that I am aware have some form of synthetic material. I have saved three hair ties from various footpaths around Melbourne since
. Just put them in the wash and they are clean clean clean!
Grocery shopping
I take my own
bags for grocery shop. No more plastic bags! And if we forgot our bags we will carry them by hand (the Builder is a pro at this) or find an old box at the store.
I also use old produce plastic bags (old pasta, rice, cereal bags) at bulk food stores to collect
beans, rice, flour, lentils, nuts etc. These were left over from when I did buy food in plastic packaging. Right now I am slowly swapping these out for
upcycled cloth shopping bags. The old plastic bags will be
recycled with RedCycle. I cannot wait for this to occur because it is not fun cleaning out plastic bags. But when you think of this…it makes it easier! I keep all of the items we need for a package free/bulk shop tucked away in box with the words 'zero waste plastic free shopping' labelled on the outside.
We use a mixture of
Stainless steel containers and old takeaway containers to collect our meat and seafood. We purchased the stainless steel containers
here. Our butcher and fish monger know the drill when we visit them.
If we buy
dips or
cheese I take old take away containers. Some of them are getting to the end of their life and will be recycled. We are looking for replacements and think
we will use these. Right now I hope they do not break as the counter staff at our local deli still has a hard time grasping the concept of bringing our own container and we are using their old containers...so giving them something like steel containers might cause trouble. Oh well, won’t be the first time.
I will note that due to the Builders food sensitivities, eggs, gluten and dairy, we rarely buy these items. I buy
bread occasionally for myself. Again I take my own cloth bag. If it happens a recipe calls for
eggs then I will recycle the cartons in the garden when I need to sprout some seedlings. And as for milk I rarely need a recipe that calls for more than two cups so I just buy the smallest
milk box at the deli and recycle.
I drink
tea (herbal) and the builder drinks
coffee (long black). We can get all of these from our bulk food stores. I prefer not to use tea bags instead I use reusable cloth tea bags or a tea infuser.
The builder and I no longer shop at any of the larger supermarkets instead opting to use local fruit and veg’s stores, butchers, bakers, delis, cheese stores, continental grocers, and bulk stores. Supporting small business and Australian farmers has been a great bonus that we love doing.
Kitchen
I store all items in
glass jars that I have collected over the last year. I choose not to shop with glass jars unless it is liquid. It would be too heavy to carry home. Once I am home i transfer it all to glass containers.
Food is stored in the fridge in either
glass jars or on a
plate/in a bowl covered with a tea towel. No more plastic wrap or plastic baggies in our freezer or fridge.
I do have three plastic bowls and plastic utensils that I use for baking. I hope to swap these to
wooden or
metal instruments but this depends on what we find at the thrift store. It took me a year to find a second hand wooden rolling pin! Before that I was using an old wine bottle.
We moved the microwave out of the kitchen and into the laundry. We have not microwaved our food instead choosing to heat it up on the stove top. Our housemate is the only one who uses it. The builder and I don’t miss it. We are trying to keep our appliance use down to a minimum.
We
compost all of our food scraps too.
Currently we fill up our 5 litre bin each fortnight. We do have two housemates that don't not follow our lifestyle.
I am noticing we are recycling more. This is good but also bad. Good because valuable materials like paper are being diverted from landfill but bad because recycling is not really the solution. It takes fuel guzzling trucks to pick up my recycling and energy to recycle. I'm beginning to realise this is not the solution.
Admittedly some of the recycling is from old plastic I have used up and am unable to reuse or has become worn out. But there is more glass and paper. The Builder told me they use glass in construction so really all that glass is not being recycled only buried. My goal next year is to cut down our recycling too.
Cleaning products like dish washing cloths are washed each week to prolong life. I also swapped for scrubbing brushes that will break down in the compost.
Cleaning
While I was getting my education on about weird chemicals in makeup I was also getting a serve of knowledge about chemicals in general. We had a plethora of
cleaning products that we decided had to go. We toiled about this decision for a long time as it was not a sustainable option to chuck out a product that had not been used up. But we figured it would be healthier to clean our house with kinder ingredients and so have stored them away until we can dispose of them correctly through a hazardous chemical disposal pick-up later in the year.
I will admit that we (not proudly) bought new empty plastic spray bottles that are reserved for home made and bulk bought green cleaning products. Currently we make our own window cleaner and will progressively move onto making all our own cleaning products.
Let me say why we bought new bottles. The old bottles were full of harsh chemicals. You know the kind that warrant a toxic if swallowed label. Heck they need to be disposed of through a hazardous disposal system!! We just didn't deem it ok to mix any leftover residue with
natural cleaners. We also had no other alternatives in the house spray wise so unfortunately new was our option here.
I researched glass bottles but worried about them breaking. Since going plastic free and switching my life to glass there have been a couple of breaks which happens when a majority of the floors in the house are concrete and this ginger is a bit of a klutz.
After we bought the bottles we realised we could use old wine bottles to house our cleaning products and make kitted holders for them so if they broke the glass would be contained. Hindsight is great.
Clothing
We don’t really shop anymore and when we do we will find great buys at our local
thrift stores. But having said that I have bought one clothing item that is new and it was a beanie for the Builder that was Australian sourced, designed and made in Australia.
We are not adverse to buying new clothing but is has to come from either
Australian designed and made companies or if from abroad, a
sustainable company that are not exploiting their workers or the environment. Plus we have way more fun in thrift stores and clothing exchanges.
Conclusion
One of the biggest queries I get is how I make the time to buy all my food unpackaged, get organised for my shopping with different bags and containers, make my own makeup, make meals from scratch….
I am not going to lie... It was a challenge at the start and sometimes still is. I did cry once. The Builder and I both learnt a lot. I remind myself that I am changing 29 years of habits.
I have had a tremendous amount of support from family and friends. The biggest support has been from my partner, known on here as the Builder. He has supported me in a big way and made mammoth changes in his own life. Living with someone who suddenly renounces plastic is pretty big (well i think it is) and his patience as I waded through this journey has been unwavering and nothing short of amazing.
So I tell people just that: It takes time, practice and preparedness. But then I tell them it gets easier because it really does.
The best part is that I have a bag full of new skills. These are skills our great grandparents lived every day. My cooking has improved (well, I think it has!). I know what goes into my body as I make nearly everything that I eat. Even if you put me into a health food store I would still prefer something unpackaged! I am also surprised at the money I have saved too and the ease of refusing anything that is not aligned to my beliefs.
To celebrate my plastic free anniversary the Builder and I watched
The Clean Bin Project. This was the movie that sparked a green movement in my life.
I did notice the term zero waste pop up and decided to search the internets for more. Maybe this would get me to a cleaner bin and lighter footprint? Well, did I find inspiration from an exceptional woman named Ree. She has reduced her rubbish of six months to fit in a mason jar. You can
watch her interview with CNN here. I am going to up my plastic free life by trying to go zero waste.
Don't be fooled, this isn't about creating no rubbish because rubbish is made in the manufacturing process. Zero waste to me is an attempt at trying to reduce personal rubbish that does have a positive knock on effect. You need energy and resources to make and throw stuff away after all. It would also help me reduce my recycling and focus more on refusing, reducing and reusing. Ree has a cool blog called
www.fortnegrita.com
I can't find anyone in Australia writing about zero waste but if you are out there send me a message.
Anyway, to the next 365 days.
