Be careful what you wish for...

 ...it might just happen!

A saying that I've found there to be a lot of truth in over the years, and usually it presents something quite different to deal with than what was first envisioned.

I've joined a couple more Facebook groups recently partly for work, and partly for my own benefit, one of which is Zero Waste in NZ! Basically it's for folk who are on the same waste reduction, simpler living journey as myself. Although some would say it's a harder way making a lot of stuff yourself rather than simpler, but personally I'd rather spend an extra hour in the kitchen than trekking to and round the supermarket, not to mention walking home again laden down with stuff.

Recently someone posted a question about food storage that resulted in a flurry of photos of people's pantries full of jars, tins and baskets. It has to be said there was a lot of pantry envy going on in the group! I find it hard to envision what a pantry would look like with only my dietary requirements in it given that hasn't happened for over a decade, and I've gone gluten free since then, not to mention having relocated to the opposite side of the globe which does rather tend to redefine 'local products'. But I guess if 'my' stuff were all together in a cupboard rather than squeezed in and around everything else in our kitchen, it probably wouldn't look that different from those I was oohing and ahhing over. Anyway, I was particularly admiring some large glass jars someone had and I was thinking they would be great for my oats and my 'porridge' mix (which these days looks more like muesli, but it still gets soaked overnight and cooked up in the morning). But I'm trying to avoid buying anything brand new and large jars don't often show up at the market or in op/charity shops. Some re-jigging freed up a large tin to use for my mix, but not before I'd been eyeing up the jars I get my milk in as a possibility.

But the milk jars get cycled round between the farm, drop-off point and me so the only way they'd become available would be if I stopped getting the milk. Whilst I've been wondering for some months if I could manage without milk without reverting to buying imported tetrapacks of soy/rice/almond milk, I kept putting that decision in the too hard basket. But now the new dairy regs are about to kick in at the end of the month the farm milk is no longer available as the tests the Ministry requires are exorbitantly expensive. So, I now have two large jars! (the 3rd is still at the farm, some you win, some you lose). One is already full of rolled oats, the other is awaiting a decision as the tin is working out quite well.

So I got my large jars that I wanted, and I didn't have to buy them new, but now I have to figure out what to do about milk... I've enough milk either fresh or frozen to last a couple of weeks yet at least, so there's no rush. But I've got a bowl of almonds soaking which I'll then freeze so when I do run out I have no excuse and can whizz up some almond milk as and when I need it, as remembering to soak the almonds in advance has been my stumbling block in the past. And of course I can get Trade Aid organic coconut milk (which is rather nice) at the healthfood shop, but it's hardly local, and neither are the almonds, but I can buy organic almonds loose using my cloth produce bags rather than in plastic. It's all an ever changing juggling act of priorities....

I'm sure I can cope without yoghurt on my porridge, especially as I'm making sauerkraut again as our garden has gone into cabbage patch overdrive, so I can get a daily dose of probiotics at lunchtime instead. Although I could make yoghurt with coconut milk if I really wanted to. It probably means making more oatcakes or seed crackers and fewer pikelets again, but that's no big deal, and as Gill pointed out many moons ago you can make pikelets with water!

So after pondering what I should challenge myself to tackle next in terms of lowering my footprint on the earth it turns out the decision has been made for me. And I think that's probably enough to be getting my head round for now.

getting radical

When I was discussing Plastic Free July with a f/Friend who was also doing the challenge this year she said how when she couldn't avoid non-recyclable plastic for some reason she was aiming to write to the company in question and ask them to do something about it.

It says a lot about who we both are as a person that her first reaction was to engage in direct dialogue and try to bring about change, where as I've been boycotting Nestlé for over 30 years and have never told them, and they probably didn't notice any resulting dip in sales either. However I have told a lot of other people about what I'm doing over the years, and I know some others have followed suit as a result. I also hadn't contacted any companies about their plastic use until recently.

Inspired (and a little shamed) by Jane's example I contacted a toilet paper company who used to sell their products wrapped in paper, but now use plastic. Their response by email was they had to stop using paper for hygiene reasons (?????) but the weblink they gave instead makes more sense. However although compostable it is still plastic and perpetuates the need for oil extraction. I was well impressed with Sally's solution to avoiding plastic wrapped loo roll by using a box of tissues, presumably one without the annoying plastic film insert where you pull the tissues out from, when doing a sponsored month without plastic in aid of Ocean Cleanup with her friend Sarah.

Having got that emailed response made me feel a bit braver, and I've just posted back to the University of Auckland the plastic wrapper from around their alumni magazine with a request to go on their email circulation list instead, and a suggestion that they come up with an alternative wrapper, especially as the insert with the magazine was imploring us to change the world for all our futures! They were after scholarship funding rather than suggestions that they divest from fossil fuels and avoid plastic, but never mind! I don't expect a reply however.

Working my way through the Radical Spirituality course has made me think about the whole simple living and the 'Wear it as long as thou canst' advice and whether I'd got again to the point where I needed to have a rethink about challenging myself to go a step further in this direction. As my income has increased a little over the last year I've been able to buy more bulk bin items at the healthfood shop rather than wholesalers which has meant being able to use my cloth bags rather than bring home yet more large snaplock bags, but as with boycotting Nestlé it probably doesn't change much (if anything) in the greater scheme of things unless I speak up more about what I'm doing and why.

Anyway, I recently got an email from a researcher at Massey University who I've met a couple of times before (a former research assistant of hers is a f/Friend of mine - you've got to love the small world of Quakerdom!), and Corrina is wanting to do some more interviews up here about the way people live out their environmental awareness and I'm on her list! Having seen the sheet of questions she'll be asking it feels a bit daunting, but I've got until early January to have my head around my answers, so you may find a few blog posts popping up along the way as I get to grips with them...

Plastic Free July and all that

Whoa, where did August get to? I started this at the beginning of the month and figured I'd best get it finished before September got here!

Whilst this is the 3rd year I've done the Plastic Free July challenge, it is the first time I've known others doing it. I put posters up about it at the EcoCentre last year, but whilst various folk commented on it to me and said it was a good idea no-one said they would give it a go. However it turns out that several of them did, and this year they were willing to push it further within our local community.

Three times in July we've had stalls at the market, along with a bottle buy-back scheme with a grant from the Far North District Council where folk could get 10c refund for every clean, lidless, number 1 plastic (PET) bottle they brought along. We had $500 to give away, but it has taken all three market days plus some additional time at the EcoCentre to work through less than half of it. It takes time to bring about a change in people's habits, and whilst every weekend in July would've been better in terms of promoting the scheme it would've been much harder on our volunteers, especially as the first Saturday in July was a very cold and frosty morning! (yes, frosty. In Kaitaia, the so-called 'Winterless North'!). Momentum is building for a national container deposit scheme like they have in South Australia, so there is hope of bringing about change and getting more plastic, glass and aluminium recycled. But it would be better still if we didn't use so much plastic in the first place. We've had another 'buy-back' earlier this month and have got one last push this Saturday where we hope to hand out the rest

I was working at the EcoCentre the other day when a woman came in assuming we were the i-Site (Tourist Information Centre), this is far from unusual as they used to be in the building we use, but shifted almost 4yrs ago into Te Ahu when it was opened. But rather than head straight back out when I pointed her in the right direction to find them (all of 100m away, if that) she asked So what is this place then? I saw your 'say no to single use plastic' sign, it's something I know I need to do more about, but don't know where to start. Well about half an hour later she headed off with lots to think about and some ideas to bring about change in the flat she shares in Auckland. Like many people she knows the theory of what to do, but gets stuck on the practice. Habits, as I said, take time to change. I have always found it easiest to change one thing at a time, and once it becomes normal practice and you don't have to think about it any more then add in something new.

For me a simple step was always carry around with me a cloth shopping bag. I've added to that more recently by also having a wee pouch with some cotton bags that I get flour, grains etc in from the bulk bins at the health food shop, and some net bags for produce, or larger bulk bin items like nuts that are big enough not to work their way out of the mesh. They are always there, like my purse, my keys and (usually!) my phone. That way I don't have to think about it when I go shopping, and if I want to impulse shop after (or even at) work I don't find myself caught short needing to use plastic bags.

One of the questions our visitor asked was about plastic bin liners, how do you manage without them? Well in our kitchen we do use a plastic carrier bag as a bin liner, but we empty that into the rubbish sack in the garage and re-use the bag until it gets too torn. It doesn't get very dirty as we rinse any food containers out before putting them in there, and we compost, and wash then recycle far more than we throw away. We could of course not use a liner and wash the bin out more often, or make newspaper liners, but that is a step yet to be taken in this household. I explained that I stopped having a bin in every room, if you have to walk to a different room to dispose of your rubbish it is mentally easier to ensure you put it in the recycling or compost rather than landfill. I was asked about sanitary towels etc, what did I do about those? Well having used a menstrual cup for years until no longer required that hadn't been problem for me, and I now use homemade washable pantiliners daily as what remains of my menstrual cycle is minimal but highly irregular. But between us we figured out that a pile of paper bags in the bathroom, or even old newspaper, would mean there was something to put sanitary towels in before taking them to a central bin.

Having someone else to problem-solve our dilemmas with is why forums such as the Plastic Free July Facebook page come in to their own, even better are local support groups. That is why we held a 'Plastic Free Lunch' at the end of July at the EcoCentre. Those who could/remembered brought along their 'dilemma bags' the single use plastic they hadn't managed to avoid and it was interesting even with a relatively small sample how much difference there was in content. Having a group together meant we solved a couple of 'where can you buy ...... in a non-plastic container?' queries, and we came up with a way to repurpose something which was actioned as soon as we tidied up. But the discussion, and my reflections on looking at what was in the JYF Camp 'dilemma bag', brought up the question as to when certain packaging had changed. Having swapped countries and moved from cities to a small town it's hard for me to say on some things, especially ones I don't generally shop for. In Wellington you could get loo roll wrapped in paper, but shipped over from Australia, whereas the Kiwi made stuff was in plastic..., up here I've generally not been the one shopping for it so couldn't say when paper wrapped loo roll ceased to be available. Same with cheese, I don't know when it ceased to be available cut off the block and only came shrink wrapped up here as it isn't something I eat let alone buy. I'm guessing thought that such availability locally predates my arrival in the country. Someone is going to ask our local butcher if they'll let them use their own containers for meat, not much help to me, but good for the community in general if they will. The lunch itself was delivered plastic free, the soup arrived in the pan it had been cooked in (and then reheated on our woodstove! Oh how wonderfully warm it gets in there now), the bread bought from the market came in a paper bag, and the home made flapjack arrived in a tin. It's making the small habitual steps like using a tin rather than a plate with clingfilm/glad wrap/saran wrap over it that can build up and shift your use of plastic without it being a major upheaval in life.

When I was at JYF Camp one of the other leaders said how he struggled to understand people getting rid of perfectly good plastic things that still had life in them, and he saw that as creating more waste not less and he couldn't see the point. Well yes if they are throwing those things out it is counterproductive, but mostly they get rehomed/recycled. I've been slowly swapping my assorted plastic kitchen containers for glass or ceramic ones, as I've found the less plastic I have the easier it is to be strong willed not to let new plastic in to the house. In clearing out a neighbour's kitchen recently I had the opportunity to have first pick of the stuff she had, and several things I put to one side only to return them to the 'getting rid of' boxes as they were plastic. They were all 'it would be nice to have...' items rather than essentials, so I could wait until I found a metal/glass/wooden one etc. There was of course also the 'yes it would be nice to have but where the heck would I put it?' factor. Whilst we've cleared a lot of stuff out over the years I've been living here there is still a distinct lack of spare space in the house, mainly due to having gained two part time residents!

So with July over for this year we're now starting to plan ahead at the EcoCentre for next year, where is our 'plastic free' campaign going to take us next? All kinds of ideas are buzzing around, but like with implementing change in our own homes we need to do this at an incremental level that is sustainable, we want to bring people with us on this journey, not scare them off.

Plastic Free July - round three....

Plastic Free July is well under way but time for blogging has been non-existent this month until now. For me PFJ started three years ago and the only thing different about the other months is I don't save the bits I can't avoid to keep track of them all, although I do try to notice the things that crop up most often in order to figure out a longer term plan to avoid them.

I'm better organised now for a, well I'd like to say plastic free lifestyle, but that still seems impossible, and not necessarily practical nor desirable given how much I rely on computers etc in my life. I've just got home from being the cook/camp parent at our Junior Young Friends Camp, and trying to carry the kaupapa of PFJ with me through that event was certainly a challenge. It meant that I travelled down to Waiheke Island with a LOT more stuff than I'd normally take. Partly this was due to having been clearing out a neighbour's house and thus kitchen cupboards after she went into hospital/care/funeral parlour in rapid succession (the main reason why everything non-essential went out the window this month). Unopened packets etc could go to the foodbank but not started ones, so I turned up at camp with some of the 'shopping' done already. I also turned up with an apron, waxed food wraps, various tubs (full of aforementioned 'shopping' for travel, but packed to use for leftovers/storage once there), fly nets to cast over prepared food sitting waiting, net bags for buying fruit & veg, a skooshy bottle for diy surface cleaner, a shopping trolley and several cloth shopping bags. Oh and an easy-yo maker! Yes buying packets of easy-yo means adding to the non-recyclable plastic rather than reducing it, but it also makes a big difference to the budget and you have to pick your battles...

Due to having to reorganize the timetable at short notice Peter and I whisked up a fill-in session one day where I explained to them the PFJ journey I was on, and then as I disappeared back into the kitchen to get lunch ready Peter got them thinking about how things were in their own homes/lives and what they might be able to change. How much that session will influence their thinking and actions over the coming years remains to be seen, given the amount of junk food they stocked up on for an all-nighter on the last night suggests that they aren't quite ready to embrace it fully yet, but I was asked for the flapjack recipe I'd used as apparently it tasted better than the bought bars and those were nearly all 'just air' in the packets anyway. Every step counts though, and I can hardly expect a bunch of teenagers to rush to embrace something that has taken me until my mid 40s to be proactive about!

One huge bonus of thinking in terms of PFJ when planning the menus and doing the shopping for JYF Camp was that I ended up feeding them for around $10 per day in the end (allowing for the free food that I took and was donated by local Friends), which was way under budget. I didn't take a photo of the non-recyclable plastic laid out, but this is the sum total of non-recyclable plastic created by the kitchen over 5 days of camp on Waiheke (the mug is there for scale!) Most of it is cheese wrappers and easy-yo packets...

....and there wasn't much to add to that from the couple of days we had at Mt Eden, leastways not from the food I provided - the sushi in plastic cartons with soy sauce sachets we got for lunch at St Cuthbert's when we joined Yearly Meeting was something of a fly in the ointment. Two f/Friends at YM also doing the PFJ challenge very diligently kept their cartons to take home for their dilemma bags, but I decided a mental note of it would suffice. Unfortunately unlike in Kaitaia plastic bags can't be recycled in Auckland, so the unused breadbags etc that I'd been saving for the packed lunches on the last day did make up a breadbags worth of additional landfill. I did consider bringing them home to recycle but my luggage was already stuffed full of leftover ingredients I bought off the Camp. By that point I was so tired I totally forgot to take a photo of the bag collection.

Like the fairly self-sufficient lifestyle we saw at the Eco Village of Awa Awa Roa, cooking almost everything from scratch is very labour intensive, but it is also very rewarding. It took me working full time in the kitchen plus several hours of help a day to keep an average of 22 people fed throughout the days we were on Waiheke. It's certainly not something I could do for longer stretches of time, and I did decided to pass when given the opportunity to do it all again next year. But I'm really glad I did it. Not only did I prove to myself that I could, in terms of energy as well as keeping the kaupapa going, but also providing food that was close enough to my usual diet not to matter in addition to keeping a bunch of hungry teens satisfied. Plus I proved that one can provide such food on a low budget. Admittedly using the local wholesalers for dried fruit, nusts/seeds and pulses made a big difference and buying in bulk is tricky for those on a limited income each week, but it isn't impossible.

biting off a bigger challenge

If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know I've done the Plastic Free July challenge for the last couple of years. This year will have an added twist as I'm catering for our Junior Young Friends Camp for Quaker teenagers for a week during the month.

Can I produce food that will satisfy over a dozen potentially picky eaters on budget without amassing a huge pile of non-recyclable plastic? What's more can I do it in a kitchen I've never been in before, in a place where I don't know the shops?! Thankfully I have a wonderful local ally who is doing some research for me, and has promised to ring me from the kitchen of Friends House Waiheke so I can ask 'is there a....' to make sure I can round up in advance all the dishes and utensils I'll need etc for cooking from scratch on a bulk scale.

I did the catering for JYF Camp in 2006, and still have some of my recipe sheets from then with bulk quantities for baking scones and biscuits already worked out which will save me some time and mental energy. That time we were in Totaranui, Abel Tasman with no easy access to shops to top up if we ran out of anything, thankfully I won't have that challenge, but I won't have a nice big commercial kitchen this time - some you win, some you lose! The menu will be vegetarian, and a lot of it will be vegan and gluten free so that I don't end up cooking multiple versions of things. My main motivation for saying I'd do the cooking is because I wanted to try to keep what I ate as close to what I would usually to improve my chances of getting through the gathering with my insides happy. The other challenge will be getting enough sleep, but that isn't something I can do much about in advance!

As the years pass by the impact of plastic on our environment is becoming more and more evident. And as with many development 'solutions' the solutions often cause more problems themselves. Who would've thought when they came out that using microfibre cloths for cleaning which can reduce the chemicals being flushed down our drains, and wearing fleecy clothing made from recycled bottles would end up simply shifting the environmental pollution rather than getting rid of it?

It is becoming increasingly apparent that there is no such place as 'away' to throw anything, and whilst we grapple with ways to deal with 70 year's worth of debris that isn't going to biodegrade the challenge is not to add to the problem. But you have to pick your battles, or your priorities, otherwise we'd all get completely bogged down trying to get through even a single day without some detrimental effect on our environment. Where we live and what we do in life changes what is possible and most effective. The trick is in supporting each other in whatever we can do rather than being critical for what 'others' don't do. There is no one size fits all solution, and if the 'solutions' simply end up shifting the problem then it is probably better that we don't all try to solve it in the same manner anyway.

So I'll be doing my bit to keep the amount of non-recyclable plastic to a minimum at a vegetarian gathering that will bring Friends together from one end of these islands to the other (Kaitaia and Dunedin!). The aim of the event is to inspire our young people and help instill in them some of our Quaker values, hopefully 'let us try what Love can do' coming through loud and clear. And to those who want all Friends to stay at home and not fly anywhere, fine, you stay home and make your point. We'll get on with doing our bit the best way we can, together.

re-purposed

I've done a lot of decluttering over the last year or so, so I'm getting to the trickier stage where all the easy stuff has gone. However I was really pleased with myself today. I've been trying to reduce the amount of plastic in my life (check out 'Plastic Free July') and had been thinking earlier today about what plastic was left that could still be replaced. I came up with the plastic scoops in various flour/grain crocks in the kitchen. 

Then I thought back to last month, and on the way home from having a shared meal and Meeting for Worship at Helen & Keith's, Nancy and I had called in to the Bush Fairy Dairy in Peria, which is something of a local icon. I'd been hearing about it since I first moved up here, but this was the first time I'd ever been! They have an assortment of old china cups in their bulk bins rather than scoops - great thought I, I could get some wee coffee cups at the op shop! Oh but I'm trying not to bring in more clutter.... Hmmm...... then lightbulb moment! When going through my blanket box when I retrieved it from Pukepoto I came across a dolls china tea set I'd had since childhood, and I'd failed yet again to add it to the 'get rid of pile' and had put it back in the blanket box thinking this is silly, but I really can't bear to part with it. 

But the cups have now been washed up, the +30yr old newspaper it was wrapped in added to the fire basket, and I now have beautiful china cups to use instead of plastic scoops - even if they don't hold quite as much (about 1/3 cup) it doesn't really matter. The scoops can go, and the cups will now get used regularly. So now I feel much better about them sitting in a box for decades and surviving several rounds of major decluttering over the years, not to mention a trip half way around the world and several years in paid for storage!

The teapot lost it's glaze inside years back having got left with water in when it must've been cracked (I used to use it top up the water in an essential oils diffuser), so that never made it to Aotearoa NZ. But I still have the milk jug and saucers.... now I just need to figure out how to use those too.

UFOs and Phds....

My name is Anna and I'm a crafter.... mostly sewing, but sewer looks like something the drains empty into and let's not go there! (I don't feel as though I qualify as a seamstress - to me it implies a level of professionalism I don't have)

So why the Alcoholics Anonymous style start? Well if you don't know you're unlikely to be a crafter of any sort! There aren't many who can take up such a past time without a level of addiction creeping in, whether it is collecting the most amazing stash of fabrics, wool, threads, buttons, paper, inkstamps etc. or simply keeping every little last scrap of something 'to use later'. There is no question about whether it might be useful, you already know it will be, and can probably list several examples as to how! Whether you'll ever get round to doing any of them however is an entirely different matter indeed.

I decided ages ago that I wasn't going to buy any new fabric for as long as I could hold out. Re-purposing old clothes etc was fine, but having read a couple of articles about the environmental impact of new cotton I wasn't going to buy anything new when I had such a huge stash already in my cupboards. The theory was this would also help me reduce the size of my stash as I was determined to use what I had already in hand for projects as they came up, another aspect of my downsizing. This was going really well, and I made a plaited rag rug out of a big bag of old clothes for a Christmas present which cleared a considerable amount of space in my cupboard. But then someone saw what I'd made and said longingly how they'd always wanted a rug like that, and they had just the place for it, but they'd prefer different colours.... they'd get around to making one one day. Well when that person is a friend who has done so much for you it is hard to resist the idea of making them one for their birthday, but I don't wear the colours in question very often so don't have the right coloured old t-shirts etc, so a bundle was bought from the Salvation Army 50c box and the gap in my cupboard is full again! At least until I've finished the next rug anyway.

I recently completed my mission to get rid of the plastic in my sewing cupboard - well the boxes and bags the fabric was in anyway, I'm not planning to ditch my quilting ruler and such like in a hurry. The bonus of making fabric bags to hold the stash being I used up some of the aforementioned stash in the process and the bags fit in the cupboard better than boxes etc so I can fit more in. So the pile of material that had been in a bag in front of the cupboard now fit inside it, woo hoo! And that bag could now get repurposed to hold the overlocker which really needed something strong with handles, excellent. But that bag was also my work-in-progress bag, my collection of UnFinished Objects and Projects Half Done which then needed a new home.

One of the PHDs in question was the makings of a fabric basket with a hand pieced patchwork panel that I'd started on just over a year ago. I'd originally intended it to be part of a duvet cover, but then decided the colours didn't really work with what else I had in mind to use. So when various fabric baskets I'd made for presents over the last year or so had proved to be a success I decided I'd incorporate it into one for me. But finishing a project for me has kept falling down the 'to do' list in favour of assorted birthday, Christmas presents etc and had just sat there along with several other similar tasks. So with a new year, and on a mission to clear my backlog of UFOs I got on with it. After all I can't leave a pile of UFOs sitting loose in my room, I'm bound to lose something crucial if that situation lingers!

But you know how it is, good intentions and all that. Well I got sidetracked. But what I got sidetracked by were all the other UFOs and PHDs, who once they were out in the light of day got new life. So now I finally have that new duvet cover and pillowcase made with the other fabrics that the piecework panel didn't work with! A couple of things waiting to be mended have been, a few projects that had only got as far as being a pile of material and a pattern have been put away again until such time as they are actually needed, a pair of old silk trousers has been repurposed into a summer nightie, and a fabric 'bucket' has been finished and found a use for (the original intended recipient having long since got something different for their birthday!). And now I'm back to my task basket and it is almost completed, with only a couple of UFOs left on the pile to go in it when it is done.

So, my goal is to make those up too before starting anything new, and not to let the pile get so big again. It has been quite rewarding clearing the clutter. A different kind of clutter, but certainly a very visible sort given where the pile usually sits. It has been an insightful process too as I can see how my priorities have changed over the time the UFOs etc had built up, for example several of the projects I simply put away again (having not reached the stage of putting scissors to fabric) were clothes I was planning to make. I probably will make them still, but not until I need them! I've reduced my wardrobe volume considerably in the last 12 months, and I've yet to find myself stuck for something to wear. Others were for 'things' that I don't especially need, but I'd really liked when I'd seen the idea in a magazine or sew4home.com Perhaps they too will get made one day, but not until I have a need for them. It has been reassuring to find I was putting stuff away without feeling as though I was giving anything up or being sacrificial. It just didn't feel like it was important to make those things in the near future, and I probably got just as great a sense of satisfaction in clearing them away as I did from getting the stuff that had been started finished!

It all feels like another step towards proving to myself that Tiny House living is an achievable option. Although when it comes to laying out material to pin on patterns, or pinning the layers of a quilt together I'd still need a big floor space - another reason to live as part of a community with some large communal space!

Plastic Free July 2015 +1

Okay, so it is September already... but as with last year I decided to keep two months worth of non-recyclable plastic so that there wasn't any temptation to put off finishing/opening a new packet until next week when the challenge was up etc.

Here is the sum total of July & August 2014...  and here is July & August 2015....

If anything there is more this year rather than less which is rather frustrating given that I feel as though this is something I have taken on fairly seriously over the last year and have been working towards a not so much plastic-free life as a much less plastic dependent one. However, there are many things in this year's pile that are the result of my downsizing; like a pile of Ara Reo dvds that weren't that great when I was studying it and I'm certainly not going to inflict them on anyone else, also the negative sleeves and slide box. There are the things from last month like my hairbrush etc that were the tail end of the replacement process and the things I just didn't even think about last year, like the clear plastic negative pockets on certain photograph print packets, and the clear plastic bit on the opening of a tissue box.

Actually I'm quite annoyed about the tissue box - I'd gone well over a year without buying any tissues at all as handkerchiefs had been sufficient now I wasn't getting endless snottery colds from the children at kindergarten. But then in the last week of me saving my plastic I caught the worst cold I've had in years and a whole box of tissues got used up in a matter of days (and I'm halfway through the next one!). Bah humbug. That also accounts for a sudden increase in the number of tablet strips which had been well down on last year.

But over all I'm hopeful that this time next year the pile will be smaller, or at least will be made up of mostly 'historical' stuff being cleared out rather than newly bought. In fact to make myself feel better about it all here is the stuff sorted into new stuff from July & August, and old stuff that got emptied/used up/chucked out. But whilst it might soothe my ego a bit, it doesn't take away from the fact that it is all still ending up in landfill, whether that is now rather than 15yrs ago or in two months time is neither here nor there (although I suppose literally it does change which side of the world the landfill is in some cases! Aroha mai, Aotearoa...)

What else to focus on reducing/eliminating next over the coming year though? That in many ways is the hardest challenge as I've changed all the easy things already! I'm sure I'll continue to get plenty of inspiration though via the Plastic Free July community and their Facebook page. It is good to be challenged as generally I've had a fairly easy run when it comes to keeping my carbon footprint lower than average. When you start it off as a life long vegetarian who doesn't drive/run a car and thus who uses a lot of public transport, lives in shared housing, likes to grow veggies, is used to frugal living and has been recycling for decades etc you get something of a head start over most folk! I don't feel like I've had to make many difficult changes at all. All those years of hearing 'Turn the lights off if you aren't using them. It's like Piccadilly Circus around here!' as a child/teenager obviously had some long term impact, if not quite the immediate one that was desired at the time!

compromise and consultation

It is very satisfying seeing the pile of empty packets piling up as the negatives get sorted and filed. Well mostly. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't decided to keep August's non-recyclable plastic waste as well though! There is a sizeable bundle of those pocketed sheets negatives sometimes came back from the developers in. Part of me breathes a sigh of relief when I come across one of those as there is far less chance that the contents will have somehow got mixed up with a different film, but once the negs have been transferred to a filing page it is with something of a harrumph that the same frustration saving item is consigned to the box of plastic.

There is also a broken slides box in that collection now too, and I'm very aware that the pages I'm transferring things into have yet more plastic as part of them. But what are the alternatives? At least digital photography means the amount of plastic being used in this way has been drastically reduced, but I'm sure there are other environmental impacts just as great, they are just less in our faces. This article about the need for legislation to reduce the amount of plastic was both reassuring (I'm not the only one struggling with plastic!) and saddening. I hate that I'm adding to the landfill by clearing out, but again it is that clash of priorities - having less stuff vs the problems of throwing stuff away!

I'd called in at the local photography shop to ask if she could check with their suppliers if they still stocked such things as new pages or folders for them to go in. She rang back to say the bloke had laughed and said they'd gone out with the Dark Ages and the best thing to do was scan the negatives and put them on cds/usb sticks - a service they offered. That's all very well I pointed out, but I still have to organize them first to decide what is worth saving in that manner! Also how long will cds and usb sticks work for? Having just found a stack of 3" disks I'm realizing that whilst I have an external disk drive (somewhere...) I don't know that I have any programmes that would be able to open any of the files any more! Technologically obsolete already. At least negatives can still be turned into prints.

I've got one more pack of filing pages via TradeMe and found a supply in the UK so there is hope of eventually completing the mission. Simply transferring the negs into pages is one thing, filing them in a sensible order however is a whole different ball game! It has been great though as putting out requests for help on Facebook to identify at least what year things were held in has resulted in some collective reminiscing and conversation that probably otherwise wouldn't have happened. I'm still somewhat taken aback by the disagreement over which decade something was in though rather than which of two years in the early '90s, that I really didn't expect. And I thought I was the one having memory problems!

I dare say I'll need to pick a few more brains over the coming months as I sort out the rest. I'm just hoping that the various Pardshaw events have other things on the films as trying to decide which event of those was which is pretty tricky as you can't even always tell if it was Easter or Pre-Christmas from the number of layers we're wearing! Plus certain jumpers are almost as ubiquitous as Ken's Summer Gathering one, albeit usually more tasteful and timeless... The fact that digital photographs are automatically dated is something I'm appreciating more and more as I work through these, although the chances of me having done the equivalent of writing the names on the back of photos are even slimmer.

Plastic Free July, almost gone...

There are only a few hours left of July 2015 and I'm looking at my wee 'dilemma bag' and comparing it to the photo of this time last year.... So have I done any better? Well, yes and no! The amount of stuff looks much the same, but there are differences.

Last year the plastic windows in envelopes never even occurred to me as I wasn't tearing them out (which apparently improves the paper recycling process). I seem to get a ridiculous number of letters from WINZ etc and until my health improves to the point where I no longer need their financial assistance there isn't really a way around those.

I got a different flea treatment for the cat - more packaging at first glance but more months supply... the sort of thing that only evens up over a year rather than picking out a month or two.

Way fewer tablet packets etc. Yes!!! The plaster wrapper was annoying though.

The cassava crisps packet - yup, one last year, one this year! Hey ho... The green tea packet is one I bought a couple of years ago and has finally been finished. I'm trying now to keep tea one of the plastic free zones in my life, at least the teas I drink for pleasure anyway, there are medicinal ones I haven't found a way around as yet. I can get green tea in paper bags or tins and I grow most of my herbal teas now. The chocolate wrapper - that bar was a present and much enjoyed. But I don't buy the plastic wrapped ones for myself and am kicking myself for having bought a few to tuck into presents.

I still haven't solved the miso problem but have found some in a single plastic bag rather than double wrapped! The plastic tubs of it I've found have the recycling numbers on in Japanese so I've no idea whether they can be recycled here or not, so I've decided against buying them for now.

There are probably slightly fewer strips cut off the top of the giant snaplock bags the bulk foods come in from the wholesaler as I've been buying more things in the 3kg bags rather than 1kg. Every little helps and the costs are slightly lower per kg, although requiring a larger initial outlay. There are scraps of plastic bags that had been re-purposed into poi that I had made at Summer Gathering several years ago. As part of my decluttering mission I decided they'd hung around doing nothing for quite long enough and I've reclaimed the stuffing for future craft projects, however the outer layers were beyond being useful again. There is also a plastic cover that was around my latest photobook that I got done - again part of my decluttering!


Then there is the pile of stuff that whilst not single use can't be recycled, my hairbrush, travel toothbrush, an out of date Community Services card, a couple of dvds (again being disposed of as part of the declutter), a deodorant container and a tub I had reused but had then cracked and it isn't recyclable. The deodorant, hair and toothbrushes have all be replaced with non-plastic items. Well okay technically the bristles of both brushes are still plastic/nylon but the handles are bamboo and the bit holding the hair brush bristles is rubber.

This year I've been focusing more on getting rid of/using up things and replacing plastic items as there aren't that many single use plastic items that come in to my life on a regular basis that I can cut back on. I've noticed my shopping habits have really changed though over the last year, when in Wellington recently and going round shops with a far greater range of food than I can buy locally I found myself running my eyes over the shelves looking at first not so much as to what was in the packets etc but what they were made off, when I spotted something glass, paper or tin I then looked to see if it was anything I might need! When I was in our local butcher's shop yesterday with Jane I did the same looking over his shelves of Asian groceries and came away with a glass jar of pickled ginger. I'm a way off finishing the current jar (which is recyclable plastic) but I'd heard a rumour that John was moving down to Auckland and whilst hopefully another butcher will keep the shop open there is no guarantee they'd keep the Asian groceries side of things going. (I'm all for supporting local independent retailers selling local produce even if it is mostly stuff I don't eat myself!)

I'm slowly replacing plastic scoops and measuring spoons that I keep in various jars of dried goods that I use regularly by rummaging through the odds and ends boxes at op/charity shops. When in Auckland I managed to get a metal wide necked funnel for filling jars and a smaller one for bottles. I did also replace my potato shaped veg scrubbing brush, it is plastic but as the last one has lasted me over a decade I figured I could live with that! I've got to the point now where I only have 5 plastic storage tubs in the kitchen for flours and oats, everything else is in glass or ceramics. As they are BPA free, Kiwi made Sistema klip-it tubs they can stay, for now.

Out of curiosity I'll keep my 'dilemma bag' going through August as well as I did last year and see how the end results compare. But it won't stop there, I'll be working on this for the rest of the year that follows. It will be interesting to compare notes by the time July next year comes around and see what else has become 'the norm' and which are the new more challenging aspects. And by then there will no doubt be something else like the envelope windows that hadn't even dawned on me before! Maybe as well as my cloth bags for weighed goods at the healthfood shop I'll have finally got around to making some tulle bags for veggies as we've got a new greengrocers opening up in town tomorrow...

Plastic Free July - half way through

I've been away for the last 10 days and not been online much so this is a bit of a catch up...

I got to Day 6 of PFJ and was rather smuggly looking at the empty (plastic) bag that I had sitting in my room designated to hold what single use plastic I couldn't avoid this month. At the time I was tearing out the windows from envelopes so the paper could be better recycled, I was about to head to the bin with them when it sank in that the windows couldn't be recycled as part of the envelopes as they were plastic! D'oh.... So in the bag they went.

I was getting my stuff ready to go away and decided that 10 days of the travel toothbrush that I had been using was too long. It was an aeroplane freebie and for some reason the cover never stays on properly as a handle when using it. Whilst once or twice is okay for brushing my teeth with something I can barely grip I wasn't prepared to go that long, so finally my travel toothbrush got upgraded to a bamboo one too. I was about to chuck the old one and thought well it was hardly single use, but it can't be recycled so in the bag it went.

Similarly my old hairbrush went in, now finally replaced with a bamboo one even if I did have to grit my teeth and buy it in The Body Shop. Having boycotted them since L'Oreal bought them out that was a battle of ethics but it was the only place I could find a non-plastic handle. And then there's the deodorant casing - I've been using my homemade coconut oil & lavender hand cream for deodorant for a few weeks now and so far so good (it soaks into the skin quicker than my kawakawa balm, so it doesn't end up on my clothes), whether it will work through summer remains to be seen.

Not looking quite so empty now then, that bag... When I got back I also added in the accumulated packets and other bits and bobs I'd very diligently hung on to as I travelled. Not quite diligently enough though, when I was at the usual cafe stop on the bus home I was putting the packet the teabag was in in their rubbish when it dawned on me that it wasn't just paper, but plastic lined. Damn. So that means there should be two of those in there - one for each trip. Also on the way down I thought the long journey was the perfect time to consume a chocolate bar given to me, which despite being Whittaker's was in a plastic wrapper, grrr. I'd very conscientiously refilled my flask with green tea in Auckland at Joanne & Oscar's before they took me to the airport so I wouldn't have to drink black tea on the plane or get a plastic glass of water, but totally forgot about PFJ when they offered me a bag of cassava crisps! I refused the lollies later with some contrition.

So what else is in there: several blister packs from tablets (still can't avoid that one unfortunately - the one medication I have come off was the only one that came in a recyclable tub!); the packet and backing off a sticking plaster; the snipped off bits from cutting open a couple of plastic bags; a wee tub I'd reused (I think it had been a takeaway sauce pottle J&O had acquired) to put baking soda in for washing my hair whilst away but it had cracked and isn't recyclable; a bag that had had dried figs in bought before I made my cloth bags for bulk foods from the healthfood shop, and a packet that had genmai tea in it I'd bought a couple of years ago.

Overall though not a bad collection given the bulk of it in terms of weight is stuff I've replaced with non-plastic and don't intend to buy again if I can avoid it. It has certainly been a lot easier this time around as I've done a lot of the thinking and have got into the habit of deliberately avoiding more plastic year round. I have cloth bags for weigh-out goods, I have beeswax wraps instead of clingfilm/gladwrap, I have a metal travel flask as well as metal water bottle, I have a much better idea of what products can be bought in non-plastic packaging and a bunch of recipes I've got into the habit of making that cut out bought plastic wrapped foods such as crackers and snack bars etc.

Over recent months I've got a lot better at making sure all food plastic bags get washed out and put in the recycling - I might not be buying stuff packed like that but I'm not the only one doing shopping around here!

I've also been replacing and/or getting rid of various other plastic items in my life that don't need to be there. Anything still usable by someone else has been passed on, there's no point throwing away stuff that is still useful even if it is plastic! I'd just rather have alternatives around at home, it makes me more conscious of the plastic I do still use when it stands out more. Having a big clearout and reorganization of my clothes a few weeks back meant I could take all my plastic hangers to the SPCA shop for them to use!

I can't imagine ever getting to the point of no plastic in my life, but I can certainly reduce it towards essentials only where there isn't a viable alternative (technology for a start!).One thing I realized recently though is that whilst I've got pretty good at avoiding plastic for myself I need to be a bit more on to it when it comes to things I buy or use for others - it finally dawned on me that when I'm making Phyllis' meals I don't have to use the individually wrapped cheese slices just because she would, I can slice or grate the big block! So she's getting through far fewer of those these days which is a step in the right direction.

Now to see how well the rest of the month goes...

preparing for July

I've printed off posters about Plastic Free July for the EcoCentre and I was delighted to learn that CBEC have got someone going round local schools promoting it. So good to know it is being promoted locally without me having to take that on myself! I'll be doing my bit to get the message across though that's for sure.

I've been looking back at my posts from July & August last year about my first attempt at signing up for the challenge. I went for the whole month option rather than just a day or week as generally my life doesn't have that much single use plastic in it compared to many folk, and I actually did two months in the end. It is interesting to realize just how much my habits have changed in the last year, especially considering I was thinking this year wouldn't be that much different from last. Through the year I've been replacing all sorts of plastic things in my life one step at a time.

The area of my life that I've made the biggest changes to is regarding personal care. I think by July/August last year I was already making my own toothpowder in lieu of toothpaste. It has worked just fine and my gums have been healthy too. I've got a wee pottle of it I keep in my travel washbag and it has the bonus of not being liquid/gel so one less thing that can leak and doesn't have to be declared in your hand luggage when flying overseas (not that I'm planning any such travel yet mind!). I've been washing my hair with baking soda since early December and it has worked better than any shampoo I've ever tried! I did try with baking soda before but for some reason my scalp wasn't that happy so I stopped and reverted to shampoo in case that was the cause. It wasn't, but it still took me a while to get around to trying baking soda again.

Earlier this year I discovered how easy it was to make cider vinegar and so now my home made hair rinse is totally free! Granted this is due to having apples and rosemary growing in the garden which not everybody has but great for me none the less. So, no plastic bottles for hair care, no plastic tubes for toothpaste, and I use a bamboo toothbrush. I use soap for washing and once I've used up the stocks in the cupboard of assorted provenance I can buy paper wrapped bars at the healthfood shop. The only thing remaining for me is deodorant and the crystal sort I use lasts over a couple of years so hardly a huge amount of plastic - mind you due to a psoriasis flare up I've only been using homemade kawakawa balm for the last week because of broken skin and bizarrely that seems to work too! But then again it might just be too cold for any sweat to form.. I was already using plastic free pantiliners (I'll spare you the details, but lets just say I need them most days) but decided to make some cloth ones out of old pyjama trousers and flannel sheeting which have that well washed softness new fabric doesn't come close to. Much better than spending money on something that gets thrown away as well as being environmentally friendly as they get thrown in with the wash that is getting done anyway!

I'll be keeping my eyes open for a another wooden hairbrush as I travel around - I used to have one that lasted years but had to replace it at a time when I couldn't find one locally and ended up with plastic again. The trick is remembering to look, which isn't easy when I don't actually need one yet...

I've made a couple of waxed cloths to use as food wrap instead of the likes of clingfilm/glad wrap or even lunch paper (which can at least go in the compost heap). Mostly they get used for packed lunches as we've already got a selection of those shower cap type covers for bowls and mugs etc that get used for leftovers and so on in the fridge. We do have a roll of clingfilm in the drawer but neither of us ever use it and it must be several years old!

I've gradually been replacing plastic scoops and storage tubs with metal and glass and have made some cloth bags to use at the health food shop for bulk bin goods. I've been very good at letting go of what I had and passing it along to individuals or op shops, given my mission to reduce how much 'stuff' there is in my life I'm determined not to get stuck in 'hoarder' mode, well not with plastics anyway!!!

gifting

Some years ago I was given a beautifully illustrated booked called 'The Quiltmaker's gift', one of those books that appeals to children of all generations. Not wanting to spoil the story for anyone I'll just say that it is about the pleasure in giving things away. A pleasure I've been relating to quite a bit lately.

As part of my current de-cluttering I've been finding new homes for a number of things by sending or giving them to people who I think could and would use them and appreciate them. It takes a bit longer, but it is far more satisfying than just taking them to the nearest op/charity shop. It started because I had a t-shirt campaigning against cuts in Early Childhood Education (ECE) that I used to wear for work but that had sat in my drawer unworn since I left kindergarten. I thought about passing it on to a former colleague but the only ones who it might've fit were either on or heading for maternity leave and weren't their usual size or shape or were looking like they weren't heading back to ECE any more than I was. It wasn't cheap in the first place and so it made sense to pass it on to someone who could wear it as part of their work where it meant more, so it got posted to one of my fellow Grad Dip students and she was delighted to get it.

So after that when I came across something that had a bit of a story behind it, or was somewhat out of the ordinary I put it to one side where I could see it in my room until the right person came to mind. Mostly I've gained my inspiration from Facebook posts, but some have involved a bit of indirect research asking.

I like how the process gets me thinking about the people I know. But rather than the usual run of birthdays and Christmas where you have a list of people and then have to come up with presents, I have a box of things and have to come up with people who are so far all folk who don't make it on to the annual gifting list. As I'm not doing the 'pay it forward' crafting challenge this year this re-homing has filled that slot nicely.

Another bonus is that when I am faced with another box or drawer to clear out instead of opening it with a sigh, wondering what on earth I can still have to 'get rid of' after all these years of clutter clearing I approach it with an attitude of more excited anticipation wondering what treasures I can pass along knowing their time with me is up and it is time for them to be enjoyed elsewhere.

There is still a pile of stuff mounting up to go to the SPCA or Salvation Army, but that is 'stuff' that you'd have to know someone really well to know that they needed it - like a set of measuring spoons, or an over-door hook, and other such odds and ends that really aren't likely to make anyone's day to find them in the mail box, but could, in the right place, still be useful. I'm being fairly ruthless with divesting myself of plastic stuff that I either already have or could easily replace with an alternative when the time finally comes for me to need them again (should that day ever come!): a large bundle of coathangers, various tubs, the aforementioned measuring spoons etc. Yes one day I may need to equip a kitchen on my own, but where it is worth hanging on to my rather nice saucepans for another decade if need be before needing them again, the same really can't be said for assorted paraphernalia that can be found in most kitchen drawers, and also in most op shops should I find I do need it after all!

It's amazing how much further I've managed to cut back on my possessions, although I know there are still more boxes to be tackled in the shed at Pukepoto. I may yet fit it all in my room here which is my goal. I also need to use up more of my material stash, but that is a whole different (set of) project(s)!

keeping track

Having taken part in Plastic Free July and have continued to try to keep my single use plastic to a minimum I was curious as to how I'd get on whilst away from home for 10 days. Not only was I away from home but I was travelling on all but four of those days, and I was trying to travel light which meant there was a limit as to how much food I could bring from home.

The journey from home to Wellington went well as I had my wee Marmite lunchbox with me to fill up with self-service sushi in Kerikeri rather than use one of their plastic boxes. The cashier was surprised to see me provide my own box but thought it was a really good idea which was encouraging. At the airport I had oodles of time so could get a proper pot of tea with cup and saucer rather than a takeaway cup, and the miso soup which I had expected to come in a bowl (as it always used to) came in a paper cup but without a plastic lid. So I was feeling rather pleased with myself after the first day.

I've debated for some time whether it is worth getting one of those reusable coffee cups for takeaway cuppas, but I buy so few in a year it hasn't really seemed worth it. I was looking at them in the Kathmandu sale though in Wellington umming and ahhing over it yet again when I spotted some small vaccuum flasks. My old one leaks so it's no use for travelling any more, so rather than get a coffee cup (for about 4 cups a year!) I got a flask which had the added bonus of meaning I didn't need to buy a cuppa so often and I was guaranteed a cuppa I like as I generally try to avoid ordinary tea these days. I soon discovered though that it is a highly efficient flask and thus I need to add some cold water to my tea otherwise I have to wait way too long for it to be a drinkable temperature! There are way worse problems to have than a burnt tongue though.

Snacks for the road proved to be a challenge and I failed completely to avoid small packets and individually wrapped bars. When you're vegetarian and avoiding dairy, gluten and unwarranted amounts of sugar in things your options are limited. I'm fine at home as I simply make my own stuff and generally snack a lot less, but that's not so practical on the road. Also I simply didn't have room in my bag to buy a big bag of something and make it last several days of travels. I think I need to refine my 'packing light' skills - it was tricky though when the possible weather options for my trip were potentially 'four seasons in one day' let alone in one week and I was only going to be at one of my stops long enough to do any washing and get it dry.

But generally I think I did reasonably well until the penultimate day. I succumbed to the lure of a decaf soy latte at Christchurch airport and that meant a disposable coffee cup and plastic lid. Then on top of that the turbulence on the way north meant the Air NZ staff served the cuppa on the plane with a lid too. Quite understandable and far more necessary than such lids often are, but two such lids in the space of a couple of hours did feel a tad excessive. I did enjoy my coffee at the airport though.

What would I do differently another time? Well other than try to pack less so there was more room in my bag for bigger supplies of snacking food I should probably do a bit more research when I have browsing time to spare in a supermarket. Part of the reason why I ended up with some of the stuff I did was because I kept running out of time in shops and there is a limit to how many things you can read the ingredients list of when you're in a hurry! I'd forgotten/not realised that some of my old travelling staples whilst wheat free weren't gluten free and I'm trying to stick to being GF as much as I can as it does seem to be helping. Having got into the habit of making so much of my food from scratch at home I've not needed to buy such things for a while. If I've got a 'go to' list of things to look out for that I know I can eat and are sensibly wrapped I can probably avoid the GF snack bars which ended up being the default option this time. I did treat myself to a box of Nairns stem ginger oatcakes though and refused to feel guilty about it. I usually avoid them for food miles reasons, but I reckon an annual treat is allowed! I'm still experimenting with recipes to try to recreate them at home but haven't quite cracked it yet, one day I'll make an acceptable substitute....

As ever making lifestyle adjustments take time and effort to put into place and become the 'new normal', after a while it will become second nature and then I'll be ready for the next change, whatever that may prove to be.

August, and everything after...

Well I said I was going to monitor my single-use (ie non-recyclable or re-usable) plastic consumption for longer than a month, and I did! I got through August keeping everything aside. However as we now have two additional folk in the house for a while I'm not even going to try keeping that up as it will just get way too complicated. However once we're back to just the two of us again it will be interesting to try it again and see how much, if anything, my habits have changed!

The collection for August is larger than for July mainly from using things up: a couple of packets of microwave rice from the CDE Kit, some cotton wool that I've had since I lived in Wellington (so at least 7 1/2yrs old!), a thingy of liquid soap from a hotel that is a plastics number we can't recycle locally and the bottle has split so I can't refill it, a carton of rice milk I'd bought for when my parents were here late last year & hadn't needed then but was about to go out of date, and finally I finished off that bag of pasta I started in early July!

Of course there are the usual medication packs, strips off the top of bulk buy bags etc. as well. I've been thinking about how to reduce the amount of plastic I use that can be recycled as even reusing and recycling just postpones the day when it becomes waste and as is becoming increasingly evident there is no such place as 'away' to throw it.

So, there are a few changes in shopping habits I've decided to commit to and the idea is gradually I'll add in more things to the equation, basically the same way as I've phased in any other change in my shopping habits. Using the glass bottled organic cider vinegar (or refilled bottles from the health food shop) in my hair rinse rather than buying separate bottles of the cheaper stuff in plastic bottles was my first decision. I'd balked at doing this before but then realised just how long a 750ml bottle had lasted me and figured it was hardly a huge financial commitment! I'd been buying coconut milk powder when I could find it, but have switched to tins as the amount I use on a regular basis has increased enough now to warrant it, I just need to remember which brands don't have plastic linings in their tins! I've discovered I can get my long grain brown rice in 10kg paper sacks via the local food co-op so that is duly noted for future reference (I've quite a stash to get through first!). I've already mentioned changing the supplies in the CDE Kit, that will take a while to complete but at least I've made a start.

I'll see how I go with those, and no doubt as the weeks roll by I'll find other things to add to the list. One unlooked for plus is the dosage of one of my meds has changed so once I've finished the current supply I'll be taking one or two tablets not three which will reduce the amount of rubbish as well as hopefully improve my health!

I was quite impressed though that despite all the stuff being used up, two months worth of single use plastic still fit into one bag in the end. The info from Plastic Free July keeps coming through their Facebook page which is great, lots of ideas and plastic free products still being shared including some I hadn't even begun to think about - suncream anyone?! Mind you given the initiative comes from Western Australia I shouldn't be surprised that they were on to that one. I do have a recipe for making some, but I can't say as I've been enthused enough by it to give it a go. But who knows where I'll be on this journey by July next year - hopefully making even more of my own things and creatively avoiding more and more plastics in my life.

plastic free July - the finale, or rather the beginning...

Well the month is over. In fact it was over a while ago, but for various reasons this didn't get finished at the time so I'll try to edit this to make sense timewise as I finish it off....

I managed to come up with a compromise solution for my CDE Kit dilemma of the other week. I've bought a sistema microwave noodle bowl which at least is BPA free even if it is plastic. After a bit of experimentation I've now got a collection of buckwheat, stock powder and sundried tomatoes in the kit replacing the rice ready meals (which have now been eaten, and the packets added to the August plastic collection - ah well!)

Week four saw another packet being used up - having found the tail end of a packet of rice floating around forgotten about in the cupboard it got tipped into some miso soup I was making. I was feeling rather pleased with myself as I've made miso soup from scratch a few times now rather than just open a sachet. Sure it takes longer than boiling the jug, but it doesn't take that much longer and the result is much more satisfying. However I'll still keep some sachets on hand for emergencies (aka very low energy days). Unfortunately the only way I can buy miso around here is in a plastic bag within a resealable plastic pouch. Not tubs or jars like I used to get in Edinburgh and Wellington. So an empty miso bag has also been added to the weeks collection, but better one bag than a pile of sachets.

The 'foil' seal on a new jar of tablets (the only one I take that that isn't in blister packs) turned out to be plastic film masquerading as foil - bah humbug. Plus I'm on to a new moxa stick (shhhh, don't tell Teri it has taken me this long to get through the last one! I tend to forget more often than remember to use it...) so that's another packet on top of the usual blister packs.

I bought myself a mini processor, basically a bowl with two sets of blades and a motor. Sooooo many of the recipes I come across these days that work for my dietary requirements seem to involve whizzing up a lot of dried fruits, nuts, pulses etc and our poor overworked whizzy stick blender isn't really designed for such. So I made the most of a half price sale! Aside from the plastic bags wrapped around each component part (why???) in theory this means I'll be more easily able to avoid certain plastic packages as it will be easier for me to make things like oatcakes and crackers so I'm less likely to resort to buying them when low on energy (I finished a packet of Corn Thins recently that had been bought for that very reason). I started to try making my own LSA but realised I need to buy more linseed after I'd already whizzed the almonds and sunflower seeds, but hopefully that will be another plastic packet no longer coming into the house. Sure I'll still be buying the bulk bags of the ingredients, but I get them anyway. I've got a whole heap of recipes to go at now that I've been procrastinating over trying as putting things through the mouli or using a pestle and mortar instead is much harder work. Whilst I'm all for avoiding unnecessary electricity use I've had to accept that for now I just don't have the physical stamina for the more energetic methods.

So, after a month of trying to avoid single use plastic what have I learned and achieved? Well it is certainly much easier to keep single use plastic consumption down when you're at home under normal circumstances. I don't seem to be alone in discovering that either. I've started to radically rethink the food in the CDE Kit, I'd gone down the usual track of various packets and tinned convenience foods, most of which I don't usually eat which is a pain when it comes to refreshing the contents each year. It has also made me think about how and where the food in it would be used ie it is unlikely to be at home. I've become much more aware when shopping about packaging, I thought I was pretty good at this already, but have realised that there is still a lot of room for improvement. I've got into the habit of not only carrying around with me my cloth shopping bags but a handful of clean plastic bags - these can be used for loose veg and bulk bin items, standing pots of seedlings in etc instead of taking another new plastic bag in the shop/at the market. At some point I'll make some of those tulle bags for veg, but I've way too many other sewing projects to finish first!

But the biggest realisation I suppose for me is that if I'm going to really make a difference to my habits I need to monitor my usage for more than just one month. It is now three weeks into August, and sadly the collection for August already has more in it than the one for the whole of July, but that is mostly due to using things up and phasing them out (like the rice packets from the CDE Kit). But I'll write more about August in another post.

plastic free July - three weeks on

Well more of the month has gone than there is to come and how am I doing with regard to keeping single use plastic out of my life?

That depends on how you look at it. Compared to many people I probably do pretty well. This month compared to what I usually use? Hmmm, not that much difference to be totally honest.

I was brave enough to refuse a plastic bag in Farmers the other day, in the past I'd been told there that they have to put things in one of their bags and seal it with tape for 'security reasons' whereas this time the teller didn't even bat an eyelid, so hopefully that is a positive sign of policy change.

I've become more aware of the remaining bits of single use plastic I can't figure out how to manage without like tablet blister packs. Yesterday as I was sewing and came towards the end of a reel of cotton I lamented the passing of wooden cottonreels. Some thread comes on cardboard spools so I can try to buy those where possible but the range of colours available (locally) is rather limited. Mind you I have a sizeable stash of cotton which I always try to use first, including some industrial cones dating back to the 70s, and I keep inheriting collections of cotton so I don't often buy it anyway. There are some food items that I buy because of my particular dietary requirements that as far as I know only come in plastic; as each one has come along this month I've thought hard 'do I really need this'. Some I don't and most likely won't buy again or, like the pasta, I haven't actually bought for a long time, I'm just using up what I still had in the cupboard. Other things are in the 'pending' pile as it were - I can't figure out a way around it just yet, but I'll work on it.

Then there are the times when different sets of principles/priorities clash - without thinking I bought some paprika in the health food shop last week as we'd just about run out. It comes in a resealable plastic pouch. If I'd waited until I'd next gone to Pak'n'Save I could've got it in a box. But a) that could be weeks away yet, and b) I do try to support the small shops in town as they need all the help they can get. I had checked Four Square that stocks some of the spices in boxes, but they don't keep a large range and paprika isn't part of it. But did I really need paprika now? Could I have lived without it? Of course I could. But when cooking with a limited range of ingredients it is often the herbs and spices that make all the difference. I bought a new recipe book recently and one particular recipe caught my eye, which calls for paprika. The fact that I'm even thinking of trying a new recipe is a sign of me slowly getting better and I'm not about to hold back my own recovery over a plastic packet of paprika. When I've made it as per recipe once I'll happily adapt, but I do like to try things as close to intended as possible the first time - especially when I can eat all the ingredients in it!

Yesterday I needed to go and buy reasonably large quantities of veg to make soup for a TimeBank fundraiser so I fished bags out of the pile in the laundry that I know came from Bells originally and  re-used them rather than tear new ones off the roll. I certainly wouldn't have thought to do that before, so I guess I am making some progress in my thinking and, more to the point, habits.

One thing that has been niggling in the back of my mind for a while is the food in the CDE Kit most of which is plastic packed. On the one hand this seems like a really good thing as plastic is light, doesn't easily break, and it is waterproof. But these foods need rotated and ideally replaced once a year. Of course I'm not about to throw out perfectly useable food so that means eating it... and it has to be said unless I'm camping I find it really hard to summon up any enthusiasm for instant rice meals! I've read some blog posts about making up your own 'instant' meals (ie just add water and cook) which would be all very well if I was at home or in some else's home. But if I end up at the college along with half of Kaitaia due to flooding, something that can be bunged in the microwave as is for 40 seconds is still looking like a better option as chances are I won't be able to eat what is served up for the masses. I'll work on this one!

But anyway this is what the last 3 weeks of single use plastic in my life looks like:

New from last week: a rice flakes packet (I mix these with oats for my morning porridge - I'm trying to cut out gluten and reduce the amount of oats I eat. There are other things I could use, but they all come in plastic too); an old wet wipes packet which had been in my bag for a couple of years, literally, I bought them for going to Kenya!; yet more tablet strips (but as yet no more painkiller ones, woo hoo!); the seals off a bottle of cider vinegar; the strips cut off the top of a couple more bulk buy packets and I think that's about it. I'm seriously considering keeping the challenge up for a second month at least to see how much is simply a case of using up what I already have, and how much new still manages to sneak in. Because I'm on a fairly tight budget I'm not rushing out to buy alternatives until I have used up what I have so it will all be a gradual process to reduce my consumption of single use plastic. Hopefully over time I'll also be able to make an impact on reducing the plastic use in our household that isn't generally my responsibility. Being healthy enough to get to market regularly will certainly make a difference to start with. I'll keep you posted!

plastic free July - two weeks in

Okay, so when I find an old cotton reel hiding down the back of the chair that has been there for months it doesn't count right? Not much of a dilemma I admit and I'm pretty sure it could be re-purposed, just not quite so easily as it could when I was working at kindergarten!

I'm doing the Plastic Free July challenge to try to avoid single use plastic for a month.

Again this weeks collection has a fair chunk of tablet blister packs in it, plus a couple of packets from things that were bought specifically for me to use at the bach which have now been finished (some GF wraps to stand in for pizza bases and some feta cheese). These aren't things I would usually buy if I was going to be eating at home as usual, and I quite possibly wouldn't have got if the cooking arrangements at the bach weren't so... odd, ie no stove! We did alright with the wood-fired pizza oven, barbeque, electric frying pan, microwave, and the dinky grill/oven box thingamijig Margaret managed to bake a birthday cake in (I was well impressed with that achievement!). But it was a challenge trying to shop when I'd never been there before and wasn't going to know until it was too late for me to go shopping again what they had planned for meals beyond pizza. However I now know the cunning plan of using the cast iron frying pans in the pizza oven and... anyway I digress.

Rather than seperate out each weeks collections here is two weeksworth together (week one can be seen here).

I've been reading some other peoples experiences about doing the plastic free July challenge and realising that my existing shopping habits certainly make it a lot easier for me than many. For a start I don't do that much shopping and for practical reasons I'm limiting this challenge to things I'm responsible for. I got to the market this weekend so managed to do our vegetable shopping - so that all came loose or in paper bags which went into my cloth shopping bag. It's only whilst I've been sick this year and Phyllis has been buying all the veggies that the amount of fresh food associated plastic has crept up as she goes to Four Square where most of it is pre-packed or puts everything in new bags when she goes to Bells. Buying local produce direct from the growers means there are no sticky plastic lables on the fruit etc. which had become some folks bugbear last week. Hopefully I'll be up to going to the market again from now on, so I'll be able to keep the amount of plastic creeping in to the house that way down again.

When I'm getting the bus back from Auckland etc I'd got into the habit of buying sushi from the shop where you change buses in Kerikeri. I had planned to the same last Tuesday, but I was off eating altogether when the time came, however I had set off prepared! I had my wee Marmite lunchbox with me which I was planning to fill up instead of the plastic trays they have - that being the great advantage of it being a self service sushi shop rather than everything pre-packaged. They serve the pickled ginger out of a big catering box rather than sachets and I was just planning to say no to wasabi and soy sauce having forgotten to refill and bring with me the wee squeezy soy sauce bottle I'd got from there last trip.

One thing that did strike me about this week was sellotape etc! I used some insulation tape in an attempt at some cable management and the first plan failed after a few days so I was about to throw away the tape then realised what it was! So into the bag it went with the rest of the plastic. Also in there is a shop sticker that had been used to seal up some tissue paper around a gift I received. The padded bag that arrived in will get re-used so certainly doesn't count as 'single use' - it was interesting to see it had two recycling numbers on it, presumably one for the bag and one for the bubble wrap inside it. But it doesn't say which is which and one number you can recycle locally and the other you can't... I'll add writing to NZ Post about that to my 'to do' list.

This all made me think about packaging for postage. Generally I re-use jiffy bags/padded packaging that I receive things in, or use brown paper and recycled bubble wrap. But I have to admit between parcels and re-using envelopes I do use a fair amount of sellotape and parcel tape, and I'd been using sellotape without even thinking this month. I've no idea how well brown paper tape works for anything other than mask making, I suppose I'd better get some and find out! Glue is okay for some cases, but comes in a plastic container itself and I'm definitely not going to use Cow Gum I'm afraid, I can smell the stuff just thinking about it and I doubt I've seen a tin since Primary school - which does make me wonder if it is even available here. The enevelope re-user lables I've got are just small address lable size, not the sort that can fold over the top of the envelope to seal it, and it was hard enough to find those! Hmmmm....

The observant will spot an ink cartridge - well that's the last one, I now have a reservoir in my fountain pen so I am back to using bottled ink. I haven't bought a biro in years, but somehow I accumulate freebies. I do have a pack of ball point refills but I seem to lose biros as easily as gain them so them running out isn't usually an issue.

The more time passes doing this the more I realise that keeping single use plastic out of life is a long term strategy not a short term fix. I keep coming across things I'm using up that I actually stopped buying regularly some time ago, partly because my lifestyle has changed or because I bought it when I was really sick and not able to do as much cooking from scratch as I usally do these days, but partly because of making a conscious commitment to keeping throwaway plastic out of my life as much as possible. It would be even more wasteful not to use those things up just because of their plastic component. In theory though as I finish things, this should get easier, right? We'll see!

plastic free July - one week in

Well it hasn't been the easiest week to start trying to keep track of my single-use plastic consumption! I was away with long time f/Friends for a few days at "the bosses' bach" near Tutukaka which was fantastic. It's been years since we've spent that long together and the break was just what I needed. It did mean though that they had done most of the food shopping not me so I had to figure out how I was going to deal with the plastic monitoring. I decided that anything that was just for me, or that I had brought counted, if it was something of theirs that I happened to have shared then it didn't. The only thing I dithered over was the seal of a tub of hummus that they probably bought because of me but we did all tuck in to it so I let it go!

So my total of single use plastic for the first week is pretty low: the strips cut off the top of several bulk buy bags, one crisp packet from the weekend (that I didn't track down until after I'd taken the photo), the wrapper from a box of teabags that had been gifted to me and a few extra scraps; but a lot so far is medical - blister packs from tablets and the wrapper from a moxa stick the acupuncturist provides. It doesn't look that much but I know there are a few packets close to being finished that no doubt will be added to the collection before the month (this week?) is out. I must admit it is tempting to avoid those things until August but that really is cheating! I did pause before opening the box of teabags I have to admit especially as it is a brand I'd never buy myself.

I knew I already did fairly well in terms of keeping my single-use plastic consumption down, and this week has confirmed that. But it has made me think a lot more about the issue, and notice how much is wrapped in plastic that really doesn't need to be. Also so far I don't think there is much more I could cut out - I don't think the pharmacy would be too happy if I asked for counted out tablets in glass bottles like we used to get, especially given how many tablets I take! I suspect all their dispensing bottles are plastic these days. Didn't we used to take empty glass ones back to the chemists? I've a feeling we did, well when not filling them up with potions and and various things made from painted DAS clay for playing shops with anyway!

Anyway, two days into week 2 and so far the pile hasn't grown much more, we'll so how it looks by the end of the 14th!