Wrapping up Plastic Free July 2015

Although July seems like a distant memory already I wanted to look back and wrap up Plastic Free July properly. We got a lot out of it in our home this year. I'm sure we are going to keep doing a lot of the changes we started too, which is a bonus!

Plastic Waste Collected

As I committed to do at the start of our plastic free journey this year, I kept the plastic wrappers we used in July to help work out where we could make improvements. I didn't keep all of the multiples of products - for example pasta packets - since I figured once we had a couple the message was there to try and find an alternative option.

Here is what we collected:

Packaging	Number of items	Found a way to avoid?
Pasta packet	2 (more thrown out but not collected)	No – possibly at bulk store
Wholemeal flour	1	Yes – bulk store
Pepitas	1	Yes – bulk store
Green lentils	2	Yes - bulk store
Almond meal	1	Yes – bulk store or make own when buy a food processer
Ginger snap biscuits	1	Yes – could make our own, time permitting
Sultanas 1kg	1 (possibly more thrown out but not collected)	Yes – bulk store
Goji berries	1	Yes – bulk store
Rolled oats	2 (possibly more thrown out but not collected)	Yes – bulk store
Raw sugar	1	Yes – bulk store
Seaweed rice crackers	1 (more thrown out but not collected)	No
Desiccated coconut	1	Yes – bulk store
Bread bag	1	Yes – bring our own for the bakery to use
Arborio rice	1	No – possibly at bulk store
Frozen peas	1	No
Green split peas	1	No – possibly at bulk store
Puffed corn cereal	1	No – possibly at bulk store
Disposable nappy bag (the bag the actual nappies are packaged in)	1 (possibly more thrown out but not collected)	No
Dog poo bags	? None kept (thankfully!) but it would average 2 each day	Yes – use newspaper instead (have not done this yet)

Celebrating Success

The successes we have had as a result of Plastic Free July are:

• Starting to use cloth nappies at childcare;
• Buying reusable takeaway coffee cups to enjoy guilt free tea and coffee on the run;
• Reusing bread bags when we buy bread;
• Purchasing a moon or menstrual cup, which I've wanted to try for awhile;
• I finally watched the Bag It the movie; &
• Sharing this experience with my peers, and learning what they are doing, at Living Smarties and through Lizzing Lightly.

Lamenting Failures

I am so happy with our achievements during Plastic Free July this year but I thought it would be good to note down things we didn't get around to doing. We can make small steps to start doing some things now or leave them until next year:

• Shopping at the bulk store - we made it there on the 31 July at least but I need to keep looking for quite a few products (as you can see from the table) and get into a routine of shopping at these stores regularly;
• Dog poo bags - these are a real disgrace but it is difficult to manage without them. I'm keen to try using newspaper instead to see if that works. I expect it will need to happen close to a bin.
• Bin liners - I know we can go without and clean out the bin but we're not ready for that one as yet. I know the poor animals eating plastic are suffering from our inaction but we have to take small steps that we are comfortable with. This might be one to consider again next year.

Lessons Learnt

Plastic is used to line cans! I found this out through the Bag It movie and my Living Smart group. I'm still in a bit of shock about this one. I knew cans weren't healthy but we are pretty reliant on canned beans, particularly baked beans and chick peas, for quick meals. This information is a good motivator to try and reduce our canned food intake.

We use a lot of plastic! Even though we are conscious of the problem and try to reduce it as much as possible.

By making a reasonably small effort and doing a few different things when heading to the shops we can cut back on our plastic use quite a bit - it really is worth trying to do.

The environment is really suffering from the mass production and use of plastic products. I always knew this was a problem but I really thought about it and processed it through participating in Plastic Free July this year.

So there it is - all wrapped up for 2015. Thank you to those of you who have followed my journey and provided some thoughts or advice. I hope you have picked up an idea or two yourselves.

Linking up with EssentiallyJess for #IBOT

Plastic Free July in Our House

I'm a bit late with this post... We are already a week into July. I can barely believe it! Since Plastic Free July is such a great initiative, however, I want to share what our family is up to this month.

I have previously posted about how to use less cling wrap. That is a very simple and easy thing to stop using around the home. Our family already takes our own re-usable shopping bags into the shops (well, most of the time!), doesn't use straws, and uses re-usable water bottles. These items are good ones to start out with when you are beginning to cut back the plastic in your life.

My glass re-usable water bottle. Sure it cost more upfront but I love drinking out of it.

This month I am challenging our family to reduce single-use plastic even further by:

• Buying more bulk products, such as oats, beans, lentils, sultanas, & cleaning products, by bringing my own containers to be refilled.

• I have bought myself a reusable takeaway coffee cup (at last!). I rarely buy take away coffee since I feel too guilty about the waste. This is a very exciting purchase since I am now able to indulge on the run.

• I am saving all of the single-use plastic packets that we finish throughout the month in a (re-usable!) shopping bag.  I will review these products each week to see if I can find ways to reduce or eliminate more plastic from our lives.

• I have spoken to my child care centre about trialling using cloth nappies for Turtle on the day that she goes there each week. They have agreed to trial them this week. If it goes well then we will continue to use cloth at child care in future.

Have you already heard of Plastic Free July? Are you inspired to try and reduce your single-use plastic this month? Please share any tips and ideas below.

Would you like to use less cling wrap?

Here are a few simple things you can do to quickly reduce your cling wrap use:

Managing leftovers

Cover up bowls or plates with plates or bowls instead of cling wrap. This is very quick way to cover up your food before popping it into the fridge.  It also uses things that you already have (at no cost) so that is always a bonus.

Plate and bowl food covers

I do find bowls and plates can take up a bit of space if left for a few days in the fridge.  For some items it is definitely more practical to use a resealable plastic or glass container.  I recommend stocking up on a few different sizes of re-usable container.  They are easy to find at the supermarket or general household stores.  It may end up being a bit of an outlay to do this but having the right containers on hand makes it easy to store things as you need to.  If you don't want to buy new things then look for alternatives - op shops might have something or empty jars could be used.  If you buy or find a reusable container each week for a couple of months I'm sure you will quickly have enough to manage with little or no need for cling wrap.

A few of the containers that are currently in my fridge

Using the microwave

Basically the same rules apply here as for leftovers.  Use a re-usable plastic (the stronger or more rigid the plastic the lower the likelihood that chemicals may leach from the material into your food) or glass container.  Or simply cover a bowl with a plate and pop it in to cook.  The best part about using alternatives to cling wrap is that you won't have it melting in your food, further reducing the potential for chemicals leaching and entering your body.

Packing lunch

This is not rocket science - re-usable containers come into their element here, especially the flat plastic containers that you get when you order take away meals.  They are the perfect size for a sandwich to fit and not fall apart (that's right - put the sandwich in UNWRAPPED).  Play around with whatever items you like to take.  I tended to take a sandwich and crackers to work most days which fit perfectly in the flatter take away style container.  If I was taking fresh fruit then I would use a taller container (yes, the sandwich was still UNWRAPPED).

Small containers are great for snacks like nuts or sultanas, which are a great pick me up in the afternoon.

For kids lunches you can use the same approach above or if you're worried about things getting messy (since your child might not take the same care that you would) then buy a compartmentalised lunch box for your child.

You can also buy reusable sandwich holders if you can't handle the idea of a naked sandwich.  However, these can become expensive if your dear little one has a habit of losing things.  For those of you that are thrifty (or have loved ones that are) here is a link to a tutorial prepared by the Eco Faeries on how to make your own sandwich wraps at very low cost.

Storing odds and ends in the fridge

I think this is a big saver of cling wrap that you probably don't even think about using.  Do you automatically reach for the wrap when you have used half a tomato or avocado? Or any other vegetable or fruit? Why not put them all (separately or together) into a reusable container? It's faster and more convenient when you are making your next meal since they are all stored in one container for you to grab out.

The vegetable drawer in our fridge

Are you convinced? Can you imagine life without cling wrap? 

I am so used to doing all of the above things that when a visitor pulls cling wrap out of my cupboard I am always surprised to see it there.  If you do want to try some of these ideas then I would love to hear how it goes.