The Platform

Tuesday 28th February 2017

Preparing for a plastic free month - by Donna, The BB Founder

Hello all,

As some of you will have seen in the new action NEXT LEVEL – Life Less Plastic, I am going plastic free for 30 days by removing eight of the most significant plastic sources in our daily lives.  With plastic being found on uninhabited island shores, and in the stomachs and noses of our aquatic co-inhabitants of this world, it's time to stop with our over reliance on this product.  One that comes from peak oil, drilled from our oceans and lands. 

I believe I already do quite a bit to reduce my impact but I don't avoid plastic completely.  In fact since deciding to do this challenge, I am beginning to see that in fact I use a lot of plastic. 

So I’m starting this 30 day challenge tomorrow – 1^st March.  I know I'm going to have to be creative or go without in some cases. So this week I’ve been planning how to get by without the usual conveniences I try to avoid but generally end up using anyway.  For me, cutlery and fruit and veg plastic boxes are the worst culprits because I’ve been trying to avoid cups for a while.  In fact, I’ve probably saved myself a few pounds because since January if I haven’t had my keep cup I’ve stopped buying coffee in takeaway cups – that was one fast way of adopting the habit of taking my cup, as I went without coffee if I didn’t have it!

As plastic cutlery is one of the eight plastics I am giving up, and to avoid eating with my hands I headed to Cotswold Outdoors to seek out a Spork – a fork come spoon, which incidentally now has a knife edge included too.  I rarely eat on the go but if I do, I always use plastic cutlery so it was important I find something I could keep in my bag.  This one has a case. The idea being that I can pop it in my bag even when dirty and give it a wash when home.

Also in my bag of tools is my Keep Cup.  I rave about Keep Cup a lot, I met the team there right at the beginning and they are so passionate about changing the way we view disposable cups it's quite infectious.  Throwaway cups really are so wasteful.   I designed my Keep Cup online, where you can pick the colours, it keeps your drink hot for longer and it doesn’t burn your hands if you try to forgo a cup sleeve so for me it's a win win. 

I’ve just ordered myself a replacement Wrap-a-mat.  I love these things.  You open them up and have a little picnic style mat to eat off.   If you tend to make sandwiches and don’t want to use a Tupperware box, I find these things really useful.  I use Tupperware boxes at home to avoid clingfilm use, I always stick to ones that are PBA or EA free, as although research is relatively new, it is showing that these estrogenic activity chemicals can mess with your hormones.

To avoid bottled water I’ve got a mini stainless steel bottle for my handback and a larger one for when travelling with backpack.

I already switched from microbeads a few years back and use Liz Earle organic cotton cleansing cloths for daily use, and make up an olive oil and brown sugar scrub for my face if I feel like it, and a coffee, sea salt and olive oil for my body (do not try that on your face – way too harsh!).   I have been known to steal the used coffee grounds from the Aquis House machine for my coffee ground needs.  So you could do the same too, or Starbucks and I think Costa also bag them up and give out for free.  I’ll make a note to check that out and get back to you in the next blog.

I need to seek out some options for cotton buds that are not plastic so I’ll update in my next blog.  For now, I’ll be cotton bud free.

The toughest for me is going to be avoiding plastic in the fruit and veg boxes.   In part this will be dealt with by me being much more rigid about eating in season, but it will also mean I need to go to the fruit and veg man in the market, or to my local farm shop so I can pick and chose my fruit an veg pot/bag free.  

I am quite looking forward to the challenge.  I had a trial run yesterday on a trip to Wrekin, Telford.  We were filming there for new Hammerson sustainability films and I had my stainless steel water bottle, my keep cup (well actually I stole my Fiance's so the design is bit different to my own) and my spork out.  We laughed at how times have changed, and that I was perhaps now much less of a ‘weirdo’ than my behaviour may have deemed me to be a few years back. I'm sure I'll get a few looks, but I've found with my Keep Cup that most are interested and not derogatory.  

Join me in the challenge and share how you get on via tbb@coriandercows.co.uk.  I can’t wait to hear how you find it.  Best of luck going plastic free. 

From Donna

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