Week 2 (2022) #Attempt 2

Challenges                                                                 

Charlotte:

My two challenges this week have been hidden plastic and time. Even with my attempt at buying no plastic there always seems to be a touch of the shiny stuff lurking somewhere within the packaging. Whether it is a plastic seal on a tin of golden syrup, a plastic cap to a glass soya sauce bottle or a plastic bag inside a cardboard box of tea bags.

Time has been the other challenge: mainly spent on making snacks to go in packed lunches but also in shopping along the high street which takes progressively longer the better known you are and the more friendly shop staff become! This is not the major issue however, the real difficulty has been when I run out of something ahead of my allocated weekly shop but don’t have the time to take a diversion to a refill shop and the temptation to grab a bag of rice or box of cornflakes beckons.

Lucy:

Cosmetics as an industry seems to have made no inroads in this at all as far as I can tell. Even if you can buy items in glass then the lids are plastic – there is a long way to go. Lipstick pencils work well.

Ali:

Buying meat and fish – I have found one brand of sausages in plastic-free packaging but realise I need to make the move to a butcher to get the option of non-plastic. I wanted to buy flowers for a friend – our local farm shop has beautiful locally grown flowers wrapped in paper so sorted! This will become a different challenge as we move into winter.         

Success                                                               

Charlotte:

I managed to successfully repeat a shop along the high street with trips to the butcher, baker and grocer either using my own containers or in paper bags which make perfect sandwich or snack bags. The girls also discovered making and using wax wraps. There were also some nice discoveries this week: teabags with no plastic (Cornish Teas), butter in paper (Quick’s), as well as the relief that there is at least one convenience food that doesn’t include plastic (Fish fingers and baked beans)!

Lucy:

Our vegetables were delivered completely plastic free and banana cake replaced plastic wrapped after school snacks.

We like to have a takeaway as a family on Friday nights and have found a fish and chip shop that pack only in paper and cardboard.

Ali:

I had an overnight trip to Bristol to see a band – the venue used reusable plastic for the drinks and the breakfast buffet had homemade yogurt in glass! The ‘Wake the Tiger’ exhibition focussed on recycling, waste and the world we live in. I bought some ‘Chewsy’ plastic-free chewing gum – I did not know chewing gum contained plastic though considering its sticking power, I guess I should have known – ‘Chewsy’ was more expensive than main brands but passed the teen-test. Lots of greeting cards seem to have non-plastic wrapping or no wrapping at all – but they are usually the more expensive individual ones so a cost pressure to be aware of if you are a card-sender.

Failures                                                             

Charlotte:

There were a few unavoidables this week. A shopping list of fondant icing, marzipan and coloured decorative icing for my youngest’s Christmas cake club floored me. I did however manage to get refills of desiccated coconut and chocolate chips for other forays into baking, which buoyed me back up off the floor.

The other disappointment was the discovery that the biodegradable plastic bin bags I was so excited to find, are actually oxo-degradable which means they made of conventional plastic but have an additive so that they break down into micro-plastics, which still hang around in the environment for hundreds of years [1].

Lucy:

I bought 2 takeaway coffees – one I asked for it without a lid so remained plastic free. The other I was taking on the tube so unfortunately needed a lid. At the theatre drinks were only available in plastic glasses which whilst understandable is frustrating.

Ali:

The plastic wrapped lemon cake that accompanied the plastic-free Cornish tea bags from the local farmshop! I have to say, it was wonderful! 

Costs                                                              

One thing I have noticed is that although individual items can cost more, I seem to be spending less on my weekly shop. My total seems to come to around £75, whereas I would normally spend over £100 on a supermarket shop. Could it be that I am less tempted to buy items I don’t strictly need?

[1] https://www.greendotbioplastics.com/biodegradable-vs-compostable-vs-oxo-degradable-plastics-a-straightforward-explanation/