midway

One word that ties together two parallel subjects, ‘Midway’ is the title of a Chris Jordan film about the devastating effects that plastic pollution is having on albatrosses nesting in the Midway Atoll of the North Pacific ocean. And here I am at the midway point of my plastic free month.

I saw the trailer for this film late last year, utterly devastating and a well past due wake up call. Here in Australia I’ve been reading up on our own similar situations. One example is the remote and pristine paradise of Lord Howe Island, a distressing case study for marine plastic pollution and its devastating effects on bird life – namely shearwaters. Learning about both of these situations within a short period, as well as the alarming microplastics statistics from recent surveys, was the jump-start that put me onto a path to concerted plastic reduction.

In that light, taking up the challenge of Plastic Free July seemed like a good first step. It’s been a fortnight of success and failures (I’ve been doing relatively well at not *intentionally* buying plastic, but it sure finds its way in).
A few lessons;

• Preparation is KEY. Doing anything out of the ordinary, or being pressed for time, means plastic can quickly jump in through the convenience door.
• Sneaky plastic is sneaky. Notable unexpected plastics fails so far this month include a metal shoe rack that had Every Single Component  wrapped in a bag. I have no idea why this would be necessary. But it blew out my plastic free footprint bigtime. Grrr.
• Making replacements for all your favourite treats demands a constant time commitment. It’s either that or go without.

I figure almost everyone who tries this lifestyle change will encounter their ‘List’, of either essentials or non essential favourites, that they can’t or don’t want to give up. I currently can’t source the following (at any of my local stores) without some proportion of plastic: contact lenses, face moisturiser, pasta, sunscreen, toothpaste, dry dogfood, frozen berries, pine nuts, maple syrup, loose leaf tea, several spices, salt crystals, specialty sauces, oils *
* some of these items are available online/from overseas stores. Again, you need to be organised/prepared

A few success stories;
– Taking a giant tupperware tub into the local fish store, zero packaged fish! (they were quite amused)
– Making my own veg stock supply from scratch and bottling it
– Making kefir as a yoghurt replacement
– Keeping and refilling my old dishwashing liquid bottle at the local organic food store
– Attending a (serendipitously timed) whole foods workshop that gave me lots of ideas for recipes I could make from packaged-free produce

This is my plastic footprint for the first 2 weeks (will try and do better next fortnight)
Purchased:
– 7 (!!) unexpected plastic bags from a self-assembly shoe rack
– A bottle of mozzie repelling essential oils (for camping, not pictured here). I will reuse the bottle.
– A bag of popping corn (for camping – admittedly not essential but…camping snacks!)
– Two glass pots of face cream (with plastic lids, not pictured here). I couldn’t find any zero plastic brands. However, this brand is otherwise very earth friendly and the pots can be reused.
– Contact lens pouches (I don’t wear them often, but I do sometimes need them)
– An unexpected bag in a box of pasta (I thought it was loose packed with only a plastic window)
– Wrapping from a subscription magazine
– A plastic plate from a post beach clean up day community event (hmmmm)

Plastic waste collected but not bought during July:
– Moisturiser (replaced with a brand in a metal tin). Will be reusing the container
– Sanitary product wrapping
– Face cream (now replaced with a lower-plastic version)
– Loose leaf tea packaging (still looking for a plastic-free brand)
– A cotton thread spool (very old, will try and only get cardboard ones from now on)
– Buckwheat flour packaging (local organic store now has it in bulk)
– The plastic from a large bag of dry dog biscuits (I separated it out – top left of image –  the brand I buy is 3 parts paper to 1 part thin inner plastic lining)
– Assorted creams (gifts and freebies)

Will post my final update in a couple of weeks.