: Loose-leaf tea. I love my tea and have been using teabags for years purely out of convenience. It was only when I embarked upon my plastic-free quest that I realised that the bags themselves are treated with a thin layer of plastic (for exactly what reason I haven't been able to ascertain!). So from now on I will be taking a little strainer and a pot of leaves into work with me to accommodate my tea habit (which is fierce - I get through four or five cups a day!)
No. 6: Soap and body scrub: I have made my own DIY body scrub for years just for the hell of it, so now I have an even greater incentive to keep up the habit! Just mix extra virgin olive oil (if it was good enough for Roman princes, it's good enough for me!) with coarse rock salt and hey-presto! Home-made body buff! I like to add some additional ingredients sometimes like dried herbs, rose petals, lavender, etc for some added dimension too. And having spent years washing with a plastic puff and shower cream from a bottle, I'm now strictly sticking to the ol' cloth flannel and a good bar of soap (I like Faith in Nature bars, which are sold locally without packaging and also Lush does some lovely bars of soap too). My grandma always told me not to use soap on my face or body because it dries your skin out, but nowadays I find most decent-quality soaps don't have this problem.
Some things haven't turned out so well I must admit. I am trying to grow my own herbs and salad leaves and have not enjoyed great success so far (I've lost two basil plants despite my investment in a Grow Lamp), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my oak-leaf lettuce and the mint plant, both of which seem more suited to my north-facing flat and its decidedly English climate.
Also the local farmer's market sells plenty of lovely plastic-free veg, but it is sadly too expensive a shop for me to make it a regular source of staple foods.
However, I'm not too bothered by these little hiccups: I prefer to concentrate on what I can do, rather than what I can't. I'm looking forward to discovering more plastic fixes in the coming months. I have had to bite the bullet and put up with buying occasional bags of spinach and plastic punnets of blueberries, but I will continue to point out to supermarkets whenever I see pointless packaging that could easily be replaced. And I still believe that if we can all just try to reduce as much as we can, then we can make a real difference to the situation.
Well, lesson 1 is that living completely plastic-free in my case at least is well and truly impossible. Having spent the whole of January gritting my teeth against cravings for my favourite cereals, fresh berries and leafy greens, I have enjoyed a spectacular fall from grace int he past week! And even throughout January, it became clear in the very first week that I simply would not be able to find any viable swaps for many of my usual products. To name but a few:
- Soya milk (also coconut, almond and hazelnut milks)
- Spinach (and any leafy salad leaves)
- Toiletries (although The Body Shop and Lush will recycle your empties if you take them back to the shop)
- Alpro soya desserts (I was addicted to these. I would genuinely eat one every evening after my supper and I'm super-gutted that I can';t have them anymore)
- Cheese & butter - I have tried to find paper-packaged versions of these in local farmer's markets and even they sell their products sealed in plastic prisons. I don't want to have to go vegan for this guys...)
- Cereals (pretty much everything except Scott's Porage Oats, which I love. But I also love Bran Flakes, Rice Crispies and Shreddies, all of which include a pointless plastic sleeve)
But lesson 2 has been that whilst there are many products that absolutely cannot be sourced without some kind of plastic being involved, there are a great many that can be swapped and substituted (or simply lived without). Having struggled to expunge every scrap of plastic from my shopping basket, I have reached a point where I think I can now afford to cut myself some slack and substitute "low-plastic" for "no-plastic". Here are my favourite discoveries in my first six weeks of "low-plastic" living. What I love about these fixes is that they are sustainable and actually in many cases preferable to my former plasticky solutions:
No. 1: Having milk delivered in bottles. The milkman occasionally gets their timing wrong at random, but on the whole this is a plastic-fix that has saved me a whole lot of time an pfaff and has tapped into a nostalgia for childhood days of Transformers, She-Ra cartoons and Sega Megadrives.
No. 2: Homemade yoghurt and bread. These are two of my favourite staples and I love that they share a symbiotic relationship (the timing of which runs cyclically every week with the delivery of my whole milk), as the bread is made using the whey strained from the yoghurt. This not only gives me a deliciously sweetly sour loaf but provides an application for the waste whey, which ideally shouldn't be disposed of down the drain as this can introduce harmful imbalances to the water table (or so I've read. Whatever the case, it's a winner!) And making these things from scratch is saving me a few pennies in the long-run too.
 |
| Plain yoghurt for pouring, plus extra-thick Greek-style with berries. A lot of reward for really very little effort! |
No. 3: DIY goodies. Cakes, biscuits and all things that are good in life seem to come wrapped in plastic, so having baked my own teatime treats for fun for many years, I am now doing so as a matter of routine. I have also invested in a box of compostable paper bags to facillitate plastic-free transport for my tasty homemade treats. The sacrifices I make for the planet...
 |
| Coffee, date and Walnut cake made with coconut oil as well as butter! Perfect for breakfast on-the-go! Recipe coming soon... |
No. 6: Soap and body scrub: I have made my own DIY body scrub for years just for the hell of it, so now I have an even greater incentive to keep up the habit! Just mix extra virgin olive oil (if it was good enough for Roman princes, it's good enough for me!) with coarse rock salt and hey-presto! Home-made body buff! I like to add some additional ingredients sometimes like dried herbs, rose petals, lavender, etc for some added dimension too. And having spent years washing with a plastic puff and shower cream from a bottle, I'm now strictly sticking to the ol' cloth flannel and a good bar of soap (I like Faith in Nature bars, which are sold locally without packaging and also Lush does some lovely bars of soap too). My grandma always told me not to use soap on my face or body because it dries your skin out, but nowadays I find most decent-quality soaps don't have this problem.
Some things haven't turned out so well I must admit. I am trying to grow my own herbs and salad leaves and have not enjoyed great success so far (I've lost two basil plants despite my investment in a Grow Lamp), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my oak-leaf lettuce and the mint plant, both of which seem more suited to my north-facing flat and its decidedly English climate.
Also the local farmer's market sells plenty of lovely plastic-free veg, but it is sadly too expensive a shop for me to make it a regular source of staple foods.
However, I'm not too bothered by these little hiccups: I prefer to concentrate on what I can do, rather than what I can't. I'm looking forward to discovering more plastic fixes in the coming months. I have had to bite the bullet and put up with buying occasional bags of spinach and plastic punnets of blueberries, but I will continue to point out to supermarkets whenever I see pointless packaging that could easily be replaced. And I still believe that if we can all just try to reduce as much as we can, then we can make a real difference to the situation.
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