31st
July. Last day of the month. Scary how quickly they go isn’t it. Doing plastic
free July hasn’t slowed it down at all and isn’t that usually the case when you
don’t enjoy something? Which must meant there was something to it that I liked.
Actually there was a lot that I liked, some things I was pretty ambivalent
about and some things that I didn’t like at all. Fortunately though it was a mostly
positive experience!
I’ve been
working towards being – if not plastic free – as low a plastic user as possible
for quite some time now and so I had already made a lot of changes. Just to
qualify here – I’m talking single-use plastic, not multi. There’s the standard changes
of having a reusable cup and taking my own bag to the supermarket, that sort of
thing, but I really wanted to use this month to explore the additional things
that I could do to make the difference. It’s been mainly the kitchen and
bathroom that needed tackling. The kitchen I’ve managed to cut down drastically
but it’s not been easy and I actually will end up relenting on this one as I am
struggling with the omission of some things through being plastic free. Food
wise, many things I’ve managed to make myself so I don’t have to buy plastic
wrapped produce but in the making there are challenges. For example, buying
butter/margarine not in plastic is virtually impossible. I’d had some stork
hard marg in the fridge (bought pre-July) as that’s my preferred brand for
making pastry and when I was finished I deconstructed the wrapper. Turns out it
was a layer of foil (recyclable), a layer of paper (recyclable) and a layer of
plastic (not recyclable) so if you’re thinking about throwing foil butter
wrappers in the recycling, think again as they have plastic in them. I miss
yogurt and as it’s not possible for me to have doorstep deliveries (I live in a
block of flats) so I can’t get milk or cream in glass bottles delivered and
therefore make my own butter or yogurt plastic free. I may have to relent and
buy yogurt (I can happily manage without milk). I’m yet to have any stone
fruits that aren’t out of a tin, and neither have I had any berries, other than
the delicious strawberries that my Dad brought me from his garden as I’m yet to
see any that aren’t in plastic tubs. I am planning to go out picking
blackberries this weekend as there are loads along the River Wandle near my
house so that’s both plastic free and actually free too! Otherwise, it’s cheese
that’s the challenge but it’s just a case of needing to get my ass into gear
and getting to a cheese shop that will solve that.
Other than
stain remover for clothes and fairy liquid, my kitchen and bathroom cleaning
regime has become completely plastic free. I’m finishing off a bottle of fairy
liquid at the moment and then will be able to reuse the bottle at my Zero waste
shop. I’m not sure about the stain remover, maybe I just need to get better at
not dropping my food down me when I eat? Otherwise, it’s all refilled at the
zero waste shop and I’ve become a fan of the white wine vinegar homemade
cleaner which gets rid of lime scale a treat! 50:50, vinegar to water, piece of
lemon zest and sprig of rosemary – sorted! There are other variations on this
including bicarbonate of soda that I need to investigate too but for now this
keeps my shower screen beautifully sparkling and my toilet too! For kitchen
cleaning, I use a combination of this and some all-purpose cleaner from the
zero waste shop that also gets diluted so lasts ages.
For the
bathroom, the shower gel has gone in favour of soap and I’m now using natural
deodorant in a cardboard tube and to be honest, that’s pretty much all I’ve
managed when I think about it. I had already changed to solid shampoo but none
of my other toiletries have run out over the month. I have just had a delivery
of a rose perfume from Eden, a company who don’t wrap in plastic and I can get
the bottle refilled which is great for reducing waste. It’s not quite the scent
I was after but I think I’ll be able to get used to it. I’m not sure I can give
up femfresh or Bioderma serum though. I also love my leave in conditioner, body
lotion, Bioderma micellar water and Nivea eye makeup remover (although I hardly
ever wear makeup these days to need it). These are all things that I’ll need to
ponder on and figure out.
The one
thing that were an absolute fail for me were the dentabs. I just don’t get on
with them at all. I do think they were great when travelling but on a daily
basis I’m really not convinced. My teeth were starting to go yellow using them.
Not good. Unfortunately they’re the only brand of plastic free toothpaste that
I’ve found which has fluoride in it and whilst I know all the arguments against
fluoride, I’m of that generation where it was in the water when I was growing
up and I have really good teeth. So whilst I also know there are many factors
contributing to this, personally, I want fluoride in my toothpaste. It turns
out, I had a tube of toothpaste in my bathroom cabinet that I hadn’t realised.
I did end up opening this and as it takes me a really long time to get through
a tube of toothpaste, I have more time to investigate this.
For me, the
best find of the month was the deodorant. It’s taking my skin a while to get
used to it, and every so often I still get red skin around my armpits (sorry
Mum, you have to use this word talking about deodorant), this was far and away
my most amazing discovery. I’ve always used heavy duty deodorant and it doesn’t
always work, but this, this was incredible. I had one day where I didn’t use
quite as much as I had been doing that I could detect the beginning of odour,
but otherwise, even on the hottest days, whilst I did still sweat, I was
completely odour free. I genuinely didn’t expect this. The brand I bought was
Earth Conscious, Rose and Jasmine. It’s not cheap at £6.99 a tube but I’m
guessing it will last around as long as a regular stick deodorant and is an
expense I’m happy to increase.
The most
challenging aspect of the month turned out to be lunch or eating on the go more
generally. Usually I take my lunch into work so it’s not a problem, but
occasionally for one reason or another, this didn’t work out. Buying a plastic
free take out lunch was sooooo hard. I bought a sandwich one day from a shop I
knew wrapped everything in paper but it cost £6.30!! It was a decent size, but
still, £6.30 for a sandwich!! Nuts!
The final
count for my single use plastic came in at 52 pieces.
1 plaster
2 compeed plasters
1 piece of cling film
1 jar label
25 little plastic veg stickers
2 plastic bags my shoes were in
1 plastic bag a new set of bathroom scales came in
3 plastic stickers on the shoes
2 straws
1 yogurt film
1 milk bottle
1 squash bottle
1 yeast carton lid
1 plastic hanger on my socks
1 plastic tag keeping the socks together
1 plastic lid on my sweet chilli sauce
2 plastic bags in my tights boxes
1 oat milk carton plastic lid
1 plastic glass
1 gift card I received for my birthday
1 wrapping
around the top of a tonic bottle
1 plastic
window in the bag some bread came in at a restaurant
I’ve only
included that which I generated during the month through purchases, this tally
wasn’t about historical purchases that won’t be repeated. I am gradually
clearing the plastic items that are in my house as they are being replaced by
non-single-use plastic alternatives so in addition to the above there were also
around 12 items that went to the recycling (assuming they will be). So if I
continue at the rate that I did in July, then in 12 months that would be 624 items of plastic. Against the average of 4490 so 13.9%. Volume wise I would
guess it’s a lot lower and if I shop somewhere other than Sainsbury’s hopefully
I’ll be able to avoid the little plastic veg stickers that made up almost 50%
of the count.
So, tomorrow
it’s August and where to from here? Well one thing I do know is that other than
the yogurt and butter, there’s very little I’m prepared to buy that comes in
plastic. I’m really pleased that my doing this has made people think a bit more
about what they’re doing and I remain hopeful that if I continue to do so, it
might make other people think about making some changes to their habits too.
But as I always said, this was a personal journey. Other people will realise
the importance of making changes at different times, hopefully before it’s too
late, although sadly as a species, I don’t think we will. Plastic production
has surged over the past 50 years, from 15 million tonnes in 1964 to 311
million tonnes in 2014, and is expected to double again over the next 20 years.
About 4% of the petroleum consumed worldwide each year is used to make plastic,
and another 4% is used to power plastic manufacturing processes. Much of
this plastic ends up in our oceans, choking our marine life and slowly (but
getting much quicker) destroying our beautiful planet.
However, to
end on a positive note. I have clearly not been the only person doing plastic
free July. I can’t find figures for 2019, they may not be out yet, but last
year 120 million people across the globe took part in the challenge from 177
countries. So even if that’s stayed the same this year, based on my
plastic use that’s potentially around 39 BILLION pieces of plastic that didn’t
end up in landfill, or more importantly our oceans this year. So whilst it’s
nowhere near enough, it’s definitely something to be thankful for.