Thursday, July 11, 2013

Plastic Free July. Week 1.

I've not had a computer for the last week so haven't been able to post.  Back on track now though and below is how we went during the first week.

Day 1.  Nothing bought so no single use plastic brought into the house, none used.

Day 2.  Nothing bought so no single use plastic brought into the house, none used.

Day 3.  I bought a 1.5 litre bottle of Coke for Husband to have when he gets home from work in a few days time.   Hmmm.
At my work the mother used clingwrap to wrap up a banana the kid didn't eat after 1 bite...that plastic was thrown out by me after the kid ate the banana.   Double Hmmm.

Day 4.  I had a ChooChoo Bar so plasticy wrapper there.

Day 5. Another ChooChoo Bar so more rubbish plastic.  I opened a bag of milk powder, plastic, but the bag has been saved as I reuse them.

Day 6. No single use plastic brought into the house or used.

Day 7.   I went to our local Farmes Market and the Biggest Morning Tea for Cancer fundraiser.  At the morning tea they were selling tea and coffee in disposable foam cups.  Not happy with that so we walked around the markets to see if anyone was selling proper mugs.  No-one was so back to the morning tea, told them that I wanted a coffee but in real cup and they brought out a real cup from the hall kitchen.  Did use 2 plastic plates for the cakes though and daughter *wouldn't let me* bring them home so they were binned.  Daughter bought some fruit and veg and that was put in a plastic bag that will be reused.
Husband came home so Coke was drunk, the plastic bottle was put in the recycle bin but still, one use plastic bottle.

Husband bought Coke in cans to take away to work with him instead of bottles like he ususlly does.  He has also been drinking these cans while home.  That means that we end up with 4 - 6 empty cans on the floor instead of 1 plastic bottle.  Most nights.  The cans cost more than the bottles, they are squashed and bagged up ready for recycling but there will be a lot of them by the end of the month.
I do sometimes re-use the bottles, not all of them but more than I use the cans.  In a perfect world he wouldn't drink Coke or any bought drinks but this is not a perfect world and there will always be empty drink containers.  Is a box of cans that cost more better than plastic bottles that I could reuse...

We are now well into the second week and the husband has been home since Sunday.  We have been eating meat from the freezer so most nights there has been, and will be, plastic thrown away.  Not sure how to overcome this as we kill our own meat and chooks so containers wouldn't work, I wouldn't have anywhere to store them as they were used and awaiting the next kill.  Will think on this but if you have some reusable way to freeze a dozen chooks, a whole cow and kilos of fish, all in the freezer at the same time, then please let me know.
There is also a bread bag been emptied but saved for re-use and a flatbread bag, the same deal. A margarine container was emptied but I saved it from the bin and made up some garlic batter and put it in this container.  Not sure what to do with the next one as husband hates me saving these sorts of things but he wont give up this spread.   I could buy butter...should buy butter...but he likes the spreadability of the marg, I don't eat either but the marg is cheaper...

OK, I/we use a lot of throwaway plastic.   I will fix what I can and work on the areas that are harder.








2 comments:

  1. How did people preserve beef before there was plastic? drying, smoking, salting. What would you do if you could not freeze meat? Canning?

    I use a bit of plastic and hate it, too.

    I would have brought those plastic plates home, too. My daughter would be mortified.

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  2. I guess the whole idea of the challenge is to get people thinking about what they use. You are definitely doing that Barb! Well done, it's not an easy challenge.

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