Plastic, plastic everywhere

Oh dear, oh dear

I've been putting off writing this because, to be honest, I've failed on my Zero Plastic Waste challenge. And it's only halfway through April. That just goes to show how difficult it is.

My house mate and I got a Thali takeaway - If you live in Bristol, you'll know a Thali is difficult to resist. But I didn't think we'd end up with any plastic because she asked for it in our Thali Tiffin - a wonderful invention, especially when you're trying to avoid plastic. 

But, when she came back, they had given her some samosas in a separate cardboard box, with a little pot of dipping sauce - a little PLASTIC pot of dipping sauce. Of course.

 

Now, I didn't buy it, and technically I didn't throw it away either, but I did eat half its contents, and it did end up in the bin. Does that count as a fail?

Another stumble last week occurred when I went to stay with friends in Yorkshire. For the train journey, I had packed a banana and some nuts to snack on; it was a long journey, but I had had lunch prior to leaving and knew dinner would be waiting for me when I arrived. All good, I thought, no plastic packaging required.

But I hadn't planned for the return journey, when I would be travelling over lunch time. I made myself a sandwich, but had no lunch box to put it in. My friend gave me a plastic sandwich bag, which I put straight in the bin when I got home out of habit - it probably could have been washed and re-used, but I just didn't think. 

Right now you may be thinking, "What's the big deal? It's only a flimsy little bit of plastic". But it's these flimsy bits of plastic which are rarely recyclable, can more easily escape from the waste disposal chain, and end up in our trees, rivers and eventually oceans.

"We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea." 

To me, it's that thin, ubiquitous plastic that is the biggest problem. 

I'm not going to let these hiccups stop me on my journey to eliminate plastic waste, however. This is not just a month-long challenge for me, it is an attempt to change the way I live permanently.

Lesson learned - On long journeys, ALWAYS take a lunch box, bottle of water and reusable cup with you. Even if you're not taking any lunch, or coffee with you. At train stations, airports and bus stations, it's nigh on impossible to get any plasticfree food or drinks. Even at cafes where you can eat in, they usually give you a takeaway cup, or plastic box.

"What's wrong with take-away coffee cups?", I hear you ask. 

Well, let me tell you 5 things you didn't know about disposable coffee cups:

1. EVERY MINUTE over ONE MILLION disposable cups are discarded to landfill.

I'm just going to let you think about that for a minute...

That's 60 million every hour. Or 1,440 million per day. In other words, MORE THAN 565 BILLION CUPS IN LANDFILL every year. That's a lot of cups.

2. Most disposable cups are lined with polythylene which makes them NON-RECYCLABLE.

3. Disposable cups that are 'compostable' require commercial composting to biodegrade. If they get put in a normal bin, they will not fully break down  And how many people remember to put them in the compost bin?

4. Even if they were recyclable (like this one claims to be) the process still relies on the consumer to find a paper recycling bin on the train/at the airport/on the street....

5. ...And they would be "recycled" (more like down-cycled) into flimsy paper, like newspaper, thus requiring more trees to be cut down to make another 1,440 million more 'recyclable' cups EVERY DAY!

So I'm not a fan of the disposable coffee cup.

Neither am I a fan of these: Loom bands. At least they last a bit longer than disposable coffee cups. 



I was given this one last summer by a friend of my nephew. I intend to keep it FOREVER! Just thinking about all the bands that must have ended up in landfill since they took off last year make me shiver. 

I signed up to an organic veg box scheme this week, thinking that would take the pressure off me to find veg shops that don't wrap everything in you-know-what. Imagine my horror when the first box arrived with two plastic bags in it!

Do I really need my broccoli and cabbage to be wrapped? They're going to be either washed or cooked anyway. I'm going to give them back, along with the reusable box it all came in. Hopefully they'll reuse the bags too...

Anyway, I digress. I've failed, and therefore I must take the consequences. So I hereby announce that I will be walking through Bristol City Centre wearing nothing but plastic bags on Saturday 2nd May. Hopefully, it'll get a bit of media attention, and raise awareness of what I'm trying to do.

This is what I'm trying to do, by the way. CLICK HERE to pledge to reduce your carbon footprint too!

Stealth Plastic

My Zero Plastic Waste challenge started today and it's all going well so far. I'm all set up with my canvas bags, lunch box, milk delivery round, reusable refillable bottles (for everything you can imagine!) and my all-purpose glass jar of coconut oil (you'd be surprised what you can do with coconut oil!)

No matter how prepared you are though, you always have to be on the look out, because some plastic sneaks into your life quietly, like a ninja.

Take this bottle of olive oil, for example.

Looks like a glass bottle with a metal lid, doesn't it? BUT NO! Take a look inside and there's a sneaky bit of plastic hiding in the top of the bottle, and another bit in the lid. Ninja plastic!

And when you're out and about, I've discovered you always need to carry a reusable cup with you. The other day, I went to the Frack Free Festival at the Attic on Stokes Croft. They didn't have any glasses behind the bar - only plastics - and disposable ones at that. 

I went to donate blood the other day and was faced with a mountain of plastic cups, and snacks wrapped in plastic. You HAVE to drink a pint of water or squash before you donate - it's the law or something - and they force feed you tea (in a disposable plastic cup) and snacks afterwards too. I think it's the one time scoffing biscuits and crisps is positively recommended by health professionals.

I got away with not using the disposable plastic cups because I had taken my reusable water bottle with me, and I refused the tea, but HAD to have a packet of ginger nuts. I might have fainted or something otherwise. Honest. 

These don't count as a slip-ups by the way, because they all happened before the 1st April. If I dispose of any plastic during April, then my forfeit is to walk through the centre of Bristol wearing nothing but plastic bags. And I'll do it too, just watch me.

So far I have been "sponsored" by 5 fantastic people:

Giles has pledged to cycle instead of drive for 2 months, saving an estimated total of 141kg of carbon dioxide. Way to go, Giles!

Lindsey has pledged to stop overfilling the kettle when she makes tea, which will save an estimated 9kg of CO2. Thanks Lindsey!

Kat has pledged to give up food wrapped in plastic for 2 months, but is having trouble with the website (I've emailed them about this Kat and they said they would look into it). Good luck Kat!

A mysterious individual who goes by the name of AzureBlue has pledged go vegan for 1 month! If this is you please let me know who you are so I can shake your hand! This adds another 55kg of CO2 to the total.

Plus Tom has pledged to stop smoking, which will save 4kg, AND to stop flying to visit his girlfriend in Holland every other week, which will save a massive 3280kg of CO2! Although I can't really claim credit for the quitting flying - he has moved to Holland, and not because of this!

So in total, we're making a potential saving of 3489kg of CO2 so far! (Plus whatever Kat saves)

Will you sponsor me? There are lots of things can do, big or small it doesn't matter - every little helps! CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT YOU COULD DO.