The Big Plastic Count

I've submitted my Total - a rather scary 50 items, most of which were food wrappers. Maybe I should eat less chocolate?

Just pondering what a plastic free diet would be like? Probably exactly like it was when I was growing up when nothing was ready wrapped in plastic.

By chance, this just fell in my Inbox https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/feat...-life-past
Interesting read.

Not added mine up yet. I’ll do it and submit it tomorrow.
I’ll have a read of that link while I’m waiting for the laundry to finish at work tomorrow.

I've not tallied mine up but I fear I'm going to be royally embarrassed at the amount of plastic, what with plastic milk bottles, yoghurt drink bottles, each day and the yogurt pots and yellow sticker meals, it all mounts up. Plus chocolate

I've been trying to remember how food was wrapped in pre-plastic days compared to today. Chocolate was wrapped in silver paper in a paper sleeve - now its plastic. Cheese was greaseproof paper - not plastic/clingwrap. Meat & fish didn't sit on plastic trays, Biscuits were in paper bags.
Liquid soap/washing up liquid didn't exist - it was all bars of soap or powder in a cardboard box. Don't remember shampoo either but having my hair washed with a bar of soap. Toothpaste was a block in a tin.
Everything came in jars, bottles, tins or paper - all recyclable though we didn't think of it that way.

I’ve just counted and submitted my results. 70 items of plastic. And I’m 95% plastic free in the bathroom. It’s amazing how quickly it mounts up! Especially as you have to count top/lids and the bottles/ pots/ trays separately. I thought that was odd when I first read it. But they are separate bits of plastic. When my foot print came back. I was very shocked at how little is actually recycled. What are we doing to this planet!

My biggest downfall was soft plastic (freezer bags). Because we buy a lot of our meat in bulk ( whole deer for example) we bag and freeze in portions.
Think I’m going to have to look into plastic reusable boxes for the freezer. Must get the correct shape though. I tried that for freezing all my chillies. I brought the 5lt big square tubs. Turns out the sides aren’t straight! They’re very slightly narrower at bottom. Like a flower pot. Which left quite big gaps in the freezer. When I went back to bags. I could fit an extra 20kg of chillies in the freezer! What do you do waste energy keeping empty space cold in your freezer or use plastic bags. I think the answer is get the right size boxes! I’ve got a couple of the reusable ziplock but without the zip ( if that makes sense!?! ) . The closure thingy is so good on them . With my early onset of arthritis in the hands, I physically can’t open the flipping things!
I’m trying, I’m just failing at the first hurdle.

I knew I'd be disappointed at myself, 97 pieces mostly food and drink. Three bottles and associated lids every day didnt help. I think the public is fed BS by our local councils regarding recycling plastic. It's difficult to drill down to what actually happens around here. In my view incineration is not recycling but it seems to be included in the catchall phrase of recycle. If nothing else its made me more aware of what plastic I chuck away.

Don't know whether you've come across Terracycle anywhere https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades
Typically, they're a link between a manufacturer (who produces hard-to-recycle products) and the consumer.
The manufacturer signs up to these schemes to absolve their conscience for having produced so much plastic in the first place (that's my sceptical view).

Yes we have a terracycle here but they are very selective on what they'll take and a 15-20 mile round trip to deliver the few bits seems to negate the environmental benefit.

I knew I'd be disappointed at myself,  97 pieces mostly food and drink. Three bottles and associated lids every day didnt help. I think the public is fed BS by our local  councils regarding recycling plastic.  It's difficult to drill down to what actually happens around here. In my view incineration is not recycling but it seems to be included in the catchall phrase of recycle.  If nothing else its made me more aware of what plastic I chuck away.

Your right Jen, incineration is not recycling, it's recovery. The calorific value is recovered but the resulting ash still goes to landfill.

HCC boast a 90% household recycling rate but thats only 90% of the very small % of recyclables they collect.

This has just been posted on FB by a local person who set up a Zero waste shop in the village a year ago.
"What’s happened in a year?
I’m gonna start with the main reason we opened the shop, to reduce single use plastic.
? 2,537 cleaning refills ?
In a year, just on cleaning products, you have refilled 2,537 containers. That’s JUST cleaning products. No toiletries, no hand soap, no oat milk, no oils, vinegars, no food, just cleaning! I think that’s pretty amazing ?. In our little shop, you guys have saved 2,537 bottles being sent to landfill ?. And don’t forget all our cleaning products are on a closed loop system, which means the containers are taken back to the supplier, washed and reused. ?"

They also set up the Repair Cafe. Lovely people.