Plastic Free July!

So we are halfway through July.

How has your plastic free month been so far?

For me I have found it to be an extremely difficult challenge. I knew that going 100% plastic free, particularly in this day and age, was going to be an impossible task but we had to try! Right?

On this basis I knew that the only way to deal with this challenge would be with small steps.

And because of this, I plan to continue the challenge beyond July. For the rest of time actually…

I must mention here that I saw a poster in a local supermarket that made me smile, “help us to sell no plastic bags this month” it said…. but the supermarket in question has done nothing beyond putting up a few posters. They do have fabric bags for sale on a rack but no alternative options at the till, like, for instance, paper bags! Or empty boxes!… No initiative at all…just empty words!

Well… the changes that I have implemented so far this month will be the first steps in the ‘new way’ forward for me.

Starting with a radical swing to buying milk directly from the farm in glass, returnable, bottles. It is so awesome. Feels good to be doing it. And the milk is really, really nice. I suppose everything just tastes better in glass (no Consol did not put me up to that). It also brings back memories of when I was very young and my mum used to put out glass bottles with coupons which were then exchanged by a delivery service for milk and orange juice. (Just showing how old I am hahaha).

The second was making sure that I use cotton bags for my vegetable purchases at the supermarket and not those terrible single use flimsy plastic bags. I even crocheted one myself…. so impressed! I might even make a few more….although sewing them is easier and quicker! One of the challenges with the vegetable section, at the supermarket, was that most of the produce is already pre-packed….. in plastic!!

As time moved on I found the challenge to be enormous in every aspect of my daily life.

I don’t go anywhere where I use straws, so no changes there. I don’t buy take out coffee or food so that can’t be changed. I cook my dog food so don’t have any of those big bags although the rice comes in a plastic bag and the meat I put into their food does come in the usual shrink wrap, polystyrene packaging. (Tearing my hair out…)

And that being said….

The biggest challenge for me has been meat. I buy grassfed, organic, hormone and antibiotic free meats and chicken, but I don’t seem to be able to find them locally, here in the Kzn Midlands, without plastic and/or polystyrene trays. This is a huge problem! It’s all very well our local organic shop having all these lovely vegetables, meats etc but they are still largely packaged in plastic!

All in all, when considering the enormity of the problem one does feel very overwhelmed.

Everywhere we turn there is more plastic!

And recycling is all well and good with only 5% of the plastic used actually being recycled. Plus….. most people who do diligently sort their plastic for recycling, don’t realise, that only a small portion of the plastics being taken to recycling centres can actually be recycled. But that’s a discussion for another time…

How are we going to fix our plastic problem?

Can it be fixed?

Is there a solution?

Are we up to it?