SAVE ME from skincare, over-packaged, over-plastic, over-hyped

My name is Emma and I am a plasti-holic.

There, confession done accompanied by the relief that spilling one's guts often affords. But here is the story...

I drink a lot of fizzy pop. I only like the stuff in plastic bottles. I eat a lot of bagged salad; it tends to come in plastic bags. I stuff plastic bags into my rucksack, then go out with only my handbag and need to add yet more plastic bags to the collection under the sink. And finally I am OBSESSED with skincare; possibly the most over-packaged products there are.

I read about the worthy aims of Plastic Free world and my skin crawled with shame. Ulterior motive – I'd love to give up my 20 years or so diet coke habit and wondered if aiming to be plastic-free would make that easier... (Oh, please!)

I am here then at the start of my journey to plastic-less. Beginning with the fizzy rubbish i.e. ditching diet coke. I would also be interested to know more about skincare and toiletries that don't come accompanied by plastic wrapping, cardboard and all of the rest.

Google it and there are concerns about the use of plastic packaging and skincare in terms of chemicals in the plastic leaching into your skin cream. Yeuch. So, official advice is to choose glass packing where possible. Or you could try making your own skincare...

The best products in terms of packaging I can find (and I'd welcome suggestions) come from an American company Organic Essence which boasts biodegradable, home compostable packaging. The company isn't here yet, but it's due to arrive in the UK later this year. You can email them to ask where the products will be stocked.

Another alternative (possibly the easiest one) is to think of skincare, and especially facial skincare, as marketing hype. If you eat lots of fruit and veg, lean protein and wholegrains, drink plenty of water, don't smoke, drink in moderation and exercise, good skin tends to happen anyway.

I don't know if I'm yet ready to abandon my serums, creams, lotions and potions but I'd certainly like to find more environmentally-friendly options...

You Are Not Alone.......

While browsing the web and looking for more plastic-free resources, I came across a site that resonates well with our aim to use less plastic:

http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com/

Besides being cleverly written, the site contains an abundance of information and resources on how to reduce or eliminate plastic from our lives.  It cites places from which you can buy plastic-free products and even has an A-Z plastic-free index.

Three cheers for our friends from Huddersfield!

PS:  I'll try to find the film "Trashed".  If I do, who is up for a video potluck at ours?

Are you up for the plastic-free challenge?

If you're inspired by our plastic-free month challenge, why not give it a go yourself? We can provide you the login codes of this blog site, so you don't need to set one up yourself. We hope that this plastic-free platform keeps getting new bloggers to spread the word and give new insights and tricks for plastic-free living.

Happy to hear from you!

How did we do?

After having lived plastic-free for a month (only three occasions where cheeky plastic popped up out of nowhere!), now it's time to check the balance. How did we do? What were the difficulties and what was easier than thought?

5 weeks of non-recyclable rubbish

So how did we do? Well, I can only speak for myself as my better half spent 10 days abroad... We're still on the same bin bag for 5 weeks now, with 90% of the content consisting of plastic and other non-recyclable waste bought before we started the project. I think we can probably do with one bin bag for an entire year (new challenge?). That depends of course on what we adopt in the future...

It was easier than we thought. Once you know where to buy what, you just embed it in your daily or weekly shopping routine. We did encounter some difficulties with specific products. We had to compromise on surface cleaner. And we didn't buy any ice cream and crisps for a month. Other potential problems were errr... a brush for dishes. The rest is all doable if you're willing to go the extra mile.

What will we keep on doing plastic-free?

- Needless to mention but of course we will keep on refusing any plastic bags
- Buying meat and fish using tupperware boxes when we can
- No more fizzy drinks in PET bottles
- Milk in glass bottles
- Fresh orange juice instead of Tetrapak juice
- Baking cookies instead of buying the plastic covered one
- Refusing and avoiding all pointless plastic wrappings (bread, veggies, fruit etc)
- A bar of soap instead of liquid in a plastic container
- Washing powder in a cardboard box rather than liquid
- Toilet paper in starch wrapping (ecoleaf)

What will be a plastic-free compromise in the future?

- Toothpaste (toothy tabs are great for camping, but not for daily life...)
- Liquid shampoo
- Coffee beans (we'll buy 1kg packs of our favourite Espresso from the Edinburgh Tea & Coffee Company)

- Supermarket pizza (this one is Jan's- I quite liked our homemade plastic free pizza)
- Crisps

I'm sure it'll take a while before we take out the next bin bag!

Zen and the Art of Plastic-Free Shopping

The first few days we only went to small specialised shops to get our meat, fish and cheese. Our perception was that the big ones wouldn't co-operate. But going all over town for a bit of cheese isn't always practical. So why not give supermarket monster ASDA a go and see what we can get there without compromise.

Armed with a bag full of Tupperware containers we walked passed the Deli counter. We were tempted by a ready-to-eat chicken for £4.40, loose and no wrapping. "Could you just chuck it in this?". First time, no questions, no problem. The second time a younger lad looked weird at us saying: "We never do that!". "Wrong, your colleague gave it to me in my Tupperware last week", exhibit A: (see pic above which we actually had to show him, because he didn't believe it)."So could you please leave any plastic and just put it like it is in the container". Priceless to see his face. But having this said, it never has been a real issue. Morrissons and Tesco put bacon, cheese, sausages and mince meat in your container without hesitation. As long as you don't make it an issue yourself. No explaining, just expect them to do it. It works! And often it's even cheaper than the pre-packed products.

Here's some tips for plastic-free shopping

1. Always carry a Tupperware container with you when going to the shops

2. Be confident about refusing plastic (suggest for example to wrap it in grease paper or normal paper, otherwise they will get confused!)

3. Do your research where to buy what. Almost everything in the big supermarkets is packed in plastic!

4. Sometimes it is good to start a conversation about why you refuse plastic. Many people simply don't think about it. It might influence them positively!

5. And if you can, go to the shops by bike. It'll keep you really fit!

"Rubbish dumped at sea costs Scotland £17m a year"

And this is exactly why we do this!

Rubbish dumped at Scottish seas...

And become fan of this organisation on Facebook to keep you up to date!

http://www.facebook.com/PlasticPollution

So How Did We Do?

Our plastic challenge month has come to a close.  While not able to eliminate completely all plastic from our lives, Team Sandport still had a good result.  Check it out:

And not all plastic!

The photo you see above is two full weeks of packaging - metal, paper and plastic.  We used to empty this bin every few days because it was so full, mostly comprised of plastic fizzy water bottles.  (Good job, too, since the council has not emptied our bin store - rubbish and recycling for over a month!)

Meanwhile, purchased a long time ago and placed in a box room far, far away.........

In event of Armageddon, please break seal.

And now what?  Will we continue the 1.5 hour journey across town for that one commodity wrapped in paper?  Will we forgo Head and Shoulders shampoo even though Lush doesn't make a non-liquid alternative (not an issue for Jim, clearly)?  No, we've learned what is practical and which plastic reduction measures we can incorporate into our lives easily.  If these have resulted in significantly less plastic passing through this household, then we've achieved our goal.

See all of you at the bar.  The first round is on us.  In glass.

Plastic RealFoods

Before we started this challenge a month ago, I had the presence of mind to contact some of our so-called organic, crunchy granola, eco-aware, I-haven't-shaved-my-armpits-in-a-year Edinburgh-based grocers, i.e., Earthy and Realfoods.  Earthy's website did not provide an e-mail address so I stopped by the Cannonmills branch to have a word with them.  Plastic seemed everywhere but at least some packaging was paper and the staff were sympathetic to our cause.

However, RealFoods DID have an e-mail address.  So on 23 August, I sent them this e-mail:

Good afternoon,

Friends and I are embarking on a plastic-free month.  We intend to buy food, drink and other products that contain no plastic nor come in plastic packaging.  My role in this initiative is to research and source products and the shops that might carry such goods.  We are particularly interested in the following:

Household cleaning products such as dishwasher detergent, fabric softener, bathroom cleaner, etc.

Personal grooming products such as toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.

Dairy products such as yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.

Do you stock these products in non-plastic containers?

Many thanks.

Realfoods finally answered me......but not until 22 September.  Their response?  I give you Exhibit B:

Hi Laurie,

Apologies for the delay in responding to your mail.

I believe a lot of our packaging for the products you mention are in plastic, and at this stage your month has probably passed. Let me know if there is anything else i can help you with.

Regards,

jean - Realfoods

That's what I call solidarity with the environment!  And if you have ever been to Realfoods, you know that they package even amounts as miniscule as 15 grams of edible nasturtiums in non-biodegradable plastic.  So that's alright then!

Ice cream is ok!

It's taken us a whole month to realise that our local coop has an own brand ice cream which is- you guessed it- PLASTIC -FREE!! Well (mostly plastic-free, apart from the film round the top which is so small I'm choosing to ignore it).

I can't believe we only noticed this today, which is officially Jan's last plastic free day. A month without ice cream has been one of the toughest things (!)...

Ice cream is ok! Let the plastic-free living continue!

Newhaven Fest 23 September

It is so easy!

If you know where to buy your plastic-free stuff and you compromise on your cravings a wee bit it is actually quite simple to do. Even in the big supermarkets just ask them to put it in your tupperware (like cheese and meat). They'll be happy to do this (and some even praise you!). Look at today's shopping.

6 rashers of bacon and 3 sausages: Crombies - £4.21 - no waste
Refill 250 grams espresso coffee beans (they grind it for you if you want): Real Foods - £4.87 - no waste
Greens, bagel and cheese: Morrissons - Cheese from the Deli counter is much cheaper than the pre-packed stuff £6 per kg - no waste
Black Isle Beer: £1.50 (on deal at Tesco!) - glass bottle and metal lid

We emptied our bin bag when we started the plastic-free month (18 days ago) and that very same bag is only 1/3 filled with stuff we bought before this month. The rest is recyclable waste. Feelin' good about it!!

THE PERILS OF POOR PLANNING

A clearly knackered Farmer G trudges up a big hill during an enormous day-long hike -  fuelled by the only plastic-free food he could find - two apples - and no fluids.  Ending up, unsuprisingly, with a huge dehydration headache and mammoth hunger pangs. Thankfully, Sheona had the foresight to bring a metal water bottle and steal lots of leftover breakfast from the hostel, so at least she was OK.  I suppose I could have bought some water and taken a fine, but self-fining is the moral equivalent of a 12th century knight pre-buying repentance for his impending war crimes - the poor can't afford to buy themselves environmental smugness!

Calzone

So happy that the calzone came in a paper bag!! Got away there!

Laundry of shame

As predicted, travelling and staying plastic free Is a little difficult. Having found out that I get my washing done free of charge because apparently I'm a VIP guest at the quite fancy hotel I'm staying in in Tunis (ha ha...no idea why, but don't question it!)... I foolishly sent my laundry off...

And this is what I found in my room on return.... Argh!! Plastic overload!!

Soda Stream

Disclaimer:  This product is approximately 90% plastic.  I mean, have you tried to buy an appliance made entirely from metal recently?  They still exist but cost something around £695 and your first-born child.

In any event, Jim - being the gadget geekster that he is - could barely contain his enthusiasm for this little bit of plastic-reduction love.  And it eliminates the need ever again to purchase bottles, plastic or glass, of the divine fizz.

Yep, that's a plastic radio/IPod charger next to the plastic Soda Stream.  So shoot us.

This is where things get exciting:

Vroom, vroom!

The kit comes with three (plastic) bottles in which to store the final product.

The kitchen scale is Italian and NOT plastic.  Those people really know how to do it.

At least those plastic bottles are not headed for the landfill.  And that's the point, is it not?

You could hold us to a £1 fine for buying new plastic but I will lobby hard and long for the point of this purchase.  Contemplate that as you haul a week's worth of glass bottles down four flights of stairs to the recycling bin.

LIST OF SHAME

FARMER FURIOUS AT UNEXPECTED & NEEDLESS PLASTIC PACKAGING

.... and to make matters worse, the blogosphere is now humiliatingly aware that I bought an Alexander McCall Smith book off ebay.

So far, living without buying new plastic has given us some problems, but most have been surmountable by careful planning or simply gritting one's teeth and not buying some stuff we like for a month.

However - despite buyng Lush's ludicrous toothytabs, instigating an all-Greggs breakfast regime, sacrificing the glories of the Nak'd bar and sporting broken shin guards all month (if I break  my shin in September, I'm suing Carrie) - several unexpected pieces of plastic have slipped through the net!

So, one week in, here is the full, unedited List of Shame....

• Two poor-quality books from ebay, needlessly shrink-wrapped.  (Top tip for future eBay purchases is to email the seller in advance.) 
• Similarly pointelss small piece of plastic on top of my Greggs cream doughnut.  I blame Mark Henderson, who convinced me that Greggs was a safe bet.
• Mr Shapla!  You may be the best Indian takeaway in Edinburgh, but we reckoned without the small tub of yoghurt for the pakora and that wee bag of salad people throw straight in the bin anyway.
• One disastrously unplanned scone-buying episode.
• And what is going on with the Demijohn glass bottle of spicy rum liqueur?  It's already got a cork in it - why add the little slither of plastic?  Aaaarrghhh.  Nice rum, though.

However, as Ghandi said* - "there is nothing so sad as a man who does nothing becasue he cannot do it all" ...... overall we are vaguely satisfied with our team's performance, are learning from our occassional slip-ups and looking forward to our first post-challenge bag of Monster Munch.

*maybe

:)

Hurrah!

Plastic-Free Jocktoberfest - The Other Side of the Story

Alas, Jocktoberfest was only plastic-free for beer consumers.  For those of us who eschew the grain in favour of the grape, it was an entirely different matter.  Witness the following:

Who invited YOU?

Not that I didn't try.  When requested to refill my plastic cup upon re-order, the staff at Black Isle - the same good people who said absolutely no glass allowed on their certified organic, crunchy granola, Mother Earth farm - poured my preferred elixir into......another plastic cup.

Caught in the act

Given the amount of wine I imbibed over the two days of the festival, I will probably be buying the first three rounds of drinks at the end of September.

Plastic Free Jocktoberfest @ Black Isle

Every festival I've been to in the past was bound to be a plastic waste disaster. We planned a pilgrimage to beer / music festival Jocktoberfest organised by the Black Isle Brewery. They lived up to their motto "Save the planet, drink organic" by serving beer in glasses made of plant starch (which is compostable). Thanks Black Isle!

Inflight and plastic free? No chance!!

I've only been travelling for about 3 hours, and my attempts to stay plastic- free equal a big fat FAIL.

Too hungry to refuse the plastic triple-wrapped pasta salad, with separate plastic wrapped bread sticks, and a plastic fork which had its very own plastic wrapping (thank goodness it didn't touch the bread sticks), all enclosed inside the pasta salad plastic wrapped box- I had no choice but to compensate with a glass bottle of beer!

It's not looking good for a plastic free week overseas!

I will survive!!

When I started the No Plastic Challenge I had a few worries. The biggest one was cookies. Unless you're willing to pay £1.60 for a cookie at Starbucks and the likes there is no way you can buy cookies plastic free. In fact, it is often triple wrapped in shiny and shouting packaging.

And to be fair, often the cookies themselves are a bit rubbish. Lot's of sugar, low quality ingredients.

So Carrie came up with the idea of making cookies ourselves. I  never thought it would be so easy (ok, the first batch was made by Carrie, but she urged it is dead easy).

Now there are three rolls of cookie dough in the freezer. Every time I crave cookies I can chuck a slice of oatmeal/cranberry or chocolate/walnut in the oven and 15 minutes later voila, freshly baked cookies! And that just makes me extremely happy.

And I did a great discovery at the Real Foods store today. Crunchy peanut butter in glass jar with metal lid (big jar £3.85). There is a God! Ask Carrie how much peanut butter I can eat. I never get sick of it. So I think I will survive the month...

Juice for Carrie!

Packaging plays with your mind!  Has anyone noticed how oranges in those net bag things are more expensive than if you buy individual oranges?  So very strange.  30p for individual oranges, but up to 55 pence if in a package.  Surely thats an argument for going packaging free?!




We noticed this the other day as we were shopping for oranges for home -made juice in the mornings.   We have one of those electric squeezer things so its really quick to do - and tastes so much nicer than store bought juices.   If you are not already doing this, I'd definitely recommend it - its a very happy way to start the day!





Likewise, if anyone is missing buying cordial or squash in plastic bottles, here is my latest discovery from the Leon cookbook - home made lemonade!

170g fructose (or a third more sugar if you want to use that, it's less sweet)
165ml water
250 ml of lemon or lime juice

Shove the fructose or sugar in a pan with the water, and heat until it dissolves.  leave to cool.  In the meantime squeeze the lemons / limes.  When the sugar solution is cool, add the lemon / lime juice.  Put into a bottle (glass of course!) and keep in fridge.  Use like a cordial.   Its delicious and takes about 5 mins to make.

You can get some cordials / squashes in glass bottles but they are pretty expensive!  I'm trying to find cheaper alternatives...   I make this every time I see there are lemons or limes on deal at the local veg shop (strangely, quite often - I got a bag of 12 limes for 49 pence yesterday) - so it works out pretty cheap.

Anyone else have other good juice or squash ideas?

OR - even better - recipes for plastic-free cocktails?  Apparently Mark created a ginger ale, elderflower cordial, fresh lime and spiced rum cocktail last night...so good he had three.   perhaps we should have a mid-month cocktail challenge... anyone up for it?

Is this plastic? Argh... that's a fine for me!

What do you think?

 I think it might be aluminium foil, with paper on the inside - and laminated outside.  Drat!  That's a pound fine for me then - this is the only butter not in a plastic box in my local store, and I was halfway through cooking when I realised I needed more.  no chance to jump on my bike to the bigger supermarket where they have wax paper wrapped butter.

So - Jan is on £2 for fines (he bought some cheese from LJ Mellis and it came in a plastic wrap, and  a 4 pack of Grolsch which he then realised had plastic round the top... this is tough!!).  I'm also on £2 for above mentioned butter.  Doh.

Drinks at the end of the month should be good!!    How is everyone else doing?!

Lush

Following Paul's post about toothy tabs and shampoo soap yesterday, I paid a visit to our friends at Lush.  I explained our plastic-free challenge to the salesperson and asked what products around the shop would qualify.  Her answer?  All of them.  She said that we could even buy liquid products in our own containers if desired.  Will they actually allow this?  For those who are in the market for the fruity delight of Lush shower gels, do let us know.

Ladies and Gentlemen - I give you...

PLASTIC-FREE PASTA!!

I am so excited I can hardly sit still.  Barilla pasta (blue cardboard box) does all sorts of pastas, completely plastic-free.  And with spaghetti at £1.39 it's not completely unaffordable.

I found it at Peckhams in Newington - along with affordable cheddar cheese (£1.05 per 100g), wrapped in paper.  Yes!

Now all I need to find are dried fruit and nuts with no plastic.  Can anyone help out there?  

I am now the proud owner of lush toothy tabs. They foam really well and come in various different flavours. I chose dirty which contains spearmint but have since been told that Ultrablast is very good as it contains wasabi, which is a very good anti bacterial! Not sure if I want to test that one out!

The Dirty toothy Tab!

I also bought a shampoo bar. only one bar of shampoo is the equivalent of using four 500g plastics containers of shampoo!

AND for the follically challenged among us out there (you know who you are!) the clove shampoo bar that I bought is supposed to help stimulate the scalp and hair follicles and would that not mean then in some case perhaps  to help re-generate hair! Well watch this space .....

I'm loving it. Never had such smooth hair!

Something Fishy

People, do you know how hard it is to buy fish without plastic wrapping?  Even when you have a happily compliant fishmonger, such as the good people at G. Armstrong in Stockbridge?  Some fish don't mind a bit of paper - witness Exhibit No. 1, hot smoked salmon:







  Plays well with others

Things fall apart - literally - when using normal paper to wrap smoked salmon.  However, your intrepid author was determined to obtain said morning staple plastic-free (other than the used Tesco bag in which to carry the finished product).  The result is smoked salmon with an unexpected second skin:

Oh dear, oh dear.......

Nothing that a little rinse under the faucet won't remedy.