9th July 2019

Today I'm feeling really fed up with the whole plastic thing.  Not the stopping using it, I feel good about doing that, but since doing Plastic Free July I've become even more conscious of plastic and how hard it is to avoid it and even when you do your best to stay away from it you can't.

Yesterday I'd had a lovely day walking in the Chilterns with my friend Kaye. Again, it wasn't a plastic free day as I'd used two blister plasters but as I had my new beautiful Osprey rucksack with the hydration pack and had taken my own lunch, the only purchase I made all day was my train ticket so I was a very low plastic user. We had a super day. We'd done the walk a few weeks ago but it rained all day. We said how lovely we thought it would be on a dry day when you're not walking with your head down and just plodding along. And we were right! Yesterday was a beautiful day and we were in t-shirts rather than waterproofs! This was the view from one particularly steep hill!

 Today, I was trying to buy a pair of trainers to replace my converse and a lightweight waterproof jacket that I can just throw on when I'm bimbling around. I'd looked in Kingston a couple of weeks ago but didn't have much luck so decided to head to Westfield today. Now I hate shopping at the best of times and it's an activity I avoid whenever possible. I did have a jacket in mind but I was open for the shoes. Anyway, turns out John Lewis in Westfield doesn't have the Joules concession so my first choice of jacket was out, instantly darkening my mood. and then I didn't really have any luck finding shoes. So I decided to give up and have something to eat. I went to Wahaca thinking if I eat in then I won't be generating waste. WRONG! Wahaca still uses plastic straws. Unbelievable. I don't need a straw to drink from a glass when it's not a blended drink. Use a swizzle stick to mix my drink before you bring it to me. In addition to this, I made very poor food choices so rather than the relaxing lunch I was hoping for I left feeling very irritable indeed. Well, I know not to give them my custom again until they change their practices.

Anyway, my route home was taking me right by John Lewis on Oxford Street and a quick check revealed this one to be Joules stockist. So I got off and whilst they didn't have my size in the jacket I was after, they had the same style in my size and I figured I could just order the one I wanted online. Sadly it made me look like a sack of spuds... So it was a jacket fail as I didn't find anything else I liked the look of.

Whilst there I decided to see what shoes they had and there were two pairs that took my eye. A silver sequin trainer from Geox and a gold one from Michael Kors. In the end I went with the Michael Kors.

I really like the shoes. I really dislike the packaging...

Why is it necessary to wrap each shoe in a bag that has holes in it (for safety reasons obviously) but which then makes the bag pretty useless for storing stuff in. I will keep them of course as I'm sure I'll be able to use them for something, but seriously? It is just not required when they're in a box. As such I have this much recyclable packing (one box and some tissue paper):

And this much non-recyclable (two bags and three sticky labels):

 

I also needed some new trainer socks to go in them and was delighted to find these. Not sure if you can see it in the picture but they're sparkly!

From these, there is the plastic hanger and then a plastic tag that keeps them attached together.

So I feel like I've had a real plastic fail today. Six items of plastic in one day. Admittedly some of this this I didn't know was going to be there (the straw which I discovered when my drink arrived and the bags around the shoes - the guy serving me took them away to pack them and I only discovered the bags when I got home).

I'm in a plastic free group on Facebook and it seems that lots of people are hitting a low point at the moment as the enormity of the situation is becoming real.  I guess every little helps. Every time I do use something twice, it's reducing the amount of waste being generated and I can only hope there are enough of us to be seeing a difference in the amount of plastic ending up in our oceans.