A load of wrap
Jul. 2nd, 2014 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4Day 2 of plastic-free July involved a trip to the Co-op to buy potatoes for dinner and anything else from the shopping list that I could find in the 3 minutes or so before Img got tired/bored. This was never going to go well, because the Co-op (despite its supposed commitment to the environment) wraps pretty much everything in plastic, to the extent that I'm always slightly surprised to find myself not plastic-covered when I leave. So here's my shop:
Yes, literally everything I bought is plastic-wrapped. :-( But hey, I only said I was going to try this, not succeed.
Yoghurt and cream are, as far as I can tell, basically impossible to buy plastic-free. I bought the biggest pot I could get, i.e. the best yoghurt-to-plastic ratio. (Img particularly asked for the little Peppa Pig yoghurts.)
Potatoes: now this one was annoying. I specifically wanted big potatoes for doing jacket potatoes, and normally I don't need a plastic bag for those: I only buy 3 at a time (one for each of us), they're not squishy or wet or falling-apart-ish, there doesn't seem any reason to pack them. The Co-op had some loose potatoes, but these were the only baking potatoes in the shop. I could have just bought something different, but I was relying on getting these for dinner! (Although in fact in the end we had the quiche which I'd forgotten we still had in, and that came in a cardboard box, so the potatoes were not only unnecessary plastic but the cause of an unnecessary shopping trip. FAIL.)
The fish cakes were super-cheap (67p!) because they're nearly at their best-before date (I'll stash them in the freezer). I buy a lot of stuff that's nearly at the end of its shelf life because a) it's cheap, and b) I feel as though I'm saving it from getting thrown away. This is probably a bit irrational. (The strawberries were also reduced.)
Naan bread always comes plastic-wrapped. Even in our local shop which sells about 20 different varieties of naan, they're all wrapped in plastic so they last longer.
Now for the things I didn't buy. I had a long list of fruit and veg to buy but just couldn't bear to buy it all plastic-wrapped since I didn't need it right then; I'll try to go to the market tomorrow on the way home from work or at lunchtime. I was going to buy some bread but the Co-op only sells plastic-wrapped bread (and most of it is a bit plastic-tasting too, to be honest) so again I decided to wait. They didn't have any Coke in cardboard boxes, or any Shloer (glass bottles and bonus 80s nostalgia!), or in fact any non-alcoholic drinks I could see anywhere in the shop that weren't in plastic bottles or tetrapaks (apart from a few individual cans).
So what are the answers?
I guess nobody said it was going to be easy...
Yes, literally everything I bought is plastic-wrapped. :-( But hey, I only said I was going to try this, not succeed.
Yoghurt and cream are, as far as I can tell, basically impossible to buy plastic-free. I bought the biggest pot I could get, i.e. the best yoghurt-to-plastic ratio. (Img particularly asked for the little Peppa Pig yoghurts.)
Potatoes: now this one was annoying. I specifically wanted big potatoes for doing jacket potatoes, and normally I don't need a plastic bag for those: I only buy 3 at a time (one for each of us), they're not squishy or wet or falling-apart-ish, there doesn't seem any reason to pack them. The Co-op had some loose potatoes, but these were the only baking potatoes in the shop. I could have just bought something different, but I was relying on getting these for dinner! (Although in fact in the end we had the quiche which I'd forgotten we still had in, and that came in a cardboard box, so the potatoes were not only unnecessary plastic but the cause of an unnecessary shopping trip. FAIL.)
The fish cakes were super-cheap (67p!) because they're nearly at their best-before date (I'll stash them in the freezer). I buy a lot of stuff that's nearly at the end of its shelf life because a) it's cheap, and b) I feel as though I'm saving it from getting thrown away. This is probably a bit irrational. (The strawberries were also reduced.)
Naan bread always comes plastic-wrapped. Even in our local shop which sells about 20 different varieties of naan, they're all wrapped in plastic so they last longer.
Now for the things I didn't buy. I had a long list of fruit and veg to buy but just couldn't bear to buy it all plastic-wrapped since I didn't need it right then; I'll try to go to the market tomorrow on the way home from work or at lunchtime. I was going to buy some bread but the Co-op only sells plastic-wrapped bread (and most of it is a bit plastic-tasting too, to be honest) so again I decided to wait. They didn't have any Coke in cardboard boxes, or any Shloer (glass bottles and bonus 80s nostalgia!), or in fact any non-alcoholic drinks I could see anywhere in the shop that weren't in plastic bottles or tetrapaks (apart from a few individual cans).
So what are the answers?
- don't buy any dairy products
- don't buy naan bread
- be more organised about planning meals
- don't give in to pestering (and/or don't take Img to the shops)
I guess nobody said it was going to be easy...
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no subject
Date: 2014-07-03 09:20 pm (UTC)I'm starting to think I'm in the best possible place in the entire country to undertake this challenge. Fruit and veg shops (there's one within 5 minutes' walk that's open until 3am), local bakery that'll sell me sliced bread in my own cloth bag, local butcher that'll sell me meat in my own compostable bag, Weigh & Save shop for nuts/dried fruit/rice/couscous/etc, Lush shop for solid shampoo and deodorant etc (and all of these open on weekends too). There's even apparently a shop at London Bridge (I can get there in 30 minutes door to door if I time it right) that sells wine in reusable 1-litre bottles.
But it's still really hard. Kate got it absolutely right when she said this is a structural problem, not an individual one.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-03 09:42 pm (UTC)And yes, your local shops sound brilliant! Especially Weigh & Save, we could do with one of them (SESI is OK but it's not exactly convenient).
I agree it's not an individual problem, and to be honest I'm not sure how much use it is as an individual exercise for me (I mean, I already agonise about this stuff more than is healthy) but I'm hoping to contribute to more general awareness-raising. Hopefully without making myself more depressed in the process...
no subject
Date: 2014-07-04 08:03 am (UTC)General awareness-raising is one of the things I'm hoping for too. Apparently I got a mention in one of the local papers last week! I didn't find this out in time to buy a copy, though (I'll have a look at the library copy next time I'm there).