In Our Bin – November

This is the plastic rubbish created by 2 people backpacking overland. Please note we count everything but the alcohol**

Thailand

We have had to up our plastic free activities in Thailand as they love plastic. Everything that can be served in plastic is but they don’t stop there. If they then double or triple wrap they will. Lucky we had our tiffin tins.

Cutlery wrapped in plastic!? The one time we went out with our chop sticks or folding cutlery and this tuned up with our meal. What to do?

Cling film off soap.  This one really annoyed me. I went and bought some special, paper- wrapped, organic and very expensive soap. Unwrapped it only to find the soap itself had been swathed in clingfilm.  Grrrrr. 

One plastic bottle of juice – see our plastic trains post for more

Packaging for battery recharger.

One plastic razor head.

9 straws – sometimes they just don’t understand no

One bottle of mosquito repellent

I sachet of hot chocolate

1 bottle juice

One plastic bag of ice – we had our own pot but they were too quick for us

Hair dye – the cellophane wrapper off  the box, 1 foil sachet of hair colour

1 plastic lid off metal tube

1 cellophane wrapper off a packet of ciggareetes – yes I know I gave up but this was a relapse.

1 Tag of new dress

1 bottle water

2 plastic wrappings off the new water bottles

2 pens – village boy has not gone electronic. Well what can you expect.

For more rubbish check out our bin

**When I say alcohol I mean the plastic lined metal caps off beer and other bottles of hooch and the occasional plastic lined can of beer (which we don’t really like but occasionally buy). We don’t count these because
• its hard to remember all of the drinks we have bought. I once tried to keep note in my notebook but it felt way too anal and garnered some strange looks.
• We buy rounds for other people which we are obviously we are not stop doing but can’t really count as our plastic.
• We keep stumbling on that first step. Still can’t admit that yes we are alcoholics.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of Uk based plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

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• Denise Richards Says Give Up Plastic Bottles in 2012 (ecorazzi.com)

Why ban plastic bags??

Tin Cups and Putin Pwhaorrrr

Any one lucky enough to see the photos of Vladimir Putin bare-chested in camo combats will have some idea just how butch the Russians can be. A fact reinforced by the number of camping shops in Moscow selling rugged mans stuff. And they don’t get much more rugged than this tin cup complete with sturdy clip to attach it to your rucksack. So I got one.

I take a reusable cup travelling with me because living on the streets as I am, I am highly dependant on take out, I don’t want to use plastic cups and so called paper cups are plastic lined so I take my own. I have to say, as reusable cups go (and we have featured some rather nice ones in the past), this one is as good as Vlad on horseback – and you can’t get better than that!

I don’t know if you can buy them in the effeminate, decadent West. I suppose you could try one of our so-called camping shops. If not you will have to visit Moscow.

If you are planning to come by train check out the plastic free trans – Siberian.
If you cant find a tin cup you could try one of these reusable cups here.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of Uk based plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

eepc and plastic free

Image via Wikipedia

The EeePC Asus is my notebook of choice. I bought it because it was cheap and small but in this case cheap doesn’t mean flimsy. It has been toIndia and back and more. Apart from a few software problems, has been pretty good.  While  it is of course made from plastic, it does help reduce my plastic consumption while traveling.

For example:

I don’t have to use a plastic pen to write my diary. I recon you could make a computer from the plastic pens I used to go through before I found these plastic free alternatives. However, good though they are, they are home based solutions and not appropriate for the plastic free rucksack .

I can download guidebooks via the kindle ap so avoiding an overfull and heavy rucksack AND plastic-coated paper covered books.

I can look at my plastic free digital photos.

I can save plastic free digital photos to USB drives. I now have backup that is not a pile of plastic cds. I hate plastic cds.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the  travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of plastic free products at the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Related articles

• Alexander Parkes & that plastic thing… (zedgraffiti.wordpress.com)
• Leave Only Words (plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com)

Leave Only Words

Enter any backpacker hostel and you will be surrounded by busy scribblers of one kind and another. The recording of interesting experiences is very much part of the travel thing. As a plastic free traveller I have given some thought to this. 

Back home of course I use mycornstarch pen and my fountain pen. Sadly the cornstarch pens are not that good. The retractable mechanism jams and the ink is blotchy. Also only the body of the pen is compostable the rest is normal plastic so no good for the plastic free backpack. The fountain pen is great for home use but not so good for travelling. Buying ink is tricky for a start.

Before when  traveling I used to use  wooden pencils   for post cards and quick notes. However they are  not so good for diaries as graphite tends to blur and fade very quickly. I also need to carry a sharpener around with me, metal of course though I was tempted by these Sustainably-Sourced Wooden Pencil Sharpener. Finally I kept on stabbing myself with sharpened pencils – don’t ask.

So this time though I am trying  to create a paper- free, pen-free, pencil-free  rucksack by  using my laptop for everything. Its working so far though its not quite as romantic as a buffed old notebook.

 Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of Uk based plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Related articles

• Plastic is rubbish Roadshow (plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com)
• Socially responsible flip-flops upcycled from old newspapers (springwise.com)

Halong Bay Plastic Pollution

Lots more pictures of plastic pollution in Halong Bay, Vietnam  can be found over at  Flickr in the Plastic Is Rubbish photo pool and on  FACEBOOK. at  Planet Trash .

Please feel free to add your own rubbish pictures to the pool of filth.

Want to cut down on your plastic rubbish? Find plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index

Related articles

• Plastic is rubbish Roadshow (plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com)
• Paradise found! – Halong Bay, Vietnam (travelpod.com)