"Just one little bit of packaging won't hurt!"
If we all said that, then there would be 20 million pieces of plastic in landfill every time we said it!
I am despairing of some people. How hard is it to swish a bit of water in your plastic disposable food container and then shake it dry and put it into the recycling box. If the bin is THERE and the recycling bin AND sink are about 10 cm away, what difference does it make to you? I am frankly sick of educated adults not being bothered at work to recycle when we have actually put something there for you to recycle into. It really annoys me that I have a long journey of 1.5 hours, I get two trains and walk 2 spells of 0.5 miles and then 0.9 miles on my way home and I will take all my packaging that can be recycled home. Why can't other people? It's making me increasingly grumpy at work as it did today when I saw a bin full of plastic containers. One colleague buys herself these two boiled eggs in a plastic pot with spinach every day for her breakfast and drops the container into the bin. I offered to take and recycle her containers the other day and told her to just give them to me to recycle hoping this might shame her into doing it herself. No, they were back in the bin today.
I have been fishing out plastic containers out of the bin every day these past few weeks at work and washing them out like the original owner should have done. Yes, it might make me look a bit mad, but I am going to do it and I am not going to do it subtly. One of my colleagues saw me washing some containers out and then putting them in my bag and said, "You are so good!" and I am afraid I said, "I'm not good, it's just that other people can't be bothered.". I do think that. I shouldn't be classified as 'good' for doing that- it should be normal to do that. Change doesn't happen without ruffling weathers and I think this is an important enough issue to do that for.
Here are some things I am trying to do or I would like to do and am doing to try and do my bit. Hazel also wrote a great post about this and Susie is the queen of the Green!
- Taking my insulated cup and steel waterbottle everywhere.
- Using a collapsible sillicone container to get take-away in on my way to rehearsals when I am not able to cook.
- Carrying home anything that can be recycled including compostables.
- Refusing plastic packaging where possible.
- Only buying recycled paper toilet tissue (have done this as long as I have been buying toilet roll).
- Only using Eco-friendly washing powder, washing-up liquid and fabric softener (have done this for 10 years)
- Refusing disposables such as plastic spoons and forks, straws, carrying round my own in my bag. I also have a stainless steel straw.
- Buying the cotton buds made of cardboard.
- Using cotton handkerchiefs.
- Not using clingfilm but rather using my lovely waxed fabric sandwich wraps lovingly made by the wonderful Ang! She has many wonderful ideas for recycling and reusing.
- Tried using a bamboo toothbrush. I admit, I didn't enjoy my first foray into this as the one I used chafed the side of my mouth. Might try again though. You can get these on eBay.
- Returning the hangers to the Drycleaners from CBC's suits.
- Don't take a bag when buying loose veg.
- Switched to an Eco-friendly and renewable Energy Provider for our new house: We have gone with Bulb
- Trying to give away or sell anything that I can.
- At school, printing my music worksheets onto the other side of scrap paper that has been discarded into the recycling bins. Printing double-sided or printing smaller to get two sheet onto one page.
- Using solid blocks of soap not plastic bottles with liquid soap. Admittedly, we have got some of these that were given as gifts to use, but other than that, we have all block soaps in our bathrooms.
- Saving, washing out and taking back plastic containers to Chinese takeaway- not done this yet but we are going to put them in CBC's boot so we remember to do it.
- Saving the paper bag from Lidl bakery to use the next time I buy something from the bakery.
- Actually remembering to put my bags for shopping back into my bag.
- Telling the children every time I do something to recycle. I have told them every time this term that I have printed their worksheets onto recycled paper to be eco-friendly so they are getting used to it. I also told them that I was taking home the plastic to recycle (showed them my bag full) and told them that THEY had to change the behaviour of the adults around them and told them all about the plastic in the seas crisis.
There IS a long way to go. I still do many things that are not environmentally friendly. I waste money on things. Although the majority of my clothes and books ARE bought second hand, I still buy too many. I did visit the library a lot last year but I still bought a LOT of both clothes and books. Luckily, I did give away most of those back to charity shops AND the local library and even sold a few. However, although I am good at turning off lights, I am not perfect and often have to throw away (into compost) bits of mouldering fruit and other things. But, self-awareness, self-discipline and a willingness to try, change and think are the start of most good habits.
How are you tackling the environmental issues such as the Plastic Packaging crisis?
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