toodle-oodle-oot

…and in just in case you dun forgotton in 2007 I gave up

December
Disposable plastic cutlery- knives and forks Sourced and bought bio plastic
November
Tobacco
Deoderants & Anti perspirants replaced by a small rock.

Cheese – No more plastic wrapped I take my own paper bags to the cheese stall.

October
Meat – I take my own bio plastic bags to the butchers.

Butchers

September
Crisps
Sweets

August
Creams and Lotions in plastic packaging

July
Bin liners

June
Margerine in plastic tubs-

butter for spreading and

Stork margerine for cooking  

Washing up liquid – I bottles refilled at the Half Moon Health Food
Peas the frozen variety - I buy loose

April
Water in plastic bottles and

soft drinks – I can get them in returnable glass bottles

March
Shampoo in plastic bottles- Now I make my own

Febuary
Milk in plastic bottles I got myself a milk man with real glass bottles.

January
Carrier Bags
Fruit and veg the plastic wrapped kind – I only buy loose
Produce bags- I use my own re-useable fabric produce bags.

Water

In April 2007 I gave up bottled drinks.

Turn the world state we use 15 million bottles a day every day in the UK – www.turntheworld.com. Which is backed up by the Independent which states that Britons use 275,000 tons of plastic bottles each year – 15 million a day.

And a lot of that has got to be bottled drinks.

Its now its a year since I have a fizzy drink out of a plastic bottle. Not that that was so hard I mean fizzy drinks are basically diabetes in a bottle, corpulence in a cup tooth rotting badness in liquid form….

No bottled water was my drink – the sportsman aid the clubbers choice. That was back in the days of my youth now I think waht a total l rip off – its stupidly expensive and creates a mountain of waste. Water from thetaps is just as good. You can believe me or read more here

Squeezy

Do you remember back in the old days when a squeezy bottle full of cold water and your enemies, the vile Roberts brothers, about to walk past your cunningly concealed ambush, was the height of fun. Obviously arming your troops was of paramount importance and demand for weapons was high. These days of course, the availability of high powered water pistols and the fact that I am actually an adult, has meant I no longer need to stockpile empty, washing-up liquid bottles.

                                         

In fact, as they are of course plastic, they need to be eradicated from my life.

I did try to use soap flakes to wash up. Though I was assured this was possible, I did not find it a pleasant experience. I also tried using soap flakes to make washing up liquid – again not a success.

Then I found that I can get my ECOVER washing up liquid bottle refilled with more of the environmentaly sound good stuff at Half Moon Health Foods 6 Half Moon Street , Huddersfield

So though the bottle is indeed plastic it can be reused many many times.

I now have three bottles on the go – that allows for forgetting to take the empty into town not once not twice but for weeks at a time. But I can proudly say I have thrown away no washing up bottles since.

If you are not local then Ecover have a postcode search on their site to find the nearest refill point:

A year of creamy bliss

The amount of cream I need to slather over my wrinkled frame has increased, not surprisingly, with the years. However I really dont see why my need to keep my skin supple should result in a mountain of plastic pots that will last for centuries – far longer then my looks. A timeless, non biodegradable monument to my vanity – ooh err. So I have been running down supplies of lotion, saving the pots and have invested in the make your own cream starter kit from www.aromantic.co.uk

They are Swedish and organic but based in Scotland

It arrived with everything you need including sadly 30 little plastic pots to put it in. All the ingredients were wrapped in plastic bags as well. Hmmm.

For the last 9 months I have been  I have been using it on face and body with no side effects.

The plastic pots ave ben reused a number of times  – and are still in use.

I have bought some glass jars with metal lids for best.

There is little I can do about the  plastic bags – I get huge amounts cream out of one small bag of ingredients so I consider it a worthwhile compromise. 

I have noticed a big drop in bathroom waste.

Plastic free tea bags

For a scary while I thought I would have  to give up tea bags. As you probably know lots of food comes wrapped in a clear plastic film. This is plastic – it used to be cellolose based cellophane – more of that later – now it is BOPPed plastic ( more of that later)

HOWEVER ………………….. Twinings do unwrapped boxes of Tea bags  hooray. Whats more the bags are not sealed in foil/plastic wrappers. This is totally plastic free tea.

Want to cut down on your plastic rubbish? – you can find plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Hard cheese & paper bags

Last year july to be exact I stopped buying plastic wrapped food. My boycott started because I didn’t like the impact plastic packaging had on the environment – as I learnt more, I began to worry about the impact it might be having on me.Plastic contains phthalates which are (possibly) carcinogenic and cause the feminisation of male animals exposed to them. They are found in the stuff used to wrap meats and cheeses.

 Bisphenol A is known to cause neurological and hormonal damage to lab animals. This is found in plastic food and drinks containers. There are indications that these chemicals can leach into the plastic wrapped products. Two good reasons then to reject plastic wrapped products but its not easy and means going without all manner of foodstuffs.

 While my plastic free diet did result in weight loss it was exceedingly dull. The sensible part of me that wanted my hormones undamaged, said stick with it, the greedy me was lusting after a piece of phthalate ridden cheese.

Hurrah then for Huddersfield permanent market where I recently discovered stalls that sell cheese, salami and Parma ham cut to order.

These products are not entirely plastic free – the large cheeses and joints are covered with Clingfilm and the cuts are put into a plastic bag on purchase. But compared with pre-packed food, cheese in a sealed plastic wrapper or sliced ham spread out on a rigid plastic tray, the risks are minimised.

So  I take my own greaseproof paper bags and ask that they be used instead of the plastic bags provided. The market traders humour me and that’s another of the joys of shopping locally.

I got my paper bags from e bay (www.ebay.co.uk). Busybee Packaging are the cheapest. The postage charge is the same as the cost of the bags which is annoying but I can’t find them for sale in the local shops. 

 

 

Bio Bags, Butchers & Meat

In October 2007, I gave up buying pre-packed, plastic wrapped meat.
Since I discovered plastic contains mobile chemicals I have not been keen on tightly wrapped food.So that rules out meat from the supermarket but even my local butcher though he sold his meat unwrapped would put it in a plastic bag on purchase.  I decided to see what they did in  Modbury.
Modbury is as as I am sure you know, the first town in the UK to go plastic bag free.I spoke to the lovely Simon Wilkinson – the Modbury butcher. He told me he used  biodegradable  bio bags – corn starch bags – made from vegetables they are fully compostable.

So I got myself some 6 litre bio bags- the right size for a medium size chicken and now I go to the butchers to buy unwrapped meat and ask them to use my biobags.    

Bags can be bought from www.biobags.co.uk.

To date I have bought one pack of prepacked sosages when friends turned up unexpectedly and stayed for tea.

March – Shampoo Update

Last March I stopped using shampoo and started using soap flakes mixed with water to make a liquid soap – see below. I have been refilling my shampoo bottle for 12 months now – thats a lot of bottles that havn’t had to be made, transported and disposed of - and I use a lot of shampoo. How many bottles do we get through annually  follow this link to find out http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com/about/plastic-bottles/

 

An additional bonus is soap flakes are pretty much pure soap and so my shampoo contains  no artificial fragrance, color, preservatives, detergents, alcohol, urea, formaldehyde, sodium laurel sulfate, DEA, propylene glycol – or any of the other synthetic hair care additives.

SHAMPOO RECIPIE

2 cups of soap flakes
2 litres of water
30ml of glycerine. ( I cant decide if this makes any difference so its obviously not essential

This makes a big pan full.

Heat up and stir till the soap flakes melt then leave it.

When it cools the soap will go all stiff and jelly like. To get it more liquid you have to mix it up again – a hand blender is ideal. This makes a kind of glutinous soap. If it is too thick add some more water. When it is the desired consistency you can add a few drops of essential oils and you have got a washing soap that can be used in place of shampoo.

If you make a batch and store it for a while you might find that it solidifies. Dont add water whisk it with the blender and it will return to its original consistancy.

Its not as sudsy as shampoo though if you do two washes and you get lots of lather the 2nd time.

You don’t get the feeling it is stripping your hair bare and it doesn’t leave it frizzy and mad. It seems to take hair some time to adapt.

Soap Flakes
I use Soap flakes from Dri pak, a Derbyshire based company. They are described (on their website) as follows

Dri-Pak Soap Flakes are predominantly pure soap – with no added perfumes, enzymes, bleach, phosphates or additives, so you can be confident that they will degrade harmlessly without damaging watercourses and aquatic life.

Soap Flakes have not been tested on animals. They will leave your clothes feeling soft and fresh, and far less likely to cause skin irritations than regular detergent washing powders. They are gentle enough for woollens, silk, delicates and modern outdoor fabrics that have special waterproof and breathable properties, which can be damaged by detergents and fabric conditioners.

They also come in cardboard boxes so theres no nasty plastic packaging. You can get them from Wilkinsons hardware stores or direct from dri pak -cost 6 packs of 500g will cost you £12.50 – but they last for ever. 

If that seems like a lot of faffing around dont buy bottled shampoo but get a solid shampoo bar from Pure Lush. These come wrapped in paper if you buy them from the shop and plastic if you buy from the website. I know – plastic – but it is a small shrink wrapped bag as compared to a whole bottle.

BODY WASH

FOUND OUT THAT… the same liquid soap with a few dollops of body lotion added makes a great moisturising body wash – again without any added nasties. I take this to the gym with me  instead of sqishy soap bars which always end up messy in my wash bag.

 

Febuary update – milk in glass bottles

British consumers got through nine billion pints of milk last year
Last year about 90% of that milk was bought in a plastic containerGlass bottles can be re-used, if they are strong enough to survive collection, cleaning and refilling. Milk bottles can be re-used up to 20 times.
By my calculations that means that 1 bottle lasts 20 days that equals 18 bottles a year as oppose to 364 plastic bottles a year.

So last  year I got myself a milk man with real glass bottles. Over the past 12 months I have bought 6 additional bottles of milk in plastic bottles. I know exactly how many because I use the bottles to store my home made shampoo and soap mixes in. For that they are ideal and still going strong. For all the other times I ran out  I used powdered milk from a cardboard box. 

January bread

It occurs to me that last year I said nothing of bread – the staff of life. Thats because its a tricky one.

We do have a local baker but they are open bakery hours – 9 to 5 which is of course when we are at work.

Now I am lucky in that I do get to choose my own hours so can occasionally go shopping in the week. I do go to the bakers but there is a problem. They put their bread in plastic bags. They do have paper bags for the buns but they dont like using them for bread. Each time I ask, they tell me the bread doesnt fit in a paper bag. It quite clearly does and has been proven to do so on previous occasions. It is for whatever reason an issue with them so I dont push it.  

That leaves the Co-op – its open when I can get there but theres is not much in the plastic free bread line. 

They sell two types of bread – factory  bread made off the premises and stuff from their instore bakery.

Their factory made bread comes in degradable plastic packaging   degradable plastic  is better than normal plastic in that it breaks down more quickly but it is still plastic.

The instore bakery sell  their loaves pre- wrapped in normal plastic.

The buns and baps and little french sticks do come naked and I can use my own produce bags. Its plastic free bread but on a limited scale and expensive

So I bought a bread maker which is great – the bread is fantastic but it doesnt always get made.

For the last few months it has been a combination of buns from the co-op, a run in with the bakery when I have the time and the stamina,homemade and the occasional plastic wrapped when absolutly necessary.

This year I will be cutting out the plastic wrapped all together.

Lets see how I get on.