Reducing plastic - making a start

So I have done a little bit of googling and had a think about the things we buy. There are some things that I think will be easy to make plastic free swaps for, and some things that will be harder. There are also some things I suspect will be impossible but more on that later.

Planning is going to be the key to this endeavour as it is not going to be easy to feed 5 people plastic free, and nipping to the shops when we run out of something will not be an option if you want to avoid plastic.

The easier swaps:
1. Buy only loose fruit and vegetables - this is relatively easy but sadly does mean not buying organic since organic veg is packaged separately. This is a shame as I prefer organic. It also means not shopping online
2. Use reusable water bottles and cups when out and about - this one is really easy
3. Make flapjacks instead of buying cereal bars 
4. Stop using sandwich bags for sandwiches, just put sandwiches straight into the lunch box! 
5. Get milk and orange juice delivered in glass bottles - I am not sure how easy this will be in practice, especially in summer and I imagine its expensive
6. Buy bread in paper bags from the baker
7. Refill our laundry liquid and washing up liquid - somewhere local does ecover refills so this should be easy
8. Teabags - I already buy unbleached paper bags that are not plastic wrapped. Some tea bags contain plastic and then are plastic wrapped twice! the ones I buy are foil wrapped once for freshness which is a shame but the company are trying to change this.
9. Butter and cheese - buying foil wrapped butter and paper wrapped cheese (from where I don't know yet!)
10. Cling film - we never use it anyway!
11. Plastic bags - in the UK these now cost 5p and aren't given for free so we pretty much stopped using these ages ago, we lug our shopping to the boot of the car by trolley or in boxes

More difficult swaps:
1. Hummous - we eat loads of this and it comes in plastic pots, I have never seen a jar of hummous - surely they exist?
2. Wraps - we make fajitas quite often and I can't think of a plastic free option
3. Shampoo, deodorants and toothpaste - there are various swaps like shampoo bars, ryeflour shampoo, baking soda toothpaste etc that I can do but for the kids I am not sure of easy swaps - I will look into this more
4. Toilet paper - the rolls themselves come plastic wrapped and I don't know how to source these unwrapped yet!
5. pasta, rice, pulses etc - these all come plastic wrapped. I am not sure what the alternative is yet
6. Yoghurts - we don't actually eat many of these and the kids don't really enjoy them so we will probably just not buy yoghurt
7. Frozen fruit - we buy frozen blueberries etc for pancakes and smoothies, I have seen these sold loose in delis but not easily available and don't know how if they would weigh your own packaging
8. Berries- strawberries and blueberries come in plastic punnets even if you pick your own and I don't know the way around this

I am sure I will come across more hurdles as time goes on. We are lucky to have some really good independent health food shops nearby who I suspect already aim to reduce waste and will be able to help us out.
The impossible (maybe): 

1. Medicine/painkillers - I don't really see a way to get these plastic free
2. Contact lenses - they come in a plastic holder, with plastic bottles of contact lens fluid and with little plastic trays that we never use! The obvious way around this is to wear glasses but I love my lenses!
3. Makeup - pretty much everything comes in plastic, my face cream comes in a glass jar already but everything else is plastic.
4. Ordering food or shopping online e.g. Ocado/Amazon - there is no way to know how it will come packaged
5. Presents/gifts/electrical items - these always come with plastic
6. Junk mail/magazines - often comes in plastic bags

The more I think about it the more difficult I think it is going to be. We are going to have to change the way we plan, shop and cook and completely reconsider the things we eat and use.
I suspect I will come up against some opposition from the children and I since EVERYTHING is covered in plastic these days it is hard to see another way.

Wish us luck!

Plastic! The story begins.

Welcome to the blog. 

We are a family of five living in the UK and our aim is to dramatically reduce our plastic usage. I say plastic usage - we aren't really 'using' the plastic in the first place, it just comes along, in excess, with the food that we buy.

In the UK it is common for all food products to either come in a plastic bag, plastic tray, plastic wrapped or a combination of all of these and then usually put in a cardboard box for good measure, for example: 

bread, bananas, carrots, potatoes etc - in a plastic bag with plastic tag (not recyclable)

mushrooms, tomatoes, mini corn etc - large plastic tray then plastic wrapped (partly recyclable)

milk - plastic bottle with foil/plastic seal then a  plastic lid (partly recyclable)

rice, grains, nuts, pasta - plastic bag (not recyclable)

soya milk, orange juice- tetra pak (foil, plastic &  and plastic lid- not easily recyclable)

biscuits, cereal bars - plastic wrapped or sometimes plastic tray and then plastic wrapped (not recyclable)

Butter, humous, cheese spread - plastic pots with plastic lid (recyclable)

You get the idea - even our cucumbers are individually plastic wrapped, it really is crazy.

For a long time the massive amount of unpeeling of plastic layers and the amount of waste created just to remove food to put in the fruit bowl or on the vegetable rack has driven me mad, and then there is the piles of recycling left when you have cooked something. Our waste bin and recycling bin are always full and not buy choice, I tend not to buy processed, ready wrapped food and make things from scratch but still I am left with masses of plastic.

My son has been discussing going plastic free at school and has visited a recycling centre so this has prompted us to address the issue of single use plastic usage in our house. He has learned that many of the things we put in our recycling bin are not recyclable and that plastic is rapidly damaging our environment.

Disposable plastic is bad for the environment, bad for our seas, does not biodegrade and is for the most part pointless and avoidable, so it is time for us to do something about it.

We are going to try and reduce our plastic usage dramatically, I would like to go plastic free but I suspect that is not only going to be hard but almost impossible.

Still - any reduction in our plastic usage has got to be good right?