Its been 75 days since I ‘quit plastic’ and my life is yet to be “plastic free”, but that’s okay with me; its mostly because I’m still using some of the things I have from before I ‘officially quit’, and there’s a few things there is just no solution for yet, ie. contact lenses and their little plastic packs they come in. But for the most part, when things are used up or they need replacing I’ll look for a sustainable option. I have done relatively well at not buying anything in plastic at the bulk buy shop, veggie shop or butchers (yes, I still eat chicken, eggs and red meat only sometimes) but I have slipped up a few times buying things at other places.
However first, let’s focus on the things I have succeeded with giving up and swapping certain common things for a lower impact life. There’s a few benefits of going plastic free other than making a little less impact on the planet… Ben’s favourite consequence of this ‘no plastic situation’ (as he sometimes calls it) is definitely the fresh bread!
I have also successfully prepared a bbq dinner including all the salads below with no plastic! Tried making my own Mayo for the first time and it was great in the potato salad.
Also, I’ve made several batches of cashew mylk, and almond mylk in the little food processor I’ve got and I’m going to try oat mylk next. On the right is a cocoa, frozen banana and cashew milk smoothie, with a stainless steel straw of course!
Other wins include my recent purchase of a safety razor. I really truly love my ‘Albatross’ it. Its made here in New Zealand and arrived in only a few days from The Eco Society in Glen Eden as soon as I found it. The other thing I bought from them is The Eco Floss, compostable floss which comes in a glass vial.
The safety razor results in a silky smooth finish and there’s no plastic waste, and I will be doing some research into how to properly recycle the platinum blades because I think it could be an option… what more could a girl ask for?
At the start of the month I received my first box of 48 rolls of Tree Free TP! Smartass is an NZ company which offers a subscription you can purchase for delivery of a box of 48 rolls of toilet paper. Their products are made from sugarcane and bamboo fibres and you can get a box every 6-16 weeks – you can choose, its just dependent on how many in are your household. I’d say the benefit of the subscription is not having to buy the individual rolls from Huckleberry, and it works out to be a little less expensive over time!
But then there’s a few things I didn’t succeed at… for example a bokashi kit I purhcased on a whim at Bunning’s when I was looking for something else last month is plastic. I initially went down the gardening isle out of curiousity but when I saw it I thought; oh cool, this we can use for our cooked food scraps or meat scraps that can’t be composted… then this little bin could be used on the boat one day. For when we are live-aboard again we can ferment the food waste in here since we wont have a backyard or a garden compost bin. However, I learned a lot from this experience. First, let me fill you in on some facts: Bokashi isn’t composting… what you are doing really is turning your kitchen scraps into pickled kitchen scraps. And then when they’re pickled in a few weeks time, you either bury them in the ground or add it to your compost pile for it to break down. In the blue spray bottle is ‘effective microbes’ to aid the fermentation. I’ve seen it come in pelleted form but also in plastic, however I really wish I didn’t get the spray bottle and will be looking for an alternative for when that is finished.
However, based on its performance so far, I have noticed its not handling the full volume of organic waste well for three people and I discovered it was leaking from the spout at the base of the back of the bin is for removing excess liquid so it can be an anoxic environment and ‘ferment’ the waste I guess. Could do more research on it but basically, it works, just best for outside I think. Will keep an eye on how its doing but send the bulky compostables straight to the compost up by the garden.
Overall it seems like last month’s (August’s) plastic waste was more than July! Those purchases could be partly due to the fact that at the completion of Plastic Free July I let my guard down and ordered two things online and bought more than one new, non-food item from the store. It would have been much less if I hadn’t ordered the resistance bands or go pro accessories. A bit disappointed in myself for buying that bokashi bin, but now we will never send any food waste to landfill, none at all. I do feel like I should have kept looking for another one that could be made from recycled materials.
So at the end of each month I reflect on what I can do better at… I don’t have much faith in the Soft Plastics Recycling scheme or any recycling really, so I try my hardest to not send any plastic to recycling. Often I’ll have a few tin cans and glass bottles/jars which I cannot find a way to reuse which end up in the recycle bin, since I buy pretty much everything in bulk buy shops I have reduced my recycling and significantly lowered what I send to landfill.
The resistance bands (which came in the green mailer) have been good for strengthening my back and shoulders, but I was so gutted when I received them individually wrapped in clear plastic. Certainly not how I envisioned them arriving, the unnecessary plastic wasn’t in the photo of the product! But I’ll take it in stride and learn from whats now in the past.
The Witakers chocolate was avoidable but seriously hard to resist because it was my favourite before I gave up plastic, and but it still creates waste, the paper label on the outside (top right) is recyclable despite its shiny appearance but the the plastic lined foil which the chocolate is wrapped in beneath the label is not recyclable and is destined for landfill.
I found a fellow Whitaker lover, Amanda in Waste-Free Land who has challenged Whitaker’s on their packaging and I think I’m going to do the same. Because sometimes its okay to indulge! Its not sustainable for us to deny ourselves of all treats. The other day a school gave us a bag of assorted mini chocolate bars to say thanks for providing such an amazing camp program and I really wanted one, so I had a mini snickers bar and after I felt quite guilty throwing the wrapper in the soft plastics recycling bin at work, but I had to let myself have a treat.
I have yet to get into a situation where I have had no choice but to to give in to single use plastic… but honestly I am not sure what I would do without my pantry full of glass jars! As far as chocolate goes, I’ll try to stick to Trade-Aid chocolate which is delicious as well, and comes in a home-compostable wrapper!
