How are you going with your Plastic Free July efforts? If you are new to this effort, give yourself a pat on the back every time you remember your coffee keep cup, reusable drink bottle and reusable shopping bags. It takes time to change habits, and dwelling on your slip ups is pointless, instead, walk in to the shops with your keep bags swinging on your arm singing "I'm saving the turtles" nice and loud-especially if you had to abandon your trolley full of shopping and go back out to the car to get them.
We have been consciously reducing our waste for quite some time now-apparently my kids are really good at lecturing the other kindy kids about their yoghurt pouches. But we still have a LONG way to go, and plastic free July gives us an opportunity to take further steps, since everyone is being mindful of the same thing, and we are all learning together, at the same time.
One of the biggest problems we are having lately is with berries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries you name them, we love to eat them, we aren't growing them (at the moment), and it seems that the only way you can purchase them is in a plastic container. BUT, the folks at Ingleside Market are trying to change this. They are now selling strawberries by the bucket, and they put the berries in a paper bag for you to take home. When I asked them if I could do the same for blueberries, and if they could reuse the plastic container, the wonderful response was 'Yes!', so we tipped our blueberries in to a paper bag at the counter, and the plastic container that they were in is no longer single use. Winning. Next time I will try to remember to take a container to put them in.
Do you always buy your bread at the supermarket in a plastic bag? Make it your mission for this weekend to visit your local bakery and purchase your bread in a paper bag, or better still your own reusable fabric bag. Sure, you probably don't have time to go to the bakery every day, but deciding to go at least once a week means one less plastic packaging bag, and you will be supporting a small local business....plus, once you have tasted proper bakery bread you will want to make the time to go there more often.
All it takes is for one person to ask the question "can I buy this in my own container", chose to do things a bit more mindfully and changes happen. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Go and support small business and ask the questions that will create the change you want to see in the world.
I'm not going to try and tell you that our plastic recycling bin is empty, it certainly isn't, and I've stopped beating myself up over it. It is less full every fortnight we put it out, which means my family is making progress, and if all of us set ourselves a simple, achievable goal like that, think how much our planet would thank us. Keep going, you are making a difference! When "no waste" seems impossible strive for "low waste", it works.
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