2 Weeks After the Experiment and The To Keep List

So after attempting to go disposable plastic free for 1 month, I can tell you that it really wasn’t easy and doing it strictly would not be for the large majority of people; however there are things we can all do to help reduce our usage of these plastics, and if we all do what we can than that will certainly help our planet (and us!).

A list of things I will be 100% keeping after this month include:

•        Reusable water bottles – metal and insulated ones/
•      Paper bags – for fruit/veg/bread shopping, good for sandwiches too.
•      Ecoleaf toilet rolls/kitchen rolls – wrapped in potato starch instead of plastic and 100% recycled too.
•      Milk – Glass bottles (mine from Dawlicious local jersey farm and is delicious!) but milkman is a great idea.
•      Lush products – shampoo bars, conditioner bar (great for shaving with), toothpaste powder, deodorant bar). Take the pots back clean and they 100% recycle the pots themselves into new pots for the stores and take back 5 for a free face mask!
•      Reusable shopping bags – cloth bags and my amazing ones made from old t-shirts and jeans.
•      Natracare tampons – 100% cotton, wrapped in paper and come in a cardboard box.

Things that I will attempt to upkeep wherever I can and where possible are:

•      Refill products – Wherever I can I will aim to get refills of rice, pulses, pasta (if I can find a cheaper alternative to Planet Organic), dried fruits, nuts, oils and vinegars.
•      Butchers and fishmongers – I will be shopping much more at my local butcher (I seem to have a bit of a name for myself in there now, so I feel more accepted!). However it may not be possible all of the time.
•      Bread - Aiming to get my bread from the bakers or Lidl that have fresh loaves (however it doesn’t last long, so I may not always use this).
•      Metal Straws / non-plastic straws – I will try where possible, the metal straws are great, but I’d recommend buying paper straws or bamboo straws if you plan on drinking alcohol.
•      Homemade chips – will look into a chip cutter that my friend has to aid me making my own, but again it needs prep time which I don’t always have.
•      Homemade crisps – they are great, but not convenient, so will make them as a treat as I do not have the time to make them.
•      Clothes – I aim to look into clothes that are 100% cotton and organic, however for some things you cannot get 100% cotton and money wise, may not always be the best option.
•      Metal safety razor – I’m still trialling the razor I bought, but I do see me using this in future. 

And finally things that just aren’t feasible for me to keep after this month’s challenge:

•      Planet organic and farm shops – might be good for a few things, but very expensive and out of my way.
•      Cereal – for me there is no substitute to shop bought cereal, but I’ll keep looking. At least you can recycle the plastic packets at supermarkets though!
•      Sunscreen – Lush do sunscreen, but I haven’t tried it yet, so maybe in future, but for now I’ll stick with the lotion.
•      Bamboo toothbrush – a bit painful to use, kept hurting myself with the wooden handle on my wisdom tooth and the bristles are plastic anyway.
•      Crisps and Biscuits – It is too time consuming to keep making these, and I personally cannot give these up.
•       Internet shopping – sometimes a lot of plastic involved, but I will be trying to ask suppliers not to use It where possible – however I will not be stopping ordering online.

So that’s my month in a nutshell really, there’s a lot I will keep and maybe some I haven’t mentioned too. I suggest if you are environment and animal conscious that you look at your own usages to see where you can cut back and remove plastic too. If we all do a little then that’s a start! I hope to have been of some inspiration and I wish you luck in your own plastic free endeavours.

As always, thank you for reading!

Day 27 - Even the clothes too!?

Day 27

So you might be thinking, oh she's going to mention trying to buy clothes without the little plastic tags on them, maybe finding ones with fabric tags tied on with string? Actually that is the least of our worries where clothes are concerned!
After a small amount of research I have recently found that the single biggest problem for plastics in the environment/ in our seas actually derives from microfibers which comes from our poor clothing choices. Polyester, nylon, acrylic or elastane/spandex clothes are all made up of small microfibers of plastic that most of us (me up until recently) wouldn't have even guessed were a problem. According to research, a single piece of synthetic clothing can release 1,900 microfibers each time that it is washed, and once washed this then makes its way down the drains and into our waterways, making it into our rivers, lakes and then the ocean. Ecologist Mark Browne released a paper back in 2011 warning of his findings of how many of these microfibers are making their way into our water bodies and how dangerous they are to our environment and our lives in the future.

Below is an extract from an article by Abigail Barrows regarding the plastic clothing issues and shows some alarming statistics into the true nature of the problem, and how much of these can be attributed to clothing.

Unfortunately the plastics business within the clothing industry seems to be an integral part of day to day manufacturing, but there are still some ways of potentially getting around this issue. If you opt in for natural fibers such as cotton, wool, hemp, silk and bamboo then generally these clothes will usually last you longer because they won't be shedding a tonne of plastic which would degrade the material over time and you wouldn't be contributing to the microfibers entering our environment unnecessarily. However generally more sustainable clothing can be expensive, depending on where you go, but it is possible if you shop around to find clothes that aren't ridiculously expensive and especially if you surf the sales. Two other options to overcome this problem, one is shopping in charity shops (not everyone likes them, but i have never had a problem with this) you can look for natural fiber materials and get a decent price on some pretty decent clothes. Option number 2 is not for everyone, (and not exactly one that i would currently be very good at) but making your own clothes would ensure you can get the materials you require plastic free and you would have your own custom items of clothes to wear. I'm considering trying to find a course that'll teach me in these ways, so I can in future try my hand at my very own clothes design, but this would take some time and trial and error. So for now i think i'll be sticking with trying to source cotton and natural clothing.

As well as this, there are companies trying to create clothes out of 100% recycled plastics from our ocean debris, however I'm not happy with this, because it seems to me that this isn't helping the cause it is just dealing with the aftermath. That piece of clothing will then shed more microfibers into the ocean, and once the clothing is no longer usable it will then inevitably end up in the environment again. More pressure should be put on government to reduce the plastics within all of our industries including the clothing one, because if you don't get to the source of the issue, then the demand will keep rising and it will be ever harder to reduce these in the future.

A shocking revelation and not one I expected to find, but that is what this journey has been all about!

Until next time.

Thanks for reading.

Day 26 - Make-up and Plastic tags

Day 26

I'm not the kind of person to use a lot of make up, I've always had issues trying to use anything like foundation or anything on my face, where it just goes oily or too dry and it just looks awful. So all I actually use is liquid eyeliner and mascara (and I don't use these all the time, especially when having to go to work). But pretty much all make up these days seems to come in plastic and I don't think there a 100% way of getting around that unfortunately. Jumping on the Lush bandwagon again, I do know that they will recycle their tops to their liquid eyeliners, which leaves the glass bottom able to be recycled in your home recycling.  They also do eye shadow blocks which come without packaging, and can be applied with a brush. But most other places do not seem to do make up minus the packing, so I think for anyone big on their makeup, it might be a difficult one to either give up or just accept that you will be wasting that plastic. It's a shame, but not much we can do unfortunately.

Plastic tags, i recently have bought some vegetables/ fruit from the supermarket or even from smaller shops, to find they have attached a completely plastic label, which in my mind is completely unnecessary. I realise it's probably to stop the paper from scrunching or falling apart in transit, but surely there's a better way to do it? Like wax paper or something? It's just annoying seeing a completely unpackaged item to then find this attached, it's ridiculous. Some stickers on fruit and veg are exactly the same too, and should be unnecessary too. Sometimes it's these little things, that seem to just add to the madness of the plastic soup that we seem to be swimming in!

Only a short one tonight i'm afraid.

Thanks for reading!

Day 25 - Lush Visit and Market Stall Food

Day 25

One of things I've found difficult to find at the moment is a good alternative to my face moisturiser. I usually use the Nivea Soft moisturiser which seems to be the only one that doesn't upset my sensitive skin, and I figured i'd find it hard to find any moisturiser not contained within plastic. Where this is true, as I have recently discovered the amazing thing that Lush recycle their pots when you take them back to the shop, it meant I could actually get some from Lush and know i'm not going to be impacting anything since it would be then reused for future Lush pots. So I had a half day at work and set off to the Oxford Circus shop in central London. Luckily this shop is 3 floors worth of amazing Lush goodness and there was a lot of choice for everything. There were also a mass of staff, all friendly and all on hand to help you with choosing the right products for your needs and your skin type. I went straight for looking at the moisturisers and was almost instantly asked if I needed help by one of the shop assistants. I explained to her what I wanted, and so she asked me to take a seat at a table, which had a chair either side and a big bowl of water in the middle. After a couple of minutes she returned with a few facial cleansers, rose water and a variety of moisturisers. She took my hands, washed one at a time, cleansed them, and then moisturised them for me. It was really quite nice as it was like a light hand massage and then with the moisturisers on then felt all silky and smooth.  I explained to her that my face is way more sensitive than my hands and I would need to try them on my face before i buy them. She then said she'd put all the moisturisers we'd trialed into a few sample pots (which can be taken back for recycling) so i could try them at home and then make a decision based on how much i and my skin likes them. I was very happy with this because in the past i have bought things for my face which really haven't been right and i end up with a whole tub of product which is not suitable for my skin. After this I explained that the last deoderant bar I bought from them was too rough and irritable for my skin, so she recommended this smooth deoderant bar and gave me a rather generous sample of that to take home too. I said thank you and carried on looking around the shop and then started talking to a guy about the toothpaste options they have. I have tried one of the toothpaste tablets and one of their toothpaste powders already but wanted to try some other options. They had 2 more tooth powders available, one I refused because it was peppery and I'm really not keen on pepper, and the other one was mixed with mint and wasabi (which i declined straight away as I also don't like wasabi). However the guy explained to me that he also does not like wasabi, but he assured me it was nice, so he gave me a sample of this and 2 of the toothpaste tablets to try at home. I was also looking for a decent alternative to shower gel (but i didn't want to buy the bottles, i was looking for something in the pots that Lush recycle or in bar form). I have used a sugar scrub before from there, however it was a bit rough for my skin, and a bit itchy after. Lush also do jellies which are shower gel in a jelly ball, which you rub on your skin the shower and it lathers up. It sounds cool, but I couldn't find one with a scent that I could get along with, and they left my skin feeling a bit squeaky and not very moisturised so I decided to keep looking. They do roulade bars and scrubs, but I feel I need to go back and get a trial of a couple of those, because i wasn't keen on the smells of those either, but i'll try them and see if they work. So i walked out of Lush with a lot of exciting samples to try and I can say now that I am completely sold on the UltraBlast Tooth Powder (The wasabi one!) and it's so refreshing for my mouth and not spicy one bit! I am also sold on their Aqua Marina face cleanser which has a clay feel and contains seaweed too, it made my skin feel nice. The moisturisers i'm still trialing. My favourites so far are the Celestial and the Vanishing Cream, but I still have three more to true (though 2 of them are rather bloody expensive, so  I won't buy those because I cannot afford that amount on a moisturiser). Overall though, i'm definitely sold on Lush and I recommend that if you care about animals or the environment, just look them up online and see for yourself.

For food on the go, i've been moving away from general shops/ supermarket stops, and whenever i'm around somewhere with some market food i'll tend to buy from these instead. I'm lucky that I work so close to Camden Town market, as there is a huge variety of market stalls with a nice variety of food from around the world. A lot of the stalls also supply their food in cardboard tubs, or paper wrap with wooden forks and generally if you scope out the stall before hand, you can see what they'll be packaging your food up in before you buy so you can make an informed choice. I had some lovely mac and cheese the other day just before I went to Lush which was well worth the slight detour to ensure my lunch would be plastic free. Sometimes you do have to go a little out of your way, but in my opinion it really wasn't much of an issue. And it was nice to walk along the canal to get there too. The only downside was the tourists - SO MANY! But all in all, much better choice and selection than if I had gone to a supermarket.

Anyhow, until next time.

Thanks for reading.

Day 24 - Stale Bread and Crisp Trial

Day 24

Doing this challenge has led me to confront the issue of stale bread, which is something that rarely happens with shop bought bread such as hovis, warburtons etc because it seems to go mouldy instead of stale. Since i've been buying loaves of bakery bread, it's made me realise how long bread really should last when it's fresh and how many preservatives must be in the other bread you can buy. So recently, everytime I have bought a loaf of bread, it has lasted 3 days max before it ends up going hard around the edges and ridiculously tough and chewy. Now, I mentioned this to my parents and they said I should make good old bread and butter pudding (why did i not think of this sooner!). Bread and butter pudding is a traditional english pudding designed to use up stale bread, butter and any currents/ dried fruit left over. The basic idea of it is to slice up the stale bread, lay it in a oven dish with currents/sultanas/dried fruit inbetween the layers, cover with a mix of milk, cream and eggs beaten together with a little nutmeg and vanilla extract and then leave to soak for a couple of hours before cooking in the oven. This makes a lovely dessert that you can have with cream, custard or ice cream. Mmmmm. I recommend trying it and it does save that last bit of bread unused bread.

If anyone is interested, we swear by this recipe (though my dad would argue to triple the amount of fruit suggested).
https://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Mrs_Beeton's_bread_and_butter_pudding

I tried the microwave method of making my own crisps as suggested by a friend of mine. I followed the instructions, I cut the potatoes very thin, coated with oil and a little salt and put them on a plate in the microwave. It said to cook them for 3-5 minutes, however I did not find this worked all that well. After about 8 minutes of them being a little crisp, but still soggy, i decided to put them in the oven to finish them off. They turned out great but my words of wisdom is to watch them like a hawk! Otherwise you'll end up with some seriously black and inedible crisps. I tried this with both normal potato and sweet potato and they both worked out great. My mum can vouch for this, because I took them with me in a container to the hospital to see my mum and she loved them so much that she ended up eating the entire box in like 5 minutes.  Compliments to the chef indeed. Sooo I'm guna have to make more. But glad they were enjoyed either way!

Anyhow until next time.

Thanks for reading!

Day 23 - Hospitals and Travelling

Day 23

Just a short one today as my mum has been in hospital, and i don't have a huge amount of time. But yes, hospitals. Whilst waiting in A&E for about 5 hours, you tend to get thirsty/hungry and unfortunately there didn't seem to be a place for me to get anything to eat that wasn't plastered in plastic. Our options were a coffee machine, a drinks machine (luckily with some cans, but only fizzy drinks) and another vending machine with crisps, chocolate etc. It was annoying because some hospitals do have small cafes, or even something like a costa, but where we were in the hospital we didn't have much choice of what to have, and all was stuck in plastic. Annoying for me, as i was not prepared for the visit obviously, and then had to deal with being tired/ hungry and worried. I did buy a drink and something from the vending machine. Unfortunately I did not want a fizzy drink and then ended up getting orange juice in a plastic bottle because i needed something. Not ideal but not much i could have done about it. I know hospitals have a mass of waste anyway, with the amount of single use plastics they must get through, but it's just annoying that it's the same on the food side of things too.

So my usual grocery shop would have meant I go to one or maybe two big supermarkets to get all of my food from them. However since I am avoiding the supermarkets now, it does mean I have to go from shop to shop to get everything i need which means a lot more travelling around. Fortunately i have a lot of it close by, but it does still mean carrying everything from shop to shop in an attempt to get everything I need. For most, this would not be ideal, especially those with kids or mobility issues. I'm lucky to have a car, but then what is the damage to the environment of having to drive everywhere for my food? I can't decide whether any of it balances out or not really, but travel time definitely is an issue.  I can no longer just pop up the shop for bread/ milk, and it's beginning to really take a toll on my life with spending more time going to get food, than i have to prepare it. It's definitely a problem. Though at the moment i do work long hours, i am doing a full time course outside of work, i have animals to look after at home and obviously a life to try to uphold, so at the moment this is not a great thing to have to spend time doing. Something to consider if you're thinking about doing this!

Anyhow, until next time.

Thanks for reading.

Day 22 - Lush Recycling and SLS Free Products

Day 22

So as i'm going plastic free, you may have read a previous blog of mine being a tad peeved at Lush having a lot of their products produced in plastic pots, which I did refuse to buy on the principle that they were in plastic... However, after more research into the matter, i have found Lush to be a much better company than I previously had thought.

It turns out that the black plastic pots that Lush make to sell their products in, can actually be returned to the shop for recycling back at their factories. The tops of the pots state if you return 5 full size black pots into Lush, then you receive a free fresh face mask, which is great, but they don't only recycle the large black pots. Even though you will not receive anything in return, you can take back all pots, even the small pots, clear or different coloured pots used for toothpaste powders or moisturisers etc, they accept the lids to their makeup and the small sample pots back too. You do have to ensure that they are 100% clean before returning, but this a small thing to do to ensure you can have a closed loop system back with the supplier and therefore not just throwing it in the bin or recycling at home. Lush have a fantastic video which shows you exactly what they do with their pots, which includes grinding them up, sometimes dying them black, reheating them and then remoulding back into new pots. So for me, this is a fantastic idea, because it means I can actually buy moisturiser for my face, without worrying that the pot might end up in landfill. I can take all of my pots back and be assured they will then end up back as more pots in the future for me to then purchase again. Truly I take hat off to you guys as more companies should be caring enough to offer this service! So since the plastic will not be thrown away, I would consider these Lush products as something safe for me to buy, as I know they will be responsibly handled once I return them.
So anyone out here, if you buy from Lush, please return your pots!

If anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUmfeOqVXVg

SLS free products, so in my search for plastic free shampoo I previously found the shampoo bars from  Lush, which are sold like a bar of soap and then they get wrapped in paper which was excellent. However, I have a very sensitive scalp, which dries out very easily and gets all flaky (which is caused by psoriasis) and for years of using standard shampoos and conditioners, it's rarely helped the situation. I have been trialing the shampoo/conditioner bars from Lush in the past few weeks, however I have found my scalp to actually be a bit drier and more itchy, and so I decided to look into what might be good for my scalp. It appears that a lot of shampoos contain SLS chemical, which is Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, which has been tested and can sometimes affect people with very sensitives scalps. Unfortunately Lush products do contain SLS (although just to mention that most people shouldn't be affected by these, unless you plan on leaving the shampoo on your head for hours but my scalp is a tad more sensitive). Apparently the SLS does not help the PH of your hair/skin, so can create dryness.  So i've been investigating into SLS free alternatives and found that there are some people selling SLS free shampoo bars, which can be used for sensitive skin. However most places suggesting using these call it the "No poo" formula for hair, meaning the ingredients are much more natural and apparently better for your hair. So they also recommend that when using these, you at first wash your hair only 2-3 times a week, and then rinse with a vinegar rinse (which helps soften the hair and balance out the natural PH). They say using the shop bought shampoos that have chemicals in it, will strip your hair of their natural oils, and then recoat them with silicates within the shampoo to make them soft. This means your hair then gets greasier quicker as your head attempts to regenerate your natural oils and restore the balance. So you notice your hair is greasy, then wash it again and the cycle continues. They have recommended when switching over to this method to only wash a few times a week to allow your hair/scalp time to get used to not being stripped down by chemicals. The vinegar rinse recommends you use 2-4 tablespoons of unrefined apple cider vinegar in 250ml of warm water, which you then throw over your hair after shampooing and leave for a few minutes to work it's magic. I have tried this, and I mixed in a few drops of grapefruit essential oils and a few drops of vitamin e oil to help nourish my hair and to help it not smell of vinegar. I have only used this method once so far, and my hair is still getting used to routine. My hair did not smell like vinegar at all once I dried it, which was incredible, as i thought i'd be walking around stinking of the stuff, but all was fine. I'll let you guys know in a few weeks when i update on how it's going (i'm determined to try it out). You can get the suppliers to send you products in no plastic, which is great and the cider vinegar will come in glass bottles, so there's no issues there.

It's interesting because I never realised where not using plastic might take me, and it's got me to try a load of different things which I never knew existed.

Anyhow, until next time.

Thanks for reading.

Day 21 - Recycling Symbols and Petrol Stations

Day 21 

Recycling, what can/ can't be collected in local recycling will depend on where you are in the UK, as it changes from county to county and for those of you further afield may vary quite considerably to this too. My local council will accept a lot of different types of plastics that some councils will not accept, such as plastic shopping bags, which some councils refuse meaning you have to find somewhere else to recycle it.

My council will accept the following plastic recycling:
Plastic packaging (in the photo it has things like yoghurt pots, microwave trays, butter tubs etc).
Carrier bags (pictured shopping bags)
Plastic bottles (minus the lids)

There are however different types of all of these plastics, as some have the 3 arrows recycling symbols but with a number in the middle of it which will tell you the recyclability of that piece of plastic. I've been searching the internet trying to find out if my local recycling will note down which numbers of plastic they will accept in their recycling, however I cannot find it at the moment. It would be useful if they displayed these on their kerbside bins so we know what they definitely will accept and what they don't, so at the moment it does leave the average person somewhat perplexed as to what can be collected or not.

I found this table online that gives you a rough idea of what each of the symbols mean and whether they can be recycled or not. So it looks as though generally my kerbside collection will probably only accept 1,2 and 4 type plastics, and the others become much trickier. If you are concerned about these, it might be wise to contact your local council to try and get an answer for which of these are accepted or not.

Interestingly as well, there are some plastics that have a "recycling logo" but confusingly this may not mean they can be recycled. It actually means that the producer has a financial contribution to the recovery and recycling of the product. Basically meaning it cannot be recycled. I found this on a malteser packet so thought i'd check it and realised I'd been throwing it into the recycling when it shouldn't be going there. So beware of this symbol!

There are some things that can be recycled by the local supermarkets, who accept the carrier bags for recycling, these include: Bread bags, breakfast cereal packets, toilet/kitchen roll wraps, shrink wrap, magazine wraps etc. These can be recycled, however a lot of the time they are reused to make bin bags for the general waste bins, so they'll end up in the landfill anyway, no matter what you do.
Depressing huh?

So this is why it would be better to reduce the plastic used in the first places, rather than trying to deal with the consequences. Saying that, some companies such as Lush do recycle their own pots, which I will go into the next blog.



Petrol  Stations - these are a massive problem in my opinion, the same as any quick, convenient shops as they have almost everything packaged in plastic. Everything. As they are a place for people to stop, grab and go, 98% of the products they have are completely packaged in plastic. Exceptions to these are cans of drinks and maybe apples/bananas if provided. All pastries, sandwiches, and snacks all come wrapped, making it impossible for someone avoiding it to actually buy anything. I've had to go there to get milk for my nan (as she cannot have my amazing raw milk), getting her bread short notice (when she calls me at like 7pm on my way home from work, when there is no chance in hell of a bakery being open) and it's just annoying really.

Who decided plastic was a mark of cleanliness I don't know, but it seems a lot of companies over package their goods, which most of the time is unnecessary and unwanted by the consumer.

Anyhow, until next time!

Thanks for reading.

Day 20 - Convenience Food and Sweet Potato Fries

Day 20

One of the things that has been getting to me is the sheer idea of convenience food, without having to pre-plan anything or make it yourself. It's annoying really that we have become so reliant on food that we can just grab from a shop without any effort into its making what-so-ever. I love that though, which is the annoying thing. Some things i'm hugely missing out on are chocolate, crisps, crackers, biscuits, sweets, yoghurts, cheese, drinks etc. A lot of these you can get alternatives for, but these are in very specific shops, or even online places, and not somewhere you can just grab and go.

I'd like to think I would keep not using a lot of these products after this experiment, however will power can waiver and my stomach may win over my morals. It's just a shame more companies can't supply more products that aren't draped in plastic.

One thing that is pretty easy to make however is sweet potato fries. I love sweet potato in most forms, and as fries they are delicious! I love wedges as well, but the fries are a favourite of mine. Now the only thing about these is having to cut them up, but my friend has a clever little machine specifically for cutting out fries/chips from potatoes, so I've asked her if i can borrow it to make a decent batch of both normal and sweet potatoes so  I can freeze them for quicker use when i come in knackered from work. It's all in the preparation. If you think about it, a few potatoes are much cheaper than a bag of chips, so if you have some time, or one of these machines, then this will help save some time when you're in a hurry. Easy peasy.

Anyhow, until next time.

Thanks for reading.

Day 19 - Homemade Chips and Crisps

Day 19

So I'm regretting  not buying some of those frozen chips from the farm shop, as I have no chips that I can just throw in the oven and I sometimes like to put them in the oven and just relax without worrying about cooking. However pretty much all chips come wrapped in plastic. Yes, even microwavable oven chips as event though they are in a box, they are then wrapped in plastic after. I've done a small search but haven't found any alternative, apart from the farm shop which is a tad far to drive 40 minutes for chips! So in my lacking of chips I've decided to make my own, and I've done it before but It can be a bit annoying, especially if you like smaller fries like me, which takes more cutting. I love my fries skin on so I just cut up a potato into thin pieces, coated with oil and put in  the oven. It took about 30 minutes but they came out great. I've decided to try and do my own frozen ones by doing this and then freezing them, so all they'll need is to be warmed up and Crisped up when I need them. Hopefully that'll work! I also looove sweet potato fries, so I'm going to make a box  of them for the freezer =). I recommend trying  it if you haven't. But making from scratch when you're hungry is a bit long I have to admit.

Crisps. Now that's something i'm very much missing right now. I've stolen the odd crisp from my partner when he's bought some, and I think that one will be pretty hard for me to give up. I am more of a savoury person, so instead of reaching for cake, i'd go for crisps every time. Annoyingly most crisps seem to come protected in plastic. I did know one company called Boxer Chips that I used to sell in a previous job, which were great but the boxes were covered again in plastic. It's a shame because their idea was good - the crisps were in the box, the box would unfold into a small bowl and you could eat them like that, and if inclined, share with friends. I have been told about a company called Brown Bag Crisps, and from their website it does seem like the packaging is just paper, but i'm going to email the company to find out whether this is actually the case, and if it is, how I can get my hands on them. I'm pretty excited about that actually. So fingers crossed. I'm also aiming to make my own potato crisps and vegetable crisps soon, and i've been informed you can do them in the microwave! So that'll be an interesting experiment :). The next time you reach for a bag of crisps in the shop, think of me lol. I like ready salted baked crisps, pickled onion monster munch, skips, discos, sunbites... the list is endless.

Anyhow, until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

Day 18 - Water Bottles and Internet Shopping

Day 18

So I realised I have managed to go for 18 days without mentioning one of the biggest topics in plastic free life at the moment, and that is the water bottle. Statics say that the UK uses over 3 billion litres of bottled water every year, which is around 15 million wasted plastic bottles every day! This is an absurd amount of unnecessary plastic used when there are easy alternatives to solve the problem. For one, i'm sorry but if you buy bottled water for your house then you sir are a moron. You have tap water that costs 0.097p a litre, and you could get 1000 litres for just £1. Bottled water will cost you in usual circumstances around 50p-£1 for a 500ml bottle.. If you tally that up how much it would cost you for 1000 litres of bottled water at a rate of 50p per 500ml, then it would cost you £1000 a year just on water. If you were thinking of trying to cut your budget somewhere to save money, and you use bottled water, i'd suggest you cut it here. Tap water is not dirty, it is not dangerous and actually is well filtered by our water boards. A lot of effort goes into supplying fresh, clean tap water for our homes, at such a cheap price too, so you'd be insane not to drink it. Bottled water isn't any better for you than tap water, in fact tap water has a lot of the same elements as bottled water, just in varying ratios across the country, which is why tap water in different places tastes well... different. I have been brought up drinking tap water and i love it. I only ever used to buy bottled water if I really couldn't get tap water safely - going abroad, or at airports/ festivals where there is no where to top up bottles. I have been using my aluminium and stainless steel bottles for a decent amount of time now. I carry them everywhere I go and I use them at work (usually keep 2 in the fridge and 1 with me at all times). I do drink a lot of water as well, I kind of have a problem where i probably drink too much, but i'm always hydrated and it's better than spending money on fizzy drinks or other random drinks. I decided I needed another bottle to take with me on my outings, because I have 3 small 250ml bottles which don't appear to be enough, I could get through those in a couple of hours, so I figured I should buy some bigger ones. I bought a bottle from Amazon which claims to be an eco friendly bottle. It is mostly bamboo and stainless steel, with the most minimal amount of plastic compared to any of the others online. It is super insulated keeping drinks cold for 24 hours and boasts to be leak free. It contains an infuser, so you can make loose leaf tea or fruit drinks, it has a wide top for adding ice to it and best yet has a Lifetime guarantee if you are ever unsatisfied with the bottle at any time. Seems a tad good to be true. It came today and it does look good to me, but I will be putting it to the test and i'll let you know how it goes. If anyone is interested it is by Vireo and is a 400ml - £22.

So basically the moral of this story is buy yourself a reuseable metal bottle, and get drinking tap water to help stop this madness! Also if more places could install water fountains that would be bloody fab! Cheers!

ZSL Zoos are currently running a plastic free bottle campaign, where they have replaced all their single use plastic water bottles with paper bottles, which are much better for the environment. It's a good start and a good way to start raising awareness for people.

So you may have noticed that a lot of this stuff i'm buying i'm having to get on the internet.. Which in itself is causing me some internal quarrels. Yes, I want to buy plastic free, eco friendly amazing products - but NO, i do not want the ridiculous amount of packaging that comes with it (especially plastic). Unfortunately it's annoying, but i've come to the realisation that if I want to buy things that are long lasting, and will do the time, I will have to search further afield than my local area. It does mean more packaging now, but in the long run it will help me replace a lot of the plastic that could have been wasted in things like water bottles, shopping bags etc. I'm not aiming to get everything on the internet either, and smaller companies I am trying to ask that where possible could they avoid plastic for the packaging, which has been okay so far. Places like amazon can be good, but it depends on the products. At least their external packaging is all cardboard and paper.

Anyhow, i'm pretty tired, so until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

Day 17 - Vegetable bags and Natracare Tampons

Day 17

So I discovered a bit of a flaw in using paper bags to collect my fruit and vegetables from shops. One, if the veg is chilled and has moisture on it, then the bag would rip easily and i'd be left with a mess at the till; and Two, the paper bags I bought weren't overly large, so I couldn't fit a huge amount in - and heavy things like loose potatoes rip straight through. So I decided to try some cloth bags, but to try to avoid places saying that i'm stealing, I decided I would order some net washing machine bags which are see through, well ventilated, large, durable, washable and have zipped tops so it's easier to move the bags around without a disaster at the check out and the person looking at me like i'm an absolute loon. So i've ordered 3 standard bags, of varying sizes, and also 3 "bra bags" which are smaller little round mesh bags, maybe more suited to small fruits/ tomatoes etc. They are light weight as well, so if they need to weigh them at the till, it would be easy to weigh them in the bags too. So hopefully they'll arrive tomorrow and then I can put them to the test some time soon! I also found these things called origami bags which are cloth sewn with two longer pieces up the sides and created into a pouch. You can fill the pouch and then tie the top up when you're done. They look cool, so i might see if I can make some to try out (as i'm not spending like £5-£7 on a piece of cloth!). Either of these would negate the need for me to use the plastic flimsy bags the supermarkets supply you with in the shop which usually are thrown away relatively shortly to getting home by most people.

I received a tweet response recently from the brand Natracare, basically saying that they'd like to explain the deal with their tampons being wrapped in plastic. They messaged me explaining that because the tampons I bought are without applicator (i purchased these accidentally, which i'm not too happy about) means they have stricter hygiene laws on keeping them bacteria free and safe for the user. They could not be wrapped in wax/paper because if it ripped, it would directly compromise the tampon itself. Whereas their applicator based tampons come wrapped in wax paper, and are much more environmentally friendly, which I can say I will make sure i purchase the right ones in future! They said the plastic used is BPA free (meaning it won't leach any bad chemicals into the tampon) and is "recyclable" - however I have looked into my local recycling and it seems much more difficult to be able to recycle this type of plastic than it does other forms of plastic. I will go over recycling symbols in one of my next blogs because it's interesting how many things can actually be recycled, but obviously not all is accepted in our kerbside waste - therefore mostly doesn't get recycled as most people don't know what to do with certain products. So i would like to thank Natracare for being very prompt and professional in their responses to me.

Anyhow, until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading! (apologies for the delayed blog!) :)

Day 16 - The Butchers and The Weekly Shop

Day 16

Okay so after my realisation that going to Farm Shops for all of my fruit/veg/ meat was quite nice, it also worked out pretty expensive. And if I was going to survive without running out of money and spending it all on food, i decided i needed to be more clever about where I bought my goods. Luckily 5 minutes drive around the corner from me is a small town centre and I'm kinda luckily to live in a not so well off area, so everyone really is looking to get everything as cheap as they can - especially when it comes to food. I decided to arm myself with a cool-box to keep anything I had cool, as I also planned on going to get the milk from that farm (which is a bit more expensive, but i love that milk so i'm not giving that up too!). My first stop was the butchers. I walked in and asked straight away if I could take the stuff in my own box without plastic and I was met with a confused face and the statement "why wouldn't i let you take it in your own box?". I explained to the lady the issues I had with the supermarkets and she honestly couldn't believe their responses to my needs. Our butchers isn't overly expensive either, far cheaper than the farm shop and the quality of the meat from there is phenomenally better than the stuff you get at the supermarkets anyway. So i bought 12 rashers of bacon and 2 minted lamb chops - as they are my partners favourite.

So after this I went a couple of shops down to see if I could get some salmon from a fishmonger/ newsagent type shop. On the way in I noticed they did a large variety of fruit and veg, most in bowls that were a £1 each - slightly less quality than the supermarkets, but almost all of it was plastic free, so I opted to get some potatoes, a swede (as I know supermarkets have those wrapped) and some onions. The guy at the fish counter agreed I could use my own box, which wasn't a problem at all. But when I asked for two fillets he said you have to buy the whole fish, which he could fillet for me, as they sell theirs by the fish. So i picked the smallest salmon, which came to £8, and he descaled it, and then filleted it in front of me. He cut it into 4 fillets and put it in my box and kindly added a bit of ice to keep it chilled for me. It worked out the same or even better than the supermarket price, as the pieces of salmon were big, and usually 2 fillets would cost roughly £4-£5 so it worked out fine. The guy at the till though did try twice to put my veg in plastic bags, but I just abruptly said no no please no plastic and showed him the bag i had already put on the counter. He asked if i was sure, and then laughed and shook his head as if i was a mad woman. I might start getting a reputation around my local shops for this, but hey, i don't care lol.

My next stop was Sainsburys, where i needed some tinned goods and the last of the veg i required (which actually turned out to be just celery for the stew I'm cooking right now). Unfortunately no where seems to do unwrapped celery, and I wanted my stew, so I did buy a pack (Bad i know!). I also bought a tonne of tinned tomatoes, soup, beans and tuna. What annoyed me about the Tuna was, if you buy 4 tins that are in a multi-pack wrapped in plastic, it costs you £3.70. If you don't want the plastic, but want 4 tins of tuna to buy individually, it will cost you £1 a tin equalling at £4. I'm not sure how having a small amount of plastic wrapped around it would bring the price down.. It really baffles me and is something that seems inherently wrong to me. Why? So i skipped the multipack and opted for the single tins instead. Got me some salad cream in a glass container as well as tomato puree too.  I also got some butter and other bits (including painkillers - still in pain with the wisdom tooth!).

After sainsburys I then went to the bakers and bought a loaf of bread (unsliced - because if they slice it for you they put it in a plastic bag) which I got in a paper bag. After this, me and my partner went for a drive up to get the milk, which I have begun to love doing. It's nice to see the cows, it's novel using the machine and I saw they do ice cream so i've vouched to go back and try some :).

With that shop over I've come home pretty triumphantly knowing i've significantly reduced my plastic use for the weekly shop, and quite easily and cheaply this time! And i feel like shouting take that supermarkets and your overly crazy rules on meat/fish handling.

Anyhow, i'm hungry, so until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

Day 15 - Train Travel and Hangovers

Day 15 

Okay, so I have to admit, after Saturday night I wasn't in the best shape in anyway. It had been a long long night, with just a few drinks (lies) and I was feeling very much worse for wear with a long journey from Barnsley back to London ahead of me. I had some food in the morning/ afternoon when I woke up and some tea, and I thought that I would be set. On the way back on the train however I learnt we had a 50 minute stop over at Sheffield station, which only led to exacerbate the situation (what does exacerbate mean? It means to make things worse! - apologies for my rubbish film references lol). By this point I was very tired, very hungry (since I get very hungry on a hangover day) so i decided we'd look for some food. The only thing available to us was a Pumpkin Cafe inside the station, and guess what? - Yes all was covered in plastic. Being in a bad way I did make the executive decision to put my overall well being first and buy some food to keep me going on the journey.. So i bought a sandwich, crisps, a tea and a muffin (the muffin was the only thing not in plastic). So i do feel bad about this, but I wouldn't have made it home in one piece without some food, and unfortunately the challenge did suffer that afternoon. I apologise, but at least I was honest.. I wanted to show the ups and downs of this challenge and this was certainly a down moment.

So the other side to being hungover is obviously painkillers.. I have used painkillers today and over the last fews days for my wisdom tooth pain too, so this is something i'm struggling with too. I don't hold out much hope to find any painkillers that aren't in plastic, but I will keep looking for alternatives. It's frustrating, but I figure in the medical world that plastic is coupled with cleanliness/sterilisation. I imagine you could potentially use the vegetable fibre type packaging for this, but i'm not certain it would take in case any medication were compromised because of it. So again, apologies, but today is kinda helping show the realism of the whole mission I have on my hands.

Anyways, until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading :)  

Day 14 - Pubs and Takeaways

Day 14

Today was Saturday, I was away from home for a friends birthday and we had a night out planned in Barnsley. So obviously from the start I knew there might be a few things that would crop up over the evening, which I was partially prepared for. I went out wielding my new metal straws (not literally), and had my bottle with some water of mine in my bag for if I got thirsty on the way home (which is definitely more than likely!). So the day was going great, we went to a wetherspoons and had some food with some drinks to begin with. I was going to for a Magners cider until I realised that they've strangly changed the top of the bottle so instead of having a metal bottle cap, they've now got this absolutely pointless plastic ring pull thing on the bottles! Why!? So i avoided that entirely thank you muchly. I had mostly rum here and luckily not one of the bar tenders decided I needed a straw (which was good, as in London they seem to presume you do and stick it in your drink anyway). So then we went to a few other pubs (maybe more actually...) and everything was great until we got to the last place which was open until 4am. When we got there all the drinks came in plastic cups and I have to admit that with my inhibitions having relaxed with alcohol intake I didn't notice this for quite some time. Once I realised, I switched over to drinking bottled drinks which they handed over without the plastic cup, so that was good - i had some Hooch, which also gave me a bit more energy as it was very sugary! It made me think though of all of the disposable plastic cups they must go through unnecessarily each night. Is there an alternative to using these, other than glass of course, which i'm sure they were avoiding knowing the state of their clientele between the hours of 12am - 4am in the morning.

 I had a quick search online and found a company called VegWare that offer plastic like cups, that are cups made from plant based material, and are fully compostable!  They seem to have quite a range of disposable and compostable products that ordinarily would be made from plastic! The only downside I could see is that the plastic versions are cheaper, with 1000 9oz cups costing between £15-£30 or individually wrapped ones at £69.99; whereas the Vegcups are £57.74 for 1000 cups of the same size. In smaller denominations if anyones interested in purchasing them for a party your throwing, you can get 50 cups for £4.92, which if you think about it really isn't a great deal if you think of the damage you could prevent!

On the way home at 3am- ish, luckily everyone said no to takeaway (as I saw they were selling it in polystyrene boxes!) but we did opt for Greggs, which weirdly was open til about 4am! Crazy talk i know, but it's true I tells ya! So I bought a sausage roll, which came in a paper bag and then we were on our way back. This made me consider then, how much plastic takeaways must go through in plastic/ polystyrene containers, especially with the large boom of takeaways we've had in our area, the amount of wastage must be absolutely phenomenal! Apparently VegWare where there to save the day again and also do Takeaway boxes made out of highly pressurised sugar cane, which again is completely compostable. It's annoying you have to pay more for products like this though, because there should be some form of government backing on reducing the availability of these plastics, and we should be pushing companies to move towards these form of products. There is ABSOLUTELY no need for us to have products wrapped in plastic that we tear off two minutes after buying and throw in the bin, but yet stick around in the environment for x number of millions of years. What right do we have to do this so readily. I won't rant, It's just sickening the monumental waste that we as a species allow and find acceptable. *Fingers crossed* for a monumental change in attitude sometime in the near future, but that's definitely wishful thinking and therefore very worrying indeed.

Anyhow, that's enough doom and gloom for one day.

Until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading.

Day 13 - Travel Food Problems and Metal Straws

 Day 13 

So today was the first time i've had to travel, without the convenience of my car, so i was not as prepared as I feel I could have been (as there was a lot to carry). My journey time was roughly 4 hours, which fell slap bang in the middle of lunch time, which I didn't think about before I left. So when I arrived at Kings Cross station, with a 3 hour train ride ahead, I realised that I would need some food/drink for lunch. So II started searching around for some plastic free food that I could buy. It wasn't easy but after looking around I found a sandwich shop (Benugo) that sold these lovely looking baguettes, however I did notice they were putting them in plastic wrap, but I could see they also had paper wrap for their pastries, so I asked if I could have it in the paper instead. At first the woman didn't understand and went to put it in the plastic and so I kind of said no no no no just paper please and she realised what I wanted. So then I realised i'd need a drink/ snack too, so I bought a can of coke for the caffeine and a oat cookie from Pret. So we then boarded the train and got settled in for the journey ahead. During the journey, a snacks cart came through offering tea/coffee, and I couldn't resist having a tea (i'm a bit of an addict with tea). I unfortunately haven't bought a travel tea mug yet, so they gave it to me in the cardboard cup and I told the girl I did not want the plastic top to the tea as I didn't want it and wouldn't use it anyway. She put the lid on anyway, to my disgust and said "I have to give you the lid" which was a ridiculous statement! So unhappily I paid for it, and set my sights on buying a travel mug to prevent this happening again. It seems like it would be very difficult to be able to get something to eat on the go at trains stations. I was lucky it was a big station like Kings Cross as there was more selection, but other stations I may not have been as lucky. So I looked up a travel mug and found one that appears to be made of bamboo, stainless steel and a rubber seal, so I may be buying this to use.

 So knowing i'd be going out drinking this weekend I decided to buy some reusable straws to use instead of the plastic straws. Unfortunately when I ordered them they came wrapped in 2 layers of plastic. They come with their own pipe cleaner and they seem to be quite alright to use. Although when drunk and you try to bite the straw forgetting it's metal kinda isn't recommended! But they are great. So I will be testing them tonight out and about, so I'll see how easy that is to navigate (I may loose one).

Anyhow, I'll see how today goes!

Until tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Day 12 - Razor Blades and The Trip Away

Day 12

So my razor is getting a bit blunt, and it occured to me - crap, that's almost ALL plastic, with heads to replace, but that's still more plastic straight into the landfill. So i got searching on the internet and saw you can buy safety razors that are all metal, where you can just replace the blades, or sharpen the blades, depending on the make and how expensive they are. I have found one with decent reviews that is £21.99, seems like a decent razor and in the comments a few women mentioned using them so it seems promising. It's something i'm willing to pay out for as I see it's something that i'll keep in the future. I'll let you know when it arrives and useage reviews. But yeah, it's just insane the amount of plastic we must go through for shaving alone - especially men if they use disposable razors! It's madness!

A small review I have for the Teo deoderant bar I bought from Lush. I have to say that I do have quite sensitive skin, and I found the bar to be quite abrasive and a bit itchy. It's also very very powdery and little blue bits in the bar end up over the floor everywhere. It smells nice and works well, but it's not right for my skin, it gets everywhere and would probably show up on dark clothing. You also can't use it on damp armpits, dry only, so if you need to reapply you'd have to try dry your armpits off first it seems.

So from tomorrow I will be taking a few days away up to Barnsley to visit a friend of mine for his birthday, so obviously this does concern me, as i'm not going to be sure what I can get around there, what's going to occur food wise too. At home I know where some of my resources are and I have back up tins of things in the cupboard, but away from home that leaves me a bit more vulnerable. Although this could be gotten round by eating out, but then it would be more expensive. But what will be will be and i'll try to update you tomorrow evening (if i've not had too much to drink, or even if I have it might make for an interesting read).

Anyhow, until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading.

Day 11 - The Madness Continues and Sneaky Tiger Bread Plastic

Day 11

So yesterday I messaged Waitrose, to get their take on the whole taking meat/fish away in your own containers thing. The response I received stated that due to health and safety they couldn't allow the person to take my container over the counter due to fears of it contaminating something else, and also the meat is weighed in plastic to health and safety reasons too. It does seem odd to me that a farm shop and a butchers would allow the sell of meat without plastic and have no qualms with this, but it's not for me to judge. Although I still don't see why they can't go back to using butcher paper or something of the like instead of using plastic. My post to Waitrose has caused a few people to reply, and one person stating that I should should just accept that it's not going to change. To which I replied that if everyone accepted everything that was wrong in the world then we would never change anything for the better. I said I would continue to use the butchers, fish mongers as long as they accept to put it in my containers. Sometimes the small changes you make can make a difference if enough people with the same values choose the same path. Anyhow, enough on that for now but i'm sure this is a to be continued subject!

I needed some bread after work today, so I asked my other half if he would be able to stop by Greggs (a bakers) to pick up a loaf of bread (not in plastic of course) however when he called me he said that even there everything seemed to be in plastic. So as I was hungry and needed bread for dinner I headed to Tescos as it was close, hoping they did something not wrapped in plastic. Being an express shop i was pleased to see they had a small baked section, with loose rolls and things. I then spotted some tiger bread wrapped in paper, so i picked this up in a rush and then paid at the till. It wasn't until I got it home I actually realised it had a small thin panel of clear plastic on the other side to showcase their product, which I must have missed in my rush to get home to eat. It's annoying as well because there were no paper bags supplied for the other breads/ rolls, just the plastic, which is why I went for the tiger loaf. I will definitely check better next time - it's very annoying actually. There is a Lidl around the corner from me and they have a new baked section, so i'm sure if i take my own paper bag I could go get something from there easily and probably cheaply too.

So i've been doing a lot of coursework this afternoon, so my partner got to work on making some yummy cheese biscuits. They came out good, but the amount of cheese recommended in the recipe was no where near enough the amount that should have been put in, however I am a bit of a cheese fiend so that might be why! They are nice and are going to serve as a bit of a snack in the next few days - yaay!

The guinea pigs are now gone - actually they've been gone a few days now but I forgot to mention it, so no more worrying about their diet! Although I do have 4 rats which do require a pellet form of food, so i'm going to have to look up alternatives for that - if any. Luckily their substrate for the cage I use is called Catolet which is actually a recycled paper based cat litter which comes in a paper bag too, so I don't have to worry about anything there.

Anyhow I thought I'd leave you today on a picture of one of my Moon Jellies at work, which is pretty awesome as it has 6 stomachs instead of the usual 4 - very pretty!

Until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading.

Day 10 - Stale Bread and Snack Cravings

Day 10

Doing this has already made me realise what we a lot of the time take for granted, and it's things such as the longevity after purchase of the food we get from supermarkets. What made me think of this? Well it's been 2 days since I purchased the multi-seed bread from the farm shop, and I have had to make sure we used it up quickly because by the end of the first day it was starting to get pretty tough! Today I had some for my lunch at work and thought the rest would last until tomorrows lunch, however when i got to the bread this afternoon it was so tough I had to microwave it slightly just to make it edible - and I was hungry too, so I needed it to be edible. It makes me think how great it is to have bread that doesn't go out of date that quick, but then think well that means it must have a lot of preservatives in it to keep it that way. So then what are we putting in our bodies? It's interesting to me because I remember reading something online a while back about places in south america that have found that bodies that have been buried in the last couple of decades do not seem to be decomposing at the rate that the body should decompose at. They theorized that it could be due to the sheer amount of preservatives that are in foods nowadays, which seems to have had an effect on the peoples bodies over time. Whether this is true/ been studied or not, i'm not sure - i will aim to look up about this more but i'm pretty tired tonight, so i'm keeping this one short tonight - apologies!

So, another major inconvenience to me at the moment is snacking. I ordinarily eat a lot of crisps (not an unhealthy amount, but maybe a pack every few days, and recently decided to get a liking for TUC biscuits. I forgot how amazing TUC biscuits were as a kid, so decided to start eating them again recently, which i realise now was a mistake because they are pretty addictive to me now. It's annoying because everything i seem to like/ become accustomed to are things that have a barrier of bloody plastic in the way of me and them. I believe I had a vague dream about driving to find the TUC biscuit factory last night to ask them if they would fill up all of the containers I had with the biscuits so I could gorge myself on them for the next few weeks!  How insane is that?! I'm actually seriously craving biscuits and crisps. Another one for me which I do sometimes buy, is a small premade birthday cake from Tescos. It sounds weird, and I know it's not my birthday, but I love that particular birthday cake, it just tastes good. Unfortunately one little plastic window on the box stands between me and it right now. And it's annoying because I don't get them regularly and I don't tend to eat cake, but right now i'd eat about 10. I'm craving snacks, convenience food and just food I don't have to plan ahead with.

I'll leave you with a photo of the last TUC biscuit I had before I started this whole thing. I wish I had savoured it more!

Until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading :). Goodnight zzzzzzzzz

Day 9 - Environmentally Friendly Toothbrush and Homemade Meals

 Day 9

I was awoken bright and early by the postman delivering my order from the Ethical Superstore where I ordered some environmentally plastic free staples. I ordered a 9 pack of toilet rolls, 2 kitchen rolls, tampons (two types) and 2 environmental toothbrushes. So upon receiving the box I noticed that it was done up with sellotape (fail one), it would be great if they could use masking tape/ paper tape instead - i'll ask the company if this is possible in future..
The toilet rolls and the kitchen rolls are fantastic, only about 10p more expensive than the sainsburys toilet rolls we buy, they are made from 100% recycled paper and the packaging is 100% compostable. Perfect! They also don't have that annoying 2 minutes of struggle of trying to get the edge of the roll off, they actually have a small easily peel-able edge to pull and the rolls are quite soft. Very impressed with this brand and I see myself keeping this after the  month is up.

Upon inspection the tampons looked good, however when I opened them up I realised that each tampon was individually wrapped in plastic. The advertising for them is misleading as it states they are plastic free, however they are wrapped in plastic - I imagine they meant inside the tampon itself, as these are 100% cotton, but this is misleading none the less. So, I am a bit disappointed to find this was the case, especially when I have now bought these over tampax tampons which come with a cardboard applicator and are wrapped in paper. Just a shame they haven't got 100% cotton tampons to boot. I have contacted Natracare about this to see if they will consider using paper in future instead - as they are selling themselves as an ethical, environmentally friendly company.

Also this "Environmental Toothbrush" I bought looked great on the surface and from what I have read on most of the sites that are selling them, they seem to be 100% biodegradable and are sold as "Bamboo Toothbrush". However when I inspected them upon delivery, i noticed the bristles looked suspiciously like plastic, so I started to look deeper into the internet for information. I found out that the company who supplies them used to advertise them as 100% biodegradable, however was contacted by a fellow plastic free patron last year, who pointed out that the bristles were plastic. His supplier from China had lied to him about the content of the brush, and so he has righted this on his own website. It seems though that maybe other sites have an old description, or do not go into enough detail, as to me it seemed as though these were 100% plastic free. These do seem to be the best alternative at the moment to the conventional plastic toothbrush. However there is a supplier in Germany that makes Beechwood toothbrushes and the bristles are made from pig hair, which sounds good, but the pig hair is a by-product from the Chinese meat trade, so i'm not exactly sure I'd be willing to call this an ethical solution. I did think hmm, maybe I could make my own toothbrush out of something, but as of yet i'm lacking a decent alternative. If I find one, i'll let you know!


Okay, to the food of today! For lunch I decided to utilise a great deal of food i've gotten in the last week. So me and my partner had broad beans and bacon on multi-grain toast with honeyed figs and balsamic glaze. It was loooovely. As I have mentioned before I absolutely love broad beans, even if they are a bit of a faff (mostly because we de-shell them as the beans themselves have a much nicer flavour than with the shells).

 For dinner I decided to use the rest of the sausages, and make sausage casserole. I used a Hairy Bikers recipe, with broad beans, tinned tomatoes and a mix of different spices and seasonings (including fresh thyme from one of my herb pots!). This was great, which fed me, my partner and just enough for two lunches whilst i'm at work in the week.

 I also made some oat cookies, which I can enjoy anytime I wish and some maple and cinnamon granola, which I will be having for breakfast. If  I like it i'll make a huge batch to last me a couple of weeks. I love it because it's so simple and quick to make.

I also took a trip back up to the Farm to grab some milk, 1 litre for me and 1 litre for one of my friends who read about the milk here and decided it sounded delicious so he placed an order with me. I have a mission to transport this milk from London - Barnsley on Friday to get it to him, so that'll be fun! Especially as raw milk has to be kept cold as it contains bacteria, so you have to be careful. So i'll be grabbing a cool box and some cool packs to transport this to him - fingers crossed it works!

Anyhow, that's me for today, so until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading.

Day 8 - The Cheese and Meat Success

Day 8

After spending a lovely morning/ afternoon watching Come Dine with Me, with my sister and our partners I decided to set out in search of the farm shop I had been told about by a friend of mine.

As we pulled up to the shop I could see it was huge, with a garden centre and cafe attached to the side, which is always a good sign! I noticed that they had an extensive loose frozen food range, pastries again, frozen berries, chips, mushrooms, diced vegetables, fish cakes etc. It was incredible! Unfortunately I did not bring enough boxes with me to buy everything I wanted, but I will certainly go prepared next time.
I also noticed they had a fish counter and a meat counter (unfortunately we got there a bit late in the day and they were cleaning down the fish counter, so I opted to buy some meat instead.
I sheepishly asked the meat counter guy if I could take it in my own container - explaining to him how I'm not using plastic at the moment and he was fine with it. I gave him the container and he weighed it all out for me. How nice! He even didn't mind having his photo taken of him weighing out my sausages either. Brilliant! I bought bacon and sausages, and I have earmarked all of them for each meal I am going to have. Starting tonight with toad in the hole mmmm.





























I also nabbed a few other goodies whilst there including some sweet apple juice, strawberry and kiwi cider (!), multiseed fresh bread and some goats cheese (that the lady allowed me to put in a paper bag instead of cling film - yay!). I also picked up some potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, more broad beans and cherry tomatoes. The shop was great, and even though there was a lot wrapped in plastic, most of the fresh and frozen produce was not, so that made me happy.

I also noticed this in the shop - it's a place to bottle your own oil and vinegar with a great selection to choose from - things like raspberry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, ginger oil, garlic oil, basil oil etc. They also had a keg of cider sitting on the side, so that you could refill your own bottles with cider too! Genius! It reminded me that I remember a shop in  Windsor (from when I used to work over that way) called Vom Fass that do refills on all sorts of alcohols (spirits, wine, cider etc) and also had the oils/ vinegar too. So that's something i'll be looking up.

Anyhow, that was may day, so until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!