Living without Plastic: Day One

Today I’ve done a plastic sweep of the house and hidden away all the plastic things I can – which in itself has been an interesting exercise!  I’m sure there will be more that I will come across, but the house is now looking a little bit less plastic. Below is just from one kitchen drawer!

Stationery is a plastic category I hadn't really considered – and I’ve used today as a good excuse to clear out the kids craft cupboard.  Will they miss the pens and notice they only have wax crayons and pencils this week? (edit: they did not) It's really highlighted an entirely unnecessary  household item.  Just look at all the dried up pens and random lids that as part of the clear out are good for nothing but the bin! Non recyclable, practically single-use plastic (unless the kids look after them perfectly and a quick Google shows I can buy 100 felt tips for £5! No one could really be expected to value them too highly? They will have been overwhelmed by pens at some point)

In further preparation for the week I’ve really enjoyed researching (and purchasing) some plastic free alternatives – so we’ve switched the kids’ toothbrushes for bamboo, invested in some reusable food wraps and swapped our teabags (you can find a full list of plastic free teabags here: https://www.countryliving.com/uk/create/food-and-drink/news/a3291/plastic-tea-bags-environment/)

And we’re ready!  Day one is my day at home with the kids – the quandary of lunch for the children is solved simply with waffles, fishfingers and baked beans!  Who knew that living without plastic could be so simple?  Yet not necessarily that healthy!  Thinking about the plastic packaging that we’ll be trying to avoid, the equivalent "healthy" meal for the children that I cook often – salmon, mashed potato and green beans, suddenly doesn’t look so healthy for the planet (plastic vacupak, plastic bags for the veg....)

Today we’re taking a trip to the local health food shop to investigate some plastic alternatives – and I’m surprised – I thought this would be my plastic free haven – but again, I’m finding that plastic free isn’t necessarily healthy!  I was hoping we might find some pasta or pulses that didn’t come in plastic bags but unfortunately not.  And the unpackaged soap bar that I was happy to find was then helpfully put into a plastic bag without me realising.

Tea for the kids resulted in another unhealthy experience – a sausage roll from Greggs!  I’m sure it’s been in plastic at some point in its journey, but for us the end users, just a paper bag.  The kids basically love being plastic free.  We had some leftover carrots and green beans in the house, so that assuages my mum guilt a little.

Having failed on sourcing plastic free pasta, I’m cheating on dinner – we have glass jars of pulses on the shelf in the kitchen so technically there’s no plastic this week (although there will have been when it was purchased) with some leftover tomatoes and a jar of pesto.  I would ordinarily make my own pesto – but rather than buying plastic bags of basil, a mesh of garlic, wrapped parmesan and a bag of pine nuts, the "unhealthy" shop ought jar fits with our plastic free living. #mindblown

Today has been harder, and make me think more than I ever would have thought. Only 6 days to go.....