Plastic Free July: Week 2

Fired up after last week’s ‘crash and burn’ attempt at PFJ, I was eager to make amends.  In all honesty, it wasn’t easy.  More time than usual was spent planning and buying my groceries, given the number of venues involved, however, with practice, I know I can become a much savvier shopper!

What was easy:

• Having my ‘shopping stash‘ handy made plastic shopping bags, takeaway coffees, straws or water bottles easy to avoid. What’s more, I was able to add some AMAZING re-usable produce bags to my stash! My very creative mother whipped these up for me out of old curtain material. They are even gusseted, which makes them so easy to use (and just a little bit pretty too)!

Produce bags – made from re-purposed curtain material

• Weigh-and-pay vendors: The Source made me feel very virtuous, particularly when I arrived with my old Tupperware ‘pour and seal’ and Source staff happily filled it with dishwashing liquid on my request.  This has given me some ideas for some old squirty drinkbottles…Better re-purposed than discarded!

Re-purposed Tupperware pourer

What was difficult:

• Avoiding single use plastics on family-preferred grocery lines, including cheese, yoghurt, pasta and the kids’ favourite cereals was impossible this week. While I know that there are alternatives to the aforementioned, these items have been staples and I am going to need to implement gradual weaning here if there is to be any longterm change.
• Lining my kitchen bin with paper – this has not happened yet. It’s been a bridge too far to get my ‘wet’ scraps into a container to freeze for next bin collection day. Admittedly, the whole bin-lining issue has compelled me to explore composting options so that my need to line bins is greatly reduced!  So far, I have looked into:
  • Outdoor composting – Gardening Australia host  Costa Georgiadis has created a fabulous easy-to-follow fact sheet on Composting and I am keen to put it into action.
  • Anaerobic indoor composting in the form of Bokashi Bins and the Urban Composter to deal with all types of kitchen scraps. While it sounds easy in theory, there are several steps involved, which, for the time-being, is beyond my capacity.
  • Worm farms: love the idea of this, particularly as a way of involving the children, but further research is needed from me before committing…

So, where to from here?

Improvements for next week:

• Select and fast-track composting option.

Green I go. Gradually…