We personally have tried reducing our plastic usage, switching to reusables where possible and in our style of shopping and at home with what we have and what we use. However there are some things we just can't get around. Availability being one and the simple truth of cost being another.
For example - we buy cereal.
Usually oats and muesli type for ourselves, except when the boys and their lovely girls come home, then we keep their favourites on the shelf too. Where possible, we purchase a paper bagged variety from our usual supermarket or from our own lovely village shop with a refill station - it is small (and perfectly formed!) so does not have the capacity to keep a big selection of cereals apart from oats.
Commercial cereal cardboard boxes are recyclable but the plastic food grade bag inside is not. So once we have finished the contents, the box goes into the paper skip and the bag is pulled fully open, cleaned and then stored to be used as a sandwich or cheese wrap. I make sure that this 'wrap' is then used many times before it then is disposed of - removing some of its 'single use plastic' moniker but it still is not biodegradable.
Bread bags.
We used to purchase a rather delicious bloomer style loaf when the boys were still home as each slice was thick and chunky and filled hollow teenager legs. These loaves came in paper bags which were not 'lined' on the inside by a thin layer of plastic so once eaten, the loaf bags went happily into the paper skip. Now it is just Himself and I, we have 'downgraded' to a simpler thinner sliced bread with 'bits' in it - partly due to cost again and partly as we found the previous doorstop type sandwiches were actually quite a 'chore' to munch through in a short lunch break slot. These loaves are sold in plastic bags..... so they are kept and used to store foodstuffs in the freezer, reducing their single use status again, but still needing to ultimately be disposed of.
Mushrooms/tomatoes/fruit punnets
These are all kept, used either in the greenhouse, as food holders in the fridge, seed packet storage, thread/yarn bits/fabric trimming holders or crumb 'catchers' when we wipe down surfaces then given to the birds or the chickens.
However, ultimately - they are all eventually thrown away (the punnets are either the 'wrong' plastic to recycle or the type that are non-recyclable) but only after they have had to work for that 'privilege' .
Eldest's girlfriend has been working on a 'single use sculpture' with her geography pupils and we were saving plastic lids as part of it....... There was that oxymoron moment when I was pleased to be able to hand over a 'goodly' selection of lids to her yet it brought home how many our 'simple' life style produced.... things have got to change.
Not just us, but everyone including the producers. Either plastic has to be 100% recyclable or replaced with something that is.
Food for thought (sic).
If you are interested (and you should be)
https://thebigplasticcount.com
https://www.citytosea.org.uk/plastic-free-living
https://www.everydayplastic.org
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/
I just signed up - but will I actually remember to do it is the question!?
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Well done!
Deleteall we are doing is keeping all the plastic in one box, will count it at the end of the week then sort it out into the appropriate bin or recycling box.
I heard about that this morning.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great step forward that supermarkets..just seen sainsbugs and the coop so far,recycling soft plastic, including crisp bags.
We are reducing what we get into the house drastically. All the lose bits go in a plastic carrier bag then go to the soft plastic recycling bin.
The plastic sorting machines cannot cope with the dark coloured plastic mushroom boxes...but the white or pale or clear are ok
Our local shop had been collecting crisp packets etc via an organised recycling scheme which unfortunately has now run out of funding (how ironic) so we now no longer have that option of recycling here in the village. The mushroom punnets we use are a dark chocolate brown and apparently some do get through but a number of them go straight to land fill, so wrong!
DeleteYou can put the inner plastic bags from the cereal boxes in with the other soft plastics recycling schemes run by the supermarkets. They make excellent freezer bags too. Arilx
ReplyDeleteI agree with the inner plastic bags are good for freezing - our supermarkets don't run that scheme round here - we are still a little .... backward....!
DeleteI'm with you on with too much plastic, but you are right, that it isn't always easy to get away from it. My oats only come in cardboard box & I then pour them into a glass container for use. Our supermarkets also do the soft plastic recycling schemes and we are way more behind the times than UK.(giggle) Remembering when I was young (sad face) and how everything we bought was put into brown paper bags from the corner store or fruit & veg carried home in our cane basket. Even milk when I was very little came with the milkman, his horse and cart in milk churns and then ladled out into our own billy can and taken inside to the "ice chest". Making you laugh? How times have changed...................thanks for this thought provoking post. Take care & hugs.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to paper bags in itself is not really sustainable either - despite its recyclable properties - I wonder if reusable is the way for packaging for the majority of foodstuffs and a more recyclable 'plastic' alternative for things like meat etc
DeleteThe darn stuff is just everywhere. I can remember Mum & Dad putting less than half a bag of rubbish out a month...and some of that was fire ash. Now although we recycle what we can it can be ridiculous the amount that builds up. x
ReplyDeleteIt is - makes it very difficult to go without it. We do our best but there are some things we just can not buy without some sort of excessive packaging.
DeleteWe're taking part in this as well. I try my best but it's not very easy to reduce single use plastic. Xx
ReplyDeleteI agree - it is not easy at all x
DeleteA hard game to play. Not help by so much stuff wrapped up and in some case double-wrapped. All we can do is try our best. x
ReplyDeleteA hard game indeed but one we need to play - but like you say - when things are double wrapped or you have no choice but to pick up a bag of items rather than an individual one (Sweet potatoes are my bugbear - only need one but have buy a bag) grrrrr!
DeleteYes, buying a bag when you only want one. Then again I'm not going to shop by visiting loads of shops to buy single items etc. Don't have the time and it's getting costly with fuel prices rocketing.... sigh. xx
DeleteI've been too busy galivanting around Greece to know about The Big Plastic Count, my friend Liz filled me in yesterday. Thanks for the link, I shall endeavour to join in! xxx
ReplyDelete