(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Each month we record our plastic waste to check how well, (or not), the boycott is going. We count everything but the alcohol.
Any one checking our bin recently will have been impressed to see nothing posted since January . They may have thought that meant no plastic trash. Sadly the reverse is true.
In February we went to Japan. Japan is extremely expensive so most of the time we cooked for ourselves in the hostel. This meant shopping for food and whoa are they keen on packaging! They wrap everything in plastic – even individual carrots. I can more easily tell you what plastic we didn’t use – we didn’t use carrier bags or produce bags, we managed to buy bread unwrapped and dark chocolate that came in foil and paper packaging. Not enough to live on as I am sure you will agree. It was so depressing creating bins full of plastic rubbish, I didn’t want to monitor it.
Then we have been hostel managing and cooking for guests in Laos. Yes, we could buy most of our veges loose in the market and we took a reusable plastic tub for the meat . Bread too was unwrapped. But everything else was plastic packed (sugar, flour, noodles, beverages etc) and of course we had to buy what the guests required and not what we would have chosen. So again I didn’t count it.
But… one of the reasons I have avoided monitoring … looks at floor and scuffs feet….is that I am ashamed.
I have to admit I have started buying cigarettes again.
I had to! I had smoked so many of eveyone elses while claiming not to smoke it really was my time to buy some.
Yes, I know, I deserve everything you choose to say to me. Filthy habit, dirty plastic wrapper, butts that last for ever, abusing my body and just plain bloody stupid.
You are so right and it has to stop.
So, in August, when I start monitoring our rubbish again, there will be no fag packets or dirty butts in there. Clean, serene and plastic free, and no sneaky tokes on the tabs of others either!
Find the plastic free products we use listed in the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index.
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September 7, 2012 at 10:25 am
Your admission at the bottom of this article prompts me to say, “You are retarded.”
September 10, 2012 at 9:09 pm
Gee… thanks …
September 25, 2012 at 5:28 am
I LIVE in Japan – and it is a nightmare. Even if I pick up loose veggies at the supermarket, I have to monitor the cashier to make sure they are not popped into a plastic bag at the register. Agggggh.
September 25, 2012 at 3:48 pm
So sympathise – they are plastic mad over there. But a wonderful place to spend some time. Thaks for commenting x