I wrote this blog post on our last night of the “plastic-free” experiment…so remember that time as you read….

The kids are revolting!  We’ve been out of their usual quota/brands of cheese and milk for over a week and yesterday they “had nothing to eat for breakfast and nothing to pack for lunch”.  Funny how I found frozen mini quiches, fruit bread in the freezer too, plenty of cereal and fruit and tin spaghetti for those who wanted it.  The day was saved!

And this experiment in plastic-free is over tomorrow – I do need to shop (in a fairly normal fashion) to feed the masses – but I will be sure to take my own bags and consider what I can – but tomorrow it will be back to plastic bottles of milk and quite a few cheeses!  We do have a big cheese producer near here, so I will be making time to pay them a visit and see if it is possible to buy some plastic-free “bulk” cheese.

And excuse me while I have a moment – “It is all too hard L” – ok now I have got that out.

I had a bit of a moment last night while I was searching for bulk milk powder (to try and cut down on packaging) and came across an article that was very convinced that we should all only be drinking raw (unpasteurised, unhomogenised, organic) milk – preferably goats’ milk, maybe even fermented – as the only healthy version of dairy.  Yes, it reminded me that powdered milk is quite far from eating “as nature intended” (“being close to nature” was very important to me while we were choosing building products – how did I lose that perspective??? L) – and it made me feel bad – so time to remind myself that we are all on a journey to do what we can – and it is pretty darn near impossible to get it right!

What I didn’t tell you at the time was that Michael was actually away for the duration of the plastic-free experiment…I had a feeling he might have been a little harder to convince than the kids were, so I took my opportunity while I could – and the big shopping expedition was to get ‘normal’ milk in the house for his homecoming ;-)

My shopping “focus” has changed again (more on that another time).  I am definitely not plastic-free (ie I am buying milk and cheese!) – but I am using those gorgeous string bags and I am still making bread on a weekend, and we do still make our own yoghurt (from packet mixes though, I just can’t get a good one yet otherwise).  And it was good to read what I wrote above to realise “we are still on this journey” to work out what is right for us.

Plastic-free “last-week-of-March” score card.

I’ll give us a 9/10 J - it was a joint family effort – not just me J.

I only had one slip up and purchased hot- cross buns on special to put in the freezer (plastic bagged).  It was actually quite interesting to examine why I forgot – it was just that – went into the shops to buy one Easter egg for school raffle (no plastic) – it was a a bit of a stressful day and I was on auto pilot…

Had some wins too though:

 
















Milk in glass bottle, milk powder in cardboard box (yay – didn’t think I would find any!), plenty of yummy home-made bread (bread flour in paper bag, everything else in pantry already) and new egg flip – none available locally that were bamboo or all metal so this has a silicone flip.

And the local butcher was happy to put some mince in my own container J - though, for public health rules, he did have to use a plastic bag to pick it up…

The biggest challenge was actually the little plastic bags that we usually buy fruit in – they are a plastic that had inadvertently crept back into my life because I already had some re-usable ones:

 



 











The lacy ones are a recycled curtain (purchased from a community garden stall) and the brown ones feel like organza (purchased from The Environment Shop in Fremantle) – so they are both actually polyester based – so the orange cotton crochet will be my next one J - and I will search out a cotton crochet table cloth at the op shop to cut up and sew some more.

I enjoyed the challenge so much, we are keeping it going for next week too.   The big search is now on for a local bulk detergent outlet – we are about to run out of the dish detergent that I already raided from our camper!

We are dearly missing having our usual unlimited supply of cheese – the supermarket deli cuts from a bulk supply don’t they?  Wonder if they would be able to sell without any plastic packaging??

And thank goodness eggs come in cardboard cartons!!  Well if you have to buy them like we do…until our chook run is finished…(that would actually be ‘started’….another story….).

I spent my yesterday doing a plastic inventory of my day. 

I have been having a good read through Down to Earth blog – I have already read the book several times – it is where I got the soap recipe I use (so nice and easy and gorgeous soap to use), and it is where I read the best quote about crafting!

Anyhow, somehow it got me onto thinking about Plastic Free July – something I have never attempted – and I was honest with myself, I am not at my best in the freeze of winter, so I might never get around to anything much in July! – but I figured, I could always do a Plastic-Free last week of March.  Yeah why not – how about joining me?

My inventory was my experiment to see what plastic I could cut out.  Here’s my list:

Item containing plastic	Alternative
Egg flip/spatula	Bamboo
Coffee machine	Metal grinder and pot
Hairbrush; comb; hair elastic	Bamboo brush and comb; ?rubber band
Toothbrush	Bamboo
Toothpaste (plastic tube)	MYO = make your own
Deodorant (lid)	MYO
Milk container (incl milk powder in plastic bag)	Glass bottle, bulk powder
Bread bag	Home baked!
Clothes (some polyester)	Stay with cotton; wool; etc
Shoes (I assume the soles are synthetic, not rubber)	Not sure…leather soled shoes do exist
Polyester blanket	This was a gift, so we will keep it and cherish it.  All our others are wool or cotton
Eyeglasses – plastic on arms	Not sure if fully metal arms are available
Gardening equipment – plant pots, bucket, irrigation pipes	At least they are all recyclable.  Could use earthen or wood pots and buckets.
The pen I wrote the list with!	You can get wood cased pens – or use a pencil with real graphite.
Microfibre cleaning cloth	Stick with cotton rags
Plastic bottle of cleaning vinegar	MYO – I am giving this a go right now – in a glass jar of course!
Food storage containers	Change to glass!
Toaster machine	Could use camp (gas stove-top) wire toaster – but not with my induction cooktop…what to do?
Duster (wool with plastic handle)	Wooden handle
Mending supplies – plastic button; needle case and scissor handles	Wood, shell or metal buttons; cloth only needle case; metal scissors
Recycling bag and wheelie bin	Could use a cardboard box – but council requires the wheelie bin
Wheelbarrow – plastic tray	Metal!
Sharp kitchen knife – plastic handle	Metal
Laundry basket and pegs	Wicker trolley basket (very hard to find a good quality one, will have to try harder); wooden pegs (I only buy wooden, but have been given plastic over the years)
Clothes horse	It is metal, but with plastic ‘ends’…
Clothes line – currently using rope – some plastic	Stick to fabric rope – and get Hills Hoist in the ground one day soon…(all metal)
Food packaging – plastic bags and wraps	MYO foods – cheese, yoghurt, cold meats – at the very least, buy in bulk
Kettle – plastic handle	Fully metal stove top kettle
Tea bag – plastic wrapped box	Grow your own tea – buy bulk
Craft supplies – almost everything is plastic or is in a plastic container or wrap L	MYO recycled paper J.  Buy other supplies second hand.
Grater and saucepan - ?rubber/silicone coated handles	All metal
Silicone baking tray liner (apparently good quality, non-coloured silicone is just ‘sand’ (silicon) and oxygen so no probs – mine are ‘good quality’, but are coloured).	Oil +- flour base instead
This computer!!!	Could always use the public library computer instead…

I was quite shocked to see how much plastic is part of my daily life.  It will take a bit of investigating to find the alternatives that I know exist – but worth it I reckon!

And just to be clear, I won’t be replacing everything – quite a bit of the above have been gifted to us and many other things have been purchased second-hand – we do try to be conscious of buying with the least packaging, but I do think some things have slipped in, so I am going to have a go at getting some of the alternatives as things need replacing.  The egg flip is first on the list – it broke last week (a good 15+ years’ service though). 

The first ‘big’ challenge is upon us too – milk about to run out – we have plenty of UHT and some milk powder – so I just need to avoid the shops really (and pretend the alternatives taste ok)!  Next to run out will be the dish detergent – I will see if I can find a re-fill bulk alternative at the health shop – otherwise it will be home-made soap and water this week.  And bread is in the machine as I type – so here’s hoping I got the recipe right to get a good tasting loaf.