A lot has had to go by the wayside in terms of making eco-friendly, waste-avoiding decisions and actions during lockdown. This has been quite hard to deal with but of course, sometimes, you can't do your usual ways of living in a crisis. However, it's trying to do little things which are important.
I thought I'd have a look back on what I've been able to do or things that have not worked out so well.
1. Avoiding of fresh food waste. Being at home all the time is very good in terms of avoiding food waste. We are able to monitor things that are going off and use them better, except the odd radish that has gone amiss.
2. Using up older items in the cupboard. Some of the discoveries include: Self-raising flour with a BB2014 date on it- it didn't have weevils so it made a nice Leek and cheese pie. A jelly with BB2015 and various flours and nuts and seeds have been utilized.
3. Still getting our milk and juice from the Milkman and the milk and juice bottles are returned and reused.
4. Vegetables and fruit at school: When we first went into lockdown and we were at school on that first Monday, there was a trolley full of apples which were/are the ones delivered for KS1 children for free. But we only had 10 children and there was no way of getting the apples to our kids at home. Leaving them in a box outside the school might be viewed with suspicion. I encouraged all the teachers to take bags home after all possible ways of getting them to the children was discussed. I ended up taking home 3 bags of 10 apples which lasted me a month at home. I also went to the allotment bed and picked 2 massive bags of Kale which was going to seed- this lasted us until April. I also brought home all the items of food and drink I had at school to use.
5. Thanks to a local Facebook group that CBC follows, we discovered a wholesaler not so far from us where we could go and buy vegetables and eggs from. A tray of 30 eggs - so saving having lids for 5 boxes of eggs worth, a cardboard tray of potatoes, loose tomatoes, avocados, beans, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, lemons, courgettes, peppers, sweet potatoes, beetroots, satsumas, apples, pretty much everything. So no plastic for our vegetables which are the majority of our food. So happy to be able to get plastic-free vegetables. Even better, when we've been there, there's been no one else there so no queues or panicky trying to get out of everyone's way.
Also, managed to get asparagus from a local grower on our cycle ride and rhubarb. No packaging except for rubber bands.
6. Did you just read number 5? Well, we've managed maximise use of the eggs. Every egg that has been eaten in Lockdown has been shoved in a baking tray in the oven and left. Then, when the oven is used, the egg shells are baked and then I have crushed them and shoved them in an old M&S cake box- I have them strewn them around seedlings and plants that slugs and snails might be interested in to use as natural slug repellent. In addition, I attended on online webinar on using 10 frames with children to support place value understanding and they recommended using egg boxes- so I've cut up my 30 box into 3 ten frames ready for school!
7. Before lockdown, I ordered a box of 10 packets of 150g crisps from Two Farmers who make compostable crisp packets- it came in cardboard which I am saving for projects and to share with a friend who posts craft products. In addition, I ordered my usual bulk order of Eco-Leaf toilet roll in compostable packaging, made of recycled paper.
8. Any card packaging which has food on it that can't be recycled has been torn up and put into the compost, like chip papers from the few times we've had chips. This is something I do anyway.
9. Religiously putting the coffee grounds and tea leaves onto the garden after every pot full.
10. For lovely decoration, have been picking a few common wildflowers to put in my jugs in the kitchen- cow parsley and stitchwort. Free and providing interest and variation and bringing nature into the house.
11. Being at home has been I've been using the herbs in the garden constantly- chives, rosemary, mint, lemon balm, sage, thyme, sorrell, marjoram.
12. We had such a spell of sunny weather in April that the waterbutt was empty so I took to having a shower with a bucket to catch the water which I then used to water the garden. Usually, I'd have no time to do this when going to school. When it finally rained, I made sure to fill up the watering cans with water from the waterbutt so they could fill up more, I also took the bucket outside and did the same and the indoor watering can plus all the jugs and empty milk bottles- the water was then used to water all the indoor plants.
13. I've spoken before about how I use cotton handkerchiefs. When at home, I've been continuing to use these as my germs are in my own home. At school, I made sure to use disposables as to conform to rules.
14. Bought Tony's Lonely chocolate in Sainsbury's. This comes in paper and foil and is very fair trade and slavery-free plus palm-oil free.
15. Most craft projects have been made out of packaging and things I've had already.
16. Anything bought online has been second-hand.
17. Tried to walk or cycle only except when going to the wholesaler to get the vegetables..
18. CBC shared some bread flour with a work colleague when flour was scarce and we'd ordered a 13kg bag of flour from a local bakery. We reused a large clean paper bag I'd carefully preserved from another order to put several kilos of flour in for him.
17. We've reused some plastic yogurt containers for making hummus, planting seeds
18. My tomato seedlings were all planted in toilet rolls and all of them are in two plastic drawers bought home from school to save from being chucked.
Things that haven't gone so well include buying various bags of crisps, sweets and biscuits, super noodles that have come in non-recyclable plastic wrappers (which I am saving to take to Terracycle at the library when it reopens), choux-buns and cheese and fish (a few times) in plastic packaging, having some things sent through the post, having bought a few things (though I have asked for recycled packaging to be be used if possible) but I've tried my best.
In addition, making donations to charities that help others is an eco-friendly thing to do in this time, if you have the money to do so which I am lucky enough to be able to do. Signing petitions to help others, including those who are the worst off is important- if we don't care for humans, how can we say that we care for the Earth?
It's important to remember that being eco-friendly is about being conscious and making the best choices that are available to YOU! Not everyone has a wholesaler with packaging-free vegetables or a milkman, or a garden or a bike or space to store a stack of crisp packets or even a council who are still picking up your recycling. I do the best I can and that's the important thing. Circumstances are individual. How much or how little you can do depends on doing what you can physically do in the circumstances you have available to you. It's making the conscious decision to do SOMETHING that is important.
Hope you are all well and sending you love.
xx